Uncovering Needs through Strengths

This week was the annual Gallup at Work Summit, and while I couldn’t be there in person (this year!), I was delighted to participate in the virtual experience.  It’s gotten my CliftonStrengths juices flowing again!

There are so many dimensions to CliftonStrengths, and so many ways that we can understand ourselves more deeply.  Certainly, this tool helps us identify how we are uniquely wired and what we naturally do best.  It can help us figure out how to leverage those natural advantages toward success in our roles.  It gives us a powerful, positive affirmation of who we are and how we’re made.

But what if our strengths could actually help us name our needs?

It’s ok if that last question makes you just a little uncomfortable or confused.  It still makes me squirm a little.  Why?  I think it’s because we usually don’t like (and aren’t used to) talking about our needs.

Talking about our needs naturally leads us to think about “being needy,” and no one likes to feel needy or be seen by others as needy.  But our needs are core to who we are and how we’re created (just like our strengths), so pushing them away is like ignoring part of our operating system.  Also, the fact of humanity is that each of us has needs – often a diverse set of them that is unique to us – so there’s really no need (pardon the pun) to brush them away.

So what are some of your needs?

I’m not talking about Maslow’s hierarchy and basic human needs, common to all of us.  I’m referring to the things YOU (specifically and uniquely) must do or have to feel safe, grounded, and satisfied and to be able to live and thrive.

This can be a hard question to answer.  Let’s face it – we’re usually so busy LIVING our lives that we don’t give a lot of time to examining them!  This is why I’m so excited to share this shortcut with you, courtesy of CliftonStrengths!

I think that our talent themes give us CLUES about our needs.  (By the way, talent is the raw material from which we develop strengths; talent is what’s actually measured in the CliftonStrengths assessment and talent themes are the categories of talent that show up on your report.) The benefits I mentioned earlier about this tool focused on looking at what our talents help us to BRING to the world.  Here are some examples of my own:

• a strong sense of passion and purpose (Belief)

• a determination and strong work ethic to get things done (Achiever)

• a focus on excellence and desire to have a meaningful impact on others (Significance)

But in order to bring our best and utilize these talents, we NEED certain things.  Our talent themes actually point to our needs.  And since my talent mix is different than yours, it stands to reason that my needs are very different from yours.  For instance, I need:

• my work to align with my personal values (Belief)

• an agenda and clear objectives (Achiever)

• an appreciative audience that will bring out my best (Significance)

If I reflect on these further, and summarize them even more, I start to see that I have real, valid needs to be aligned and balanced in life, to be productive, and to be appreciated and chosen.

OK, I was doing alright until I got to that last part.  A need to be appreciated and chosen?  Ugh.  Now we’re back to that discomfort around needs and fears of being needy.  I have to push through it and say to myself, “I’m not needy. The way that I’m wired means that I have legitimate needs, and fulfilling those needs helps me live into my created goodness and fulfill my purpose.”  (By the way, I think our strengths can also give us clues to our purpose, not just our needs, but that’s for another blog.) 

As person of faith, I believe that God created me in love, with goodness, and for a purpose.  So if God, in God’s goodness and love, gave me talents in the area of Significance (which brings independence, boldness, courage, a desire for meaningful work, and a desire to leave a legacy – and which I think are some of the best things about me), then I also need to realize that I need a certain amount of admiration, appreciation, and recognition in order to fully use that talent become the person God created me to be. 

Are you following me on that?  Acknowledging, accepting, and working to fill my needs helps me live my strengths fully, which brings God’s goodness into the world and allows me to fulfill the purpose for which God created me.

Acknowledging my needs allows me to begin to work with them, not against them.  Accepting those needs that I might be uncomfortable about helps me begin to find healthy ways to fill those needs.  Staying locked in shame about my needs doesn’t open up pathways for growth.  It’s only by bringing my needs into the light that a different perspective and new possibilities emerge. 

So what have I got for you?  Homework.

If you’ve taken the CliftonStrengths assessment in the past, dig out your reports.  Read them over – carefully – and make a very simple chart.  For each theme, write down what that theme allows you to BRING into the world, and what you NEED in order to do that - even if it makes you a little uncomfortable. 

I think that doing this assignment for yourself is incredibly powerful and valuable.  But,

• if you try it and you get stuck

• or you just don’t have the time to do this

• or if you do it but you want more or are just super curious

• or if you’re high in Empathy and you’re sensing my need for feedback from an appreciative audience,

then you can ask for the cheat sheet.  Email me with your top 5 CliftonStrengths, and I’ll send you a personalized report of what you BRING and what you NEED.

Why would I give you that for free?  Because I need

• opportunities to share information (Input)

• opportunities for one on one interactions (Relator)

(And if you’ve read this far, then you deserve a prize!)

Remember, having needs is not the same as being needy.  And acknowledging our needs might just be a first step to newfound freedom. I hope I can help you take that step.