Communication

People strong in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

 

You can tell a person strong in Communication by these attributes (source: Dr. Hulme, APU):

  • Enjoy talking—and do it well
  • Good at explaining clearly
  • Captivating stories, images, metaphors
  • Inspirational and motivating

More about Communication:

    • Needs on a team: To tell their stories
    • As a Leader: Are great presenters
    • In Conflict: Need to be heard
    • Partner with: NONE LISTED
    • In academics: 

      – loves to tell their story – prefers courses where there is a lot of class participation – likes profs who tell stories or use narrative in teaching and who allow students to do likewise – choose courses where they will be graded for their class participation or where they can make oral presentations – theatre or communications courses will probably be of interest

Where does Communication Theme rank in the population?

  • Overall, Communication ranks 17th, occurring in around 13% of the population’s Top Five (14% of Females and 12% of Males)

14

 17

15

22

Out of your Top 5 CliftonStrengths, it’s statistically:

  • most likely to appear with Woo and Strategic
  • least likely to be found with Developer or Ideation

The genius of your Communication talent is found in the profound fact that you can find words for your thoughts and your feelings. Whereas many people have lots of good ideas, they often stumble in finding the words that capture and convey their good thoughts. Even more people suffer from not being able to find the words that best describe and transmit their feelings. Yet, you can do this with ease. But the genius of your Communication talent doesn’t end with your ability to find words for your thoughts and feelings. You can find words for the thoughts and feelings of others. This means that in interactions, you can help other people express their thoughts and feelings as is seen in the way that you can often complete people’s sentences or find the word that they cannot find in expressing their feelings. As a result of these aspects of the genius of your Communication talent, you can form deep, meaningful and bonded relationships and help others do the same.

At your best (Balcony):

  • storyteller, great presence, easy to talk to, energizer, entertaining, charismatic

At your worst (Basement):

  • blabbermouth, poor listener, self-absorbed, show-off, always needs attention

Communication may be one of your signature themes if…

  • • You love explaining, describing, entertaining, and public speaking.
    • You love writing and bringing static events to life through your stories.
    • You like using examples and metaphors when you speak to infuse dry ideas with energy.
    • You feel most people have a short attention span and trouble absorbing information.
    • You want your enduring stories, lessons, discoveries, and ideas to survive.
    • You thrive off attention and interest from others.
    • You are always hunting for “the perfect phrase.”
    • You provide the words and pictures that inform and inspire people to act.
    • Your greatest strength is that you are easy to talk to.
    • Your greatest weakness is that you sometimes come off as self-absorbed.

A more detailed explanation from Gallup:

You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information — whether an idea, an event, a product’s features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson — to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Action Items for This Theme

  • You will always do well in roles in which you are paid to capture people’s attention. Your strengths will probably flourish in teaching, sales, marketing, ministry, or the media.
  • Start a collection of stories or phrases that resonate with you. For example, cut out magazine articles that move you, or write down powerful word combinations.
  • Practice telling these stories or saying these words by yourself, out loud. Listen to yourself actually saying the words. Refine.
  • When you are presenting, listen closely to your audience. Watch their reactions to each part of your presentation. You will see that some parts prove especially engaging. After the presentation, take time to identify the parts that particularly caught the audience’s attention. Re-draft your next presentations around these highlights.

Be ready to:

  • Practice. Improvisation has a certain appeal, but, in general, an audience will respond best to a presenter who knows where he or she is headed. Counterintuitively, the more prepared you are, the more natural your improvisations will appear.
  • Volunteer for opportunities to present. You can become known as someone who helps people express their thoughts and ambitions in a captivating way.
    • The Clifton StrengthsFinder and the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names are protected by copyright of Gallup Inc., 2000. All rights reserved.
For the more visually inclined:

A fantastic website with insightful discussion of Communication including

  • Building your brand through this strengths
  • Strengthening your performance at work
  • Tips for managing someone with this strengths
  • Partnering with someone with this strength

Communication Power and Edge takes an interesting approach highlight not just what the strength is and how it shows up if you have it in your top five, but also how to navigate the world when this strengths is one of your lesser ones.

More ideas on going deeper:

More from Gallup:
Gallup’s Called to Coach is an excellent podcast series exploring the Communication strengthsfinder theme in detail over several seasons:

 

 

Podcast episodes to help you understand and leverage your Communication Strength

  • Episode 1: Mastering the Art of Persuasion – “The Jordan Harbinger Show”
  • Episode 2: Effective Communication Strategies – “The Science of Success”
  • Episode 3: Storytelling for Impactful Communication – “The StoryBrand Podcast”
  • Episode 4: The Psychology of Influence and Communication – “The Tony Robbins Podcast”
  • Episode 5: Improving Interpersonal Communication Skills – “The Art of Charm”
  • Episode 6: Women’s Leadership and Effective Communication – “Lead Like Her” (Host: Angela Brooks)
  • Episode 7: Communicating with Confidence as a Woman – “The Femails” (Host: Rachel Hollis)

Listen to great Strengths Podcasts

  • Theme addicts is a series created by UnleashStrengths to highlight the massive impact the StrengthsFinder assessment through interviews and discussions.
  • Lead through your strengths features many interesting guests and Career Q and A about leverage your strengths at work.
  • Maximize Your Strengths features interviews and discussion on developing your strengths. She really drills into each of the themes by interviewing real people on how a specific theme shows up in their lives.
  • Called to Coach is a webcast resource for those who want to help others discover and use their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share tactics, insights and strategies to help coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations around the world.
  • ISOGO TV promises a lot: So dramatically increase your energy and decrease your frustration at work, that you cannot help but take the Strengths paradigm home to your family. Fueling life-changing stories.
  • The True Strength Podcast by Ian Pettigrew (Kingfisher Coaching) features inspiring true stories of how people succeed through applying their strengths and being resilient. It often includes a Gallup StrengthsFinder profile.
  • If you are looking to identify and develop your strengths and talents, take calculated risks and make decisions, The Strengths Revolution with Steve Morgan will help your personal development, as well as helping you support your clients, employees, teams and wider organisations. Knowing your strengths will also support positive risk-taking and decision making as part of good risk management.

 

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