Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup

This reflective journal discusses the Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup and how it can help individuals identify their talents and strengths for personal and professional development. The author shares their experience and insights gained from taking the survey, including their top 5 strengths and how they plan to leverage them. The journal also highlights the importance of understanding individual strengths in a team setting and the challenges of balancing a competitive nature with the need for collaboration.

Running head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 2: CLIFTON STRENGHTS FINDER BY GALLUP 1
Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup
Students Name
Institution Affiliation

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Reflective Journal 2: Clifton Strengths Finder by Gallup
I used to think that the focus of personal improvement should be on an individual’s
weaknesses in the presumption that having a balanced life would automatically lead to progress
both in the personal or professional life. On being introduced to Gallup’s Clifton Strengths
Finder, I was surprised to realize that I had been doing everything wrong. Gallup’s Clifton
strengths finder provide an individual with a way of identifying his or her talents or what he or
she is good at and focusing on leveraging the strengths to progress in life (Asplund, Lopez,
Hodges, & Harter, 2009). In other words, instead of one getting discouraged by the weaknesses,
he or she should endeavor to identify what they are good at and use that as a guide to know the
suitable areas to focus on for personal and professional improvement.
On taking the Clifton Strengths Finder survey, I learned a lot including my strengths and
the kind of leadership qualities that I had and which I could put to use both at the individual level
and as part of the group. I learned that my top 5 strengths are Activator, Relator,
Individualization, Competition, and Strategic. Of the top 5 strengths or themes, the one that I
immediately recognized and resonated with is Competition. I have always had the tendency to
want to be either the first in the group or in the first group. A competitive person always gauges
themselves against others’ performance to determine their progress and derive pleasure in
competing with the best. Therefore competition was the one theme and strength that stood out
that I could easily identify within my personality.
The surprising thing in the whole exercise was that I realized I possessed some strengths I
never imagined I had. For instance, I had no idea that the theme of relator could be found in any
appreciable quantity in my personality given that I am competitive and I am pretty competitive.
Relator theme denotes the inclination of a person to like working closely with others in order to

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achieve set goals. On the other hand, Competitor theme deals with the tendency of a person to
thrive in competition with others and gauging their success in relation to the performance of the
competitors. At first glance, the two themes seem to be antagonistic, but given that individual
strengths work best in a team, the relator theme would enabling me to associate well with my co-
workers, while the competition theme will be directed to the outsiders. The outsiders may be the
other teams or departments within the organization or competing organizations.
Understanding my strengths and talents will go a long way in supporting my personal and
professional development. The Clifton Strengths Finder is based on theoretical models of
positive psychology which deals with improving the functionality within a group or in an
individual as opposed to merely finding means of eliminating dysfunctions, which is a pursuit of
therapists (Brunzell, Stokes, & Waters, 2016). For instance, while working as a team, I will be
able to figure out the things I am good at and identify the tasks I can optimally perform. By
sporting the strengths of the team members, it will be possible to delegate tasks to other members
depending on their strengths which will improve overall performance. At the individual level, I
will leverage my strengths for better performance and avoid the time and resource wastage on
aspects outside the scope of my core strengths and talent.
My competitive streak will pose the main challenge in reaching my career goals as
competition tends to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, competition provides a person
with the inner drive to perform better than everyone else which is a positive attribute in personal
life. On the other hand, however, unbridled competition especially while working as a team is a
disruptive trait that may alienate others effectively slowing down an individual’s progress. I will
draw on the Relator theme to support me, especially when working as a group so that we can all
succeed together without some members feeling left out. I have realized that Relator is the most

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 2: CLIFTON STRENGHTS FINDER BY GALLUP 4
important strength for an individual with a dominant Competition theme or strength as most of
the time people work in groups and teams.

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References
Asplund, J., Lopez, S. J., Hodges, T., & Harter, J. (2009). The Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0
technical report: Development and validation. Princeton, NJ: Gallup.
Brunzell, T., Stokes, H., & Waters, L. (March 01, 2016). Trauma-Informed Positive Education:
Using Positive Psychology to Strengthen Vulnerable Students. Contemporary School
Psychology : the Official Journal of the California Association of School
Psychologists, 20, 1, 63-83.