Interview with a Gallup Global Strengths Coach
Brian Frantz, a Studio 5 Learning and Development Production Manager, Interviews Marcus Lee Hollan, Director of Leadership Development, on His Recent Gallup Global Strengths Certification
In December 2022, I learned that my top five strengths are: Harmony, Empathy, Consistency, Developer, and Restorative. Thinking about the ways I show up personally and professionally - I was able to see themes of Empathy and Restorative in my interactions. Yet, identifying these other strengths left me wanting to know more.
Thanks to Studio 5, I was able to take the CliftonStrengths Assessment and discover a lot more about myself. Our Director of Leadership Development, Marcus Lee Hollan, took our team through a workshop where I learned my personal strengths themes, how they show up, and how they work together. Our team was able to share our similar strengths and learn how we can best support each other.
This month I had the opportunity to sit down with Marcus and discuss his recent certification as a Gallup Global Strength Coach. We also looked at the framework for strengths-based coaching for individuals and organizations and best practices for implementing this as a people development strategy.
Here is my conversation with Marcus:
Brian Frantz (BF): Today, we will take some time to explore what it means to be a certified Gallup Global Strength Coach. Marcus, in your words. What is strength-based coaching?
Marcus Lee Hollan (MH): Strength-based coaching is the most effective way, in my opinion, to develop people and empower teams to recognize and utilize their talents. It's holding up a mirror that reflects what you're naturally good at.
MH: An individual would start by taking the Gallups CliftonStrengths assessment, which is a philosophy, and like any people development strategy, it starts by focusing on what people naturally do. It reflects our strengths as they show up as a human, a leader, a teammate, and it builds on the individual's awareness of those strengths to help them become more productive at work and in life. In this philosophy, knowing your unique strengths and talents - can improve job performance, build strong relationships, and put words to how we interact with teammates – that's the real power behind strength-based coaching.
BF: Let's get into you: What are your top five strengths? What does your Strengths assessment tell someone about you?
MH: We'll start with talking about the assessment. It is grounded in nearly six decades of research across wide-ranging functions from business, education, and culture. The assessment measures the presence of each person's 34 strengths. The CliftonStrengths' top five themes are our most dominant - think of them arranged for each person, like a fingerprint.
My top five themes, in order, are Restorative, Arranger, Relator, Input, and Communication. Now, at a very 40,000-foot level, I am at my best when solving problems while orchestrating people and resources.
If we look at my first theme, Restorative, this would tell you that I love to detect and solve problems, and I am at my best when troubleshooting a problem and bringing creative solutions to the table. The beauty of everything is that there are blind spots to watch for. With my leading theme, Restorative, I have to remind myself that I am on my journey of solving problems, and there are people involved in the process, so I need to take time, slow down, and assess before moving forward.
And I believe the real power in a path towards strength-based coaching is about giving ourselves the time to discover and learn how these naturally occurring behaviors shape how we show up each day, and then taking that awareness and begin to invest in turning these themes and talents into strengths.
BF: Thanks for sharing your themes and strengths and highlighting Restorative, my number five. This strength has become especially important to me as a people manager. Let's talk about strengths-based coaching at an organizational level. What barriers keep organizations and individuals from leveraging their talents?
MH: I think we don't know what we don't know. The first barrier is just awareness, as a human or as an organization. Even though our strengths are naturally reoccurring patterns, it does not mean that we are intentionally leveraging that strength to explore the potential of our contributions to ourselves and to the organizations we serve. In some instances, we may not even recognize that we possess that strength to begin with.
The second barrier is that strength-based development needs to be woven into every piece of fabric that makes up the organization. Strength-based coaching cannot be a passive experience – it must be activated and leveraged consistently to be effective.
Lastly, when people consider their growth and development, our first instinct is to look for mistakes and opportunities for improvement; we focus on the steps we've missed, the skills we lack, and the information we get wrong. Research tells us how we approach our personal growth and development actually limits our opportunities for greatness.
BF: That last part you shared is really important for me to hear. I know that sometimes, when I come to my growth conversations, it's like, all right, "what did I do wrong?" and then you work off of that. Yet focusing on things that you do well – your strengths, can help highlight some of the things that you do well. Also, how some of the things you're doing well already are what you should lean into it. It's a much more positive approach to growth conversations that I've appreciated.
MH: And I know we're going to get to it. You have the performance management piece of coaching and development. Are we still going to have mistakes? Yes, we are still going to have growth opportunities. So, how can we leverage our strengths not to let that ever happen again or to eliminate them? Strengths-based coaching is leveraging what we're already good at it. "You're already good at that!" Use that theme or combination of themes and strengths which you already exhibit.
BF: How should an organization implement strengths-based culture with the resources you can provide them as a coach?
MH: I think the first step is to begin by partnering with a certified Gallup Strength-based Coach who: one, understands more about the assessment philosophy, its framework, and implementation; and two, can help better understand an organization's culture and a team's needs so they can best implementation solutions moving forward. We begin by understanding your culture, assessing your team's performance challenges and needs, and your team's strengths and weaknesses when looking at strengths-based coaching with an organization in mind.
From that foundation, we build an implementation plan and coaching strategy to introduce and implement strength-based coaching and a long-term strategy for sustaining that. Our team is equipped with the materials and the resources to help support organizations implement and train with strength-based coaching in mind.
BF: What are some best practices from top companies currently using the strength-based approach?
MH: In my opinion, some of the most successful organizational implementations are top-down structures where the strengths-based coaching strategies start with the CEO, or the executive leadership team, ensuring a champion is behind this employee development and philosophy.
Other best strategies are:
Providing the opportunity for each employee to discover their strengths,
Using those individual strengths to inform team managers about the strengths of each member of the team, and thus their team/cohort,
Building an internal network of strength coaches and champions,
Integrating strengths with performance and growth conversations, and
Using the framework to transform your internal programs and culture.
By integrating a strength-based approach into everything, the organizational mission builds effective partnerships and teams to guide how people work together every day.
BF: One final question, how can organizations use CliftonStrengths to increase performance and achieve higher employee engagement?
MH: I believe the power behind creating a strength-based culture, when leveraged correctly, can have a profound impact on Employee Engagement and Performance Management. Through continuous coaching, organizations can create accountability and establish expectations through strengths-based development. For example, managers could use their team's individual and collective strengths to meet their goals. By focusing on what people naturally do best, according to Gallup, when employees strongly agree that they trust the leadership of their organization, they are 4x as likely to be engaged, and employees who strongly agree that leaders help them see how changes made today will affect their organization in the future are 7.5x as likely to feel connected to their company culture.
I will close with this: by focusing on strengths-based coaching, managers know their people better, employees enjoy showing up every day, and the work organizations are committed to is executed effectively.
BF: Awesome, there is a lot to look forward to and expect at Studio 5; I am excited to see how this becomes a part of our culture at Studio 5. Thanks again for taking the time today to talk more about CliftonStrengths and what it means to be a CliftonStrengths Coach.
Discovering my top strengths through CliftonStrengths Assessment has added to my employee development journey and provided additional vocabulary highlighting how I show up at home and work. Thanks to Studio 5 and Marcus Lee Hollan, I gained insights into my strengths and how they work together. Armed with this knowledge, I’m excited to leverage my strengths for personal and professional growth. I encourage you to embrace your strengths and embark on your journey of self-discovery – with new tools that can shape our paths to success.
