In my previous article, I explored what really happens in a CliftonStrengths team workshop—and why it so often reveals much more than just people’s strengths.
The buzzing energy in the room when people start to really “see” each other is addictive; as is the shift that takes place when people realise that what looked like a personality clash in a team is very often strengths colliding. And because we look at those dynamics through a strengths lens, even difficult conversations become constructive.
But here’s the thing. These insights only have value if you do something with them after the workshop ends.
You’ve had your workshop.
Your team had a great time.
People learned something new about each other.
There was probably a moment or two of genuine recognition—“oh, so that’s why you keep insisting we assess risks” or “oh, so that’s why we kept clashing on this project”.
And then everyone goes back to their desks.
Now what?
That’s the question I tackle at the end of every workshop I run. And my answer is always the same:
CliftonStrengths journeys are marathons, not sprints. And a workshop is a starting point, not a destination.
The real value doesn’t live in the event itself—it lives in what you build afterwards, making your initial investment ten times more effective.
Working with many different teams, I’ve come to think of this as three layers of practice that build on each other: 1) individual ownership, 2) the manager conversation, and 3) team amplification. Each layer depends on the one before it. Skip a layer, and you’ve built a Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Here’s how it works.
Layer 1: Individual ownership
Many teams want to jump straight from the workshop to embedding strengths into their everyday work. The ambition is exactly right—but for most teams, it’s too big a leap to start there.
The reason is simple: you can’t build a strengths-based team out of people who don’t yet fully understand their own strengths. Individual ownership is the foundation. Without it, team-level conversations stay surface-level. In fact, I often recommend teams (if time and budget allows) to start at that individual level first before any workshops.
When every team member genuinely understands their own profile—how they prefer to build relationships, influence others, process information, and get work done—that’s half the battle won. They now have a language for things they previously couldn’t articulate. They start to see their patterns more clearly: what energises them, what drains them, where they naturally excel, and where they tend to overcorrect—and, more importantly, the possible whys behind it all.
It also hands them something powerful: agency. Suddenly they can take ownership of their own development: in their next check-in with you, when deciding which project to volunteer for, what support they may need, or what training to pursue next.
This means that beyond the workshop itself, it’s worth investing in helping each team member truly explore and own their report. Ideally with the support of a certified coach—because that’s where the real depth happens. Not just understanding what each theme means, but how themes interact with each other: amplifying each other, balancing each other out, expanding each other’s power—and occasionally how they may drive you and others a little crazy.
No budget for individual coaching? No problem. Gallup has an extensive library of resources—podcasts, YouTube videos, articles—covering every CliftonStrengths theme in depth.
And there are simple, visible ways to keep strengths present in everyday life too. Team members can add their Top 5 or Top 10 themes to their e-mail signature. And, if you’re co-located, a team strengths grid on the office wall becomes a surprisingly meaningful conversation starter.
Layer 2: The manager conversation
Individual ownership sets the foundation. And the single most powerful thing a manager can do to build on it is this: show genuine interest in your team members and have a strengths conversation with each one of them, one-on-one.
And the good news: it doesn’t require anything elaborate. You don’t need access to their CliftonStrengths report. You don’t need to be a certified coach. All you need is genuine curiosity, good intention—and the right questions.
None of this is theoretical. I’ve personally experienced how this kind of conversations can shift whole dynamics, relationships, and performance in teams. A manager who takes the time to ask “what do you do best, and are we actually using that?” says: I see you. I care about you. And I want to enable you to work at your best and to grow. That’s the foundation of trust. And trust is what lubricates your team’s engine and makes everything else in a team possible.
Part of what I offer is preparing managers for exactly this kind of conversation. To that end, I’ve developed The Strengths Conversation Guide—a practical tool with 20 questions designed to open up honest, constructive dialogue between managers and their team members.
A few examples:
- What do you love most about your role?
– What activities do you pick up quickly?
– What brings you the greatest satisfaction?
- Which tasks do you enjoy least—past or present?
– Why? What makes them less enjoyable?
– How does this connect to your strengths profile?
- How would you like to be supported in your work?
– What factors distract or get in the way of your best work? How can I help minimise those?
– Do you have talents that could benefit the team if you had better opportunities to use them?
– What steps can I take to ensure you have opportunities to apply your natural talents to your role?
One more thing worth naming: unless your team member specifically expresses a wish to work on a weakness, your greatest leverage as a manager to support their success is to help them develop their strengths—and manage around their weaknesses.
What does that look like in practice?
Invest your development budget in helping your people go from good to great, and from great to exceptional:
– Have a team member who enjoys giving presentations? Pay for a membership at a local Toastmasters club.
– One of your team members is particularly talented in “getting things done”? See if they may be interested in a PMP or Agile certification.
The return on investment will almost always outperform the return on shoring up what doesn’t come naturally (unless that’s what the employee really wants).
Layer 3: Team amplification
With individual ownership in place and the manager conversation underway, you have everything you need to take strengths to the team level—and this is where it gets genuinely exciting.
Beyond the initial workshop, I encourage team members to have informal one-on-one conversations with each other to explore their strengths together: where are we similar? Where are we different? Where could we complement each other? Nothing formal or structured—just a relaxed conversation over a cup of tea or coffee. I often start teams on this path during the initial workshop itself, but the real power lies in keeping these conversations going long afterwards.
Team meetings are another natural home for strengths—and an often underused one. Most teams have a standing meeting rhythm already; the question is whether strengths can become part of the conversation.
– When a team is preparing to take on a new project, a question like: “looking at our collective strengths, where are we well placed, where might we have blind spots, and who on the team can help with those?” can change the quality of the planning conversation entirely.
– When tensions arise or a decision goes sideways, asking “where did our strengths collide or go on overdrive?” reframes blame and opens up a very different kind of dialogue.
These don’t need to be long detours. Even five minutes of strengths-informed reflection in a regular team meeting, done consistently, builds a shared language over time and a new way of working.
For more structured amplification, follow-up workshops are a powerful option. Two of my favourites (though there are many more):
- What I bring, what I need. Each team member shares two things: what they contribute to the team through their strengths, and what they (and their strengths) need from their colleagues in order to work at their best. It’s a remarkably honest exercise—and it shifts the team dynamic from assumption and underlying conflicts to explicit mutual understanding, respect, and accountability.
- The talent marketplace. Team members name where they need support on a current challenge or task, and colleagues volunteer help based on their own natural strengths. It turns the team’s collective talent into a living, shared resource. And it can surface combinations of strengths that no one had thought to put together before.
All of these suggestions work because they build directly on layer 1: they only have depth if individuals already understand and own their profiles. And they work best when the manager is genuinely invested in the process and knows their team members’ strengths and preferences. That’s why the sequence matters.
Now, it’s your turn
The teams I’ve seen get the most out of CliftonStrengths are the ones who treated their initial workshop as just the beginning— and kept going. Individual ownership. The manager conversation. Team amplification. Three layers, each building on the last. It’s a marathon, not a sprint—and, in my experience, one of the most rewarding journeys a team can take together.
📌 What are some of your favourite ways to keep the strengths conversation alive after the initial workshop?
I’d love to hear what’s worked, and what hasn’t.
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
PS: All em dashes are my own.
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