Meaningful Team Conversations: Strength Insights
“Now I know!” the guy exclaimed.
“It’s a good thing he now gets me!” She said with relief.
I was talking to a couple who were about to get married last week about their StrengthsFinder themes. I suddenly saw myself facilitating a strengths insight conversation between the two. I was reminded of my own experience as me and my (then) fiancee were preparing for our wedding day four years ago. It stretched both of us so much in terms of how we know ourselves and how we know each other. We both took the StrengthsFinder test but I didn’t really thought it could bring good insights about how we tackle that goal during that time. Looking back now, how I wish someone had facilitated a conversation between the two of us about how our talents would play out practically as we worked towards a goal as a team.
This is true in the workplace. The leader and the team would dive in and scramble towards a goal without any mindful discussion or reflection about what each team member brings into the table. Each team member guessing each other’s personality- like a band playing everything by ear. Unless you are really very good in talent spotting, this approach is a hit-or-miss.

After I took the Accelerated Strengths Coaching Course from Gallup, they provided us with tons of materials to help people start strengths conversations. One of my favorite ones (and the one I used with the couple above) was the Theme Insight Cards. What it does really is to allow you to deeply think about how your thought, emotional and behavioral patterns play out in a team context. Below are the 6 dimensions that I think are most important:
“I am…”
What kind of person am I being in the team? Allow the team member to use words that describe his personality in specific team-related activities. Am I the type of person who is interested to be seen as “significant”? Am I being appreciative of my predecessors and history?
“I will…”
What things will I naturally do (and do well) in this team? Use words to describe natural tendencies; use active verbs that are unique to these tendencies. Will I keep promises and follow through on commitments? Will I follow things that interest me?
“I bring…”
What unique contribution will I bring to the team? People will have certain commitments to the team that they always default to even if you don’t ask them to. What are those? Will I bring a peace-loving and conflict resistant approach or will I bring values stability, clarity and conviction to the team?
“I need…”
What a person’s requirements are or perhaps what this person expects to get in the team. Do I need a person to invest my time in (i.e. a mentee), or maybe I need to ensure that quality is valued as much as quantity?
“I love…”
What a person value the most within the team. Do the person love associating with successful people? Does your team mate love the respect of others?
“I hate…”
This is obviously the opposite of the above statement, but in the same way, reveals what the person values. Some people hate it when the past is forgotten; or some people hate “know-it-alls”.
Allow each individual complete these statements, explaining them as needed. These conversations are powerful after doing self awareness exercise (i.e. coaching sessions) or an assessment test like StrengthsFinder. These simple but powerful statements could give the managers insights on their people’s unique contribution; their expectations within the team; their motivators (or de-motivators) among others. Expect these conversations to be individualized. Because there is no cookie-cutter approach to managing your people.
Conversations like these are just the beginning of a much more deeper, performance-driven conversations. Try them and let me know how it goes.
