Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup

This reflective journal is based on Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup. It discusses the lessons learnt from the Clifton strengths survey and group coaching session, the importance of understanding one's talents in professional development, and the greatest challenges in reaching career goals.

Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup 1
BIZ102
Understanding People and Organisation

Reflective Writing Based on Clifton Strengths 2
Lessons learnt from Clifton Strengths survey and group coaching session
From the Clifton strengths survey and the group coaching session with my success coach. I learnt
a number of lessons. I learnt that I can identify my strengths through the talents as well as my
character. The strengths include things that I can confidently say I am good at (Rath, 2007). I
believe that the survey helped me learn more about myself. I also learnt that I could share talents
with different people. the group coaching sessions helped me establish that some people have
different strengths too. despite the fact that some of the strengths may differ, every individual
shared at least one strength with another person from the group.
What surprised me from my top five signature themes
I was surprised by my top five signature themes. The reason behind the surprise is that I could
not have identified myself to have been restorative from the fact that I like reading books. When
I dug deeper into all these strengths I came to understand that even the small things that I usually
do unconsciously matter a lot. I am surprised to possess positivity as a strength. This is because I
like winning. I like involving other people in what am doing and often try to make them feel and
be excited about it. I could also describe myself as an inspiring person. I like to make people
want to do something or simply feel good about themselves.
The strengths that resonated me immediately and the reasons why
After reading my top five strengths, I immediately resonated with the theme of positivity. The
theme completely seems to describe who I am and some of the most common traits that I
possess. I identified myself as a positive person because I find myself fond of socializing with
anyone I meet. I feel care and kindness to any person, however, a jerk they may seem. To me
helping others is my number one goal. I also find myself noticing flaws and good qualities in

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other people long before they notice. I talk to many people and try to influence them in achieving
more than they are doing at the moment. Most of my knowledge and skill is from books and
other scholarly works. From the books, I easily motivate people and inspire them in their day to
day activities.
Importance of the improved understanding of my talents in professional development
Strengths help someone discover their potential. A person can achieve what they want out of life
by simply identifying what they can do best. focusing on one’s strength rather than their
weaknesses make them know more about their career and helps them achieve their goals even
more (Matson, and Robison, 2017). The improved understanding of my strengths and talents
apply in terms of professional development in that they can help me identify my future career.
My very first strength of positivity together with my third strength which is learner both
encourage me to be a motivational speaker. I identify this as my career since I see good and bad
in people and want them to improve on their good qualities. Being restorative also makes me
want to be involved in solving other people's problems. From reading a lot of books, I find it
possible to get solutions easily to people's problems. Learning about my strengths enables me to
develop and improve my skills professionally. I have already identified that I can talk, teach and
motivate people on different topics. Success can be arrived at simply by focusing and investing
more of the strengths and less in the weaknesses.
Greatest challenges in reaching my career goals
Career development is mostly faced with different challenges. Some of the challenges make it
hard to achieve the overall career goals while the other challenges lead to the late achievement of
the target goals. Among the challenges is taking to big steps (Sigetich, and Leavitt, 2008). The

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fact that through the identification of my strengths I have already established my career goals
does not guarantee the achievement of these goals. The steps in goal achieving need to be very
gradual and shouldn't be overstepped. This is a big challenge since in most cases I would be
tempted to take bigger steps to achieve my goals much faster. Being a learner can help me
overcome these challenges since I can look up what others have done to achieve what they have.
Following these steps will assure me that I will not take big steps. Another challenge is the fear
of failure. Most people usually have the goals, have the will but are not courageous enough to
invest in their strengths simply because they fear there are chances they might not achieve these
goals. This might be my case since I usually never like to lose. However, my positivity strength
can make me achieve and overcome this fear at the end.

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References
Matson, T. & Robison, J. (2017). The Rewarding Work of Turning Talents Into
Strengths. Retrieved from: http://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/202526/hard-work-
turning-talentsstrengths.aspx?
g_source=CLIFTON_STRENGTHS&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press. Retrieved from
http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=580020&site=ehost-live
Sigetich, A., & Leavitt, C. (2008). Play to your Strengths: Stacking the Deck to Achieve
Spectacular Results for Yourself and Others. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=231090&site=ehost-live