Jim Collison: Hi, I'm Jim Collison, and
live from our virtual studios around the
world, this is Gallup's Called to Coach, recorded on April 20, 2020. Called to Coach is a resource for those
who want to help others discover and use
their strengths. We have Gallup experts and independent strengths coaches share
tactics, insights and strategies to help
coaches maximize the talent of individuals, teams and organizations
around the world. If you are listening
live, we'd love to have you join us in our chat room. There's actually a link
right above me there on the live page.
It'll take you to YouTube page, there's a chat room there. Three little butto
s on the upper right-hand corner, and yo
can pop that chat out. Make sure you' e on live chat as well. That way y
u're getting all the most recent chat
Ask your questions during the progra . If you have questions after the fact
and you're not listening live, you can
send us an email:
[email protected]. on't forget, if you're on YouTube, sub
cribe to us. Right? Actually down thi
way, there's a subscription button and f you hit a "Like," that actually helps
s get us discovered down there, but do
't do it unless you really like it. ustin Suellentrop is our host today. Au
tin's the CliftonStrengths Portfolio
Manager here at Gallup. And Austin, alw ys great to have you on this Mon
ay Edition of Called to C Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. Thanks for
having me. I'm excited to be here.
Appreciate it. Jim Collison: Well, it's great to have
you here. We've got a really important
topic as we think about how CliftonStrengths, you, how you can use
that to improve your career. We get this
question a lot. It's April of 2020, right? We're in the middle of a pretty
serious pandemic that has global
implications around it. And we actually built this before any of us, that w
built this page, before any of this stu
f happened. Well it's causing havoc Disruption, I think is probably a goo
way to say it, right? Major disruption
around the world and actually industrie being disrupted. The problems created b
this disruption aren't new, right? Whe
we think of unemployment, when we thin of high disengagement, when we thi
k about stress and burnout, when we th
nk about applying our own unique streng hs to our career, that's probably the No
1 question we get all the time. Th
se problems have always been there. ow they're amplified today, because
of what's going on. There'll be a day w
en this settles down and we return to whatever normal that is. But let's t
lk about this. Let's kind of work our
ay through this. Why don't you do a lit le intro and get us start Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks, Jim. You know, I think you said
it really well. What we're facing right now in terms of issues in the workplace
-- a lot of these have been around and
have been issues we've been dealing with for a long time and at Gallup, we've
been studying them, right? That's what
we, that's what we do. We've been studying and measuring them and
gathering best practices around it and,
and really thinking about how an understanding and a focus on one's
strengths can help mitigate some of
these issues, can help us make sense of some of them, and ultimately work our
way through them. So I think, you know,
I think about my career, and I think I'm like a lot of us, in that, you know, I
haven't always worked this one job. I
haven't always worked for Gallup. I haven't always loved what I've done for
a living, right? I was one of those
guys, in high school, I remember applying for college. And I applied for
a, probably 2 dozen different schools
coming out of high school, to the point where I got really sick and tired of the
applications and just started, like,
filling in and not really thinking about it. And I remember one of the last
applications I filled in. It didn't
really ask me to declare a major, but it asked me areas of interest. And I was
like, Oh, I like numbers. Math is easy
for me. So I put math down. So I actually started my college career as a
math major for one day. Because I was
like, This is fun, I'll do it. And I lasted one class, right? They put they
put 16 characters on the board. And the
professor said, Today we're going to solve this equation. I actually laughed
out loud in the middle of class and
said, "Today I'm going to change my major!" Right? And I pivoted. And I
pivoted right, right then and there to a
different thing. And I got out of college, and I ended up with a degree in
finance, because it's sort of like the
application of math. And it was, math is easy for me, but I like talking to
people. So that made a little more
sense. I go to my first job out of college. And
-- honestly, I was excited to get in the
workforce. I was working for a company that I'd interned with. And then really,
very quickly, I realized that it wasn't
what I thought it would be. That this, this vision in my mind, I built up of
what this job was going to be, right? I
was going to be an investment banker. I was going to manage people's money. I
was gonna play golf with my clients
every day, and I was going to retire at 40. Right? I had it figured out. And,
you know, 6 months in, I'm like, I hate
this. I hate this work. I hate what I'm doing because it was all of this aspect
of the job that I didn't think I needed
to care about, that I didn't think would be a part of it. I had romanticized in
my mind what the job would be, and the
reality was just far different. Add on top of that, I worked for a manager that
didn't really help. I didn't have, I
didn't have any relationship with my manager. In fact, his style was so
difficult for me, he would routinely
walk around to my cube at 5:00, put his back to my cube, and then at 5:01, turn
around and hand me something to work on.
Because in his mind, he measured commitment by how many hours you put
into the office, right? And it just
rubbed me the wrong way all the time. And it came to a boiling point where I
finally just quit. But the the quitting
came after a couple years of dreading going to work every day. A couple of
years of not enjoying myself during the
day, finding ways to kill time when I was at the office. All the things we
talk about as examples of lack of
engagement in my work, I've lived, like many of us have. And so I think it's
important to understand that I had the
best of intentions going into my career. I thought I was in alignment with what I
wanted to do, but it was a
misunderstanding of what it really meant. And it was a lack of
intentionality on my part to do some
things that I could be responsible for, to ensure that that career I was in was
going to be an experience that I
enjoyed. I, I was sort of aiming my fate, my strengths in the wrong way
sometimes. So I think that, that's an
example, I think that a lot of us have lived or at least have seen others that
we care about live. So, I'm excited to
dig into this a little bit more because it's certainly been a part of, of what
I've found in my, in my happiness, in my
own engagement throughout life. Jim Collison: Yeah. Years ago, when the
earth was still cooling, I took a, I
took a career assessment to join the military. And the thing I scored last in
is what I ended up taking a job in
because I thought it'd be a great idea. I'd, I'd get better at it is what I told
myself, right? I didn't have, I didn't
have these tools available to me. So when we think about, like there's got to
be a better way, I wish that I would
have just had some coaching to, to come along and say, "Maybe you should take
the top one, Jim, that you scored in."
But when we think about using strengths to decide or help us decide on that
career, how do we go about doing that?
How do we decide what career is right for me? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. So, you know
that's a great question, Jim. And we get
asked that a lot. I think, first, we got to make sure we level set with
strengths. It's not a hiring tool. So
CliftonStrengths is, there's not a magic set of 5, right? "Oh, I have these Top
5, I must be great at this!" Or "I have
these Top 5; I'll be successful in that role." It would be really easy if it
was, but it's not. Right? So I think it
begins with understanding that CliftonStrengths doesn't dictate your
career path, but what, an understanding
of our strengths will enable you to excel in whatever career you do choose.
Right? So, so regardless of whatever
path you take, an understanding and a, a refinement and a mastery of your
strengths will help you succeed and
excel, right? So, how do you figure it out? How do you figure out what path to
go down? I like to start, when, when,
when coaching people, or working with organizations around this, I have people
reflect on the best day at work they
ever had. So even at 21, when I was graduating
from college and thinking about my
career, and where I wanted to go, reflecting back on what was the best day
I'd had at work prior to that, and
identifying what those things were that made that day so unique. And then
thinking about How can I find a career
that's going to enable me to do that? Have that kind of experience as often as
possible? Right? That's the way we
think, think about strengths. It's more about the strengths-based mindset than
it is necessarily the tool of
CliftonStrengths, right? So, you know, as a manager in a bank, I
grew up as a banker. When I first got
introduced to Strengths, I thought, Oh, high Competition, high Woo, they would
make great salespeople on my team. So I
would try to put them in those situations. What I lost sight of
sometimes was, well, they got
competitive about the wrong things, or they got really wrapped up in having the
conversation but didn't know how to
apply the conversation to create an outcome. So the raw talent themes and
the raw talents we have, in and of
themselves, don't make us successful. Understanding what path you want to go
down, setting ourselves up to be able to
have the kinds of experiences we love -- that's what matters. And then we can,
sort of learn how to, how to apply our
strengths to create success in whatever career path we take. So, again, I think
we've, we've got to remember that it's
not as simple as "These 5 mean that career." It just doesn't work that way. Jim Collison: We have done a bunch of
work around kind of figuring out what
the new job space looks like, and what individuals are looking for in a job or
a career. Austin, what was the, what did
we discover in that process about it? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. So as, as, as
you've mentioned, we've been studying
what sort of, what people are looking for, and it's shifting. It's been
shifting for a while, in terms of
people's expectations from work. That -- I think about, you know, maybe a
generation prior to me, my dad's
generation, there was really a focus on, Hey, I'll do whatever it takes to get
that paycheck. Right? And, you know,
That's sort of what I need, whatever it takes to put the roof over my head, and
the white picket fence, the station
wagon, the 2.3 kids and the 1.4 dogs, right? Like, that was sort of the, the
dream. And what we're seeing is that
there's now a heightened focus on the purpose of the work I'm doing. So
whereas in the past, I would say, "I'll
do whatever it takes." Now, maybe, I've got to have meaning and impact in the
work I'm doing. So I think that that's
one of the shifts we've seen. There's also been a big shift -- and we
talk about in a lot at Gallup -- about
moving away from looking for a boss to tell you what to do, how to do it, when
to do it -- and looking for a coach.
Right? Our coaching community understands the, the value of coaching,
but in the workplace, in particular,
from a career, from a job, people are looking for that opportunity to have
that, that coach relationship. And so I
think, along those lines, moving into more of a focus on where do my strengths
fit into the purpose of this job? How am
I getting coached by somebody to help me play up my strengths? So I think it's
important when you, when you're looking
for something out of a career, figure out what's most important to you. Where
do you fall in that spectrum? Where do
you fall in terms of what your priorities are? And how do you find a
career that's going to enable you to
fulfill the part of your life that matters the most to you? And as we go through seasons, one of the
things I have loved so much about the
last 6 weeks of my life, is that I've had more family dinners in the last 6
weeks than I had probably in the 6
months before that. My children, my family are very important to me. I have
a job where I'm able to work from home,
to spend time with them. In the season of life I'm in right now, that is a high
priority. I would not work anywhere or
do a job that would force me to miss that. It comes from a clarity of
understanding my priorities that I'm
able to say that. So when we think of, anybody thinks about picking a job or a
career, it's having that kind of clarity
around what your priorities are that really is important. Our friend Curt
[Liesveld], I think he taught to me the,
the, the most powerful way, which is figuring out how do you bring your soul
to whatever role you're playing? So
connecting with whatever this job is, whatever this career may be, how can you
bring your soul and connect it that kind
of a level with it? And that comes from prioritization and being able to ensure
whatever you're committing to doing is
in line with your personal prioritization. Jim Collison: I think we find sometimes
that, to get fulfillment in a career, we
think we might have to change jobs -- in order to do it. But we could find
fulfillment, or we could retool maybe in
the current role that we're in. So for folks, you know, especially as we're
thinking about a situation right now,
where jobs are, may not be, plentiful to change into, that won't always be that
way, but how do we find fulfillment in
our current role? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, that's a great
question, Jim. And, you know, I think
fulfillment is inherently personal. That all of us will take away a sense of
fulfillment from different aspects of
work. Right? And so I think understanding where your development
lies in that fulfillment spectrum, if
you will, like, what, what are you trying to get better at? What are you
trying to improve and develop yourself
around? And if you're looking for more fulfillment from work, how do you move
yourself and your needs a little bit
higher in the priority of how you spend your time during your day? And one of
the most powerful ways to do that is to
engage with your manager in more frequent and focused conversations.
Right? I'm consistently amazed by how
many people I speak with, whether I'm coaching or I'm teaching or just in
general conversation with friends and
family, that are missing something from work, and they've never shared it with
their manager. Whether it be fear,
whether it be sort of a sense of pride that keeps him from doing it. I think the most important thing we've
found in our research, and in our best
practice sort of analysis over the years, is to find more fulfillment --
it's not something you can do just by
yourself. There's an element of it, you can, you can absolutely control. But it
works best when it's done in partnership
with your manager, who can help shape the direction your career takes. Right?
And can help shape the kind of work
you're able to do. I think development is one of those things where, again,
we'll be, as we studied, the shifting
sort of expectations of the workplace, development used to have a very linear
path to it. Right? It was sort of very,
like the next step up, the next rung in the ladder, if you will, was how people
thought of development. But it doesn't
always work that way. In a world with more matrixed teams, and more
collaboration now, development can take
-- can be lateral, it can be very much in-role development, as you said. So
figuring out and identifying where that
ranks for you, in prioritization, how do you make this something you talk about
more frequently, and being, being
comfortable with the fact that it may not look like you initially thought it
looked like? But how can you develop
yourself to give yourself a little more joy in your week? 10% more. Right? How
can you find a way to get incrementally
better? That, that, that kind of proc -- that sort of progress, at a "small step"
progress, is what can lead to more
fulfillment over time. Jim Collison: When we began to put this
material together, we had no idea that
just in the United States alone, there'd be 26 million people unemployed, and
there's gonna be a lot of folks in a lot
of new job interviews. We do find sometimes in those interviews, employers
are asking about, what are your
strengths? What are your weaknesses? Well, how do we answer that? Like,
what's the, what would be our advice on
it, whether it's in that form or in another form? How would we, what, what
kind of advice would we give on that,
Austin? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, I think it's,
I think that's a, again, something we
hear a lot of, and sort of, I'll give one sort of comical answer, if you will.
Throwing your Top 5 on a resume can be
great -- if you happen to strike a home run and, and be talking with a recruiter
or a manager who knows strengths and
knows the value of it. Right? And understands CliftonStrengths. But when
you answer the question, you know, What
are my strengths? We've got to go beyond themes. Right? And I think being able to
understand how your talent themes show
up for you every day -- what I love about CliftonStrengths is it enables you
a vocabulary, and a depth of
understanding what it is you do really well. So, what we see in interviews,
what people are really looking for, when
they ask about your strengths and weaknesses, what, what are hiring
managers really looking for? They're
looking for self-awareness. They're looking for humility. And they're
looking for authenticity. Right? So I
think those 3 things are really So rather than giving -- generic, sort
of cliched answers like, "Oh, I'm a
perfectionist," or "I work too hard," as sort of weaknesses, right? No. Like,
let's, let's get into reality. Let's own
what we're great at. Like, if I'm a "people person," and that's how your
sort of instinctive reaction is, what
would it sound like? How, how would you distinguish yourself if your response
was, "You know, I gain energy when I'm
interacting with others." I could speak to more detail of what a "people person"
really means. Or, you know, one of my
things I always saw on resumes when I was hiring people was, "I'm a team-first
thinker." Like, I think about my team
first. What if you reworded that into something like, "I love the challenge of
collaborating with other people." Or you
know, probably the one I saw on every resume I ever reviewed when I was hiring
somebody was, "I'm detail-oriented."
Right? Nobody wants to admit they're not detail-oriented. Right? But, what if it
was, "I care about the smallest detail,
even in the most complex situations." When you get to this kind of level of
specificity, it really sort of paints a
picture on what your strengths look like important. in action. But I think that's Step 1. Step 2 is then being able to own when
you're not going to be at your best.
Right? And I think being able to own your weaknesses, you know, being able to
say, I'm not the person you want to
build the plan for something; I'm not the guy you want taking notes during the
meeting. What that does more than
anything, is I believe, it empowers you to know whether you're actually a fit
for this role or not. If you're
authentic in your answering, your articulation of what a weakness may be,
and the hiring manager looks and says,
You know what, that's a big part of this job. Would you really have enjoyed
working in that role to begin with?
Would that have really been something that would have set you up for
engagement and fulfillment? Right? So I
think it's a great way when you own, and you can be authentic and candid about
what you're great at, as well as what
you're not great at, it's a great sort of screening tool to ensure you're
setting yourself up for success. Jim Collison: At Gallup, we actually
have some numbers, some data kind of
behind that. What, what kind of benefits are there for a career that aligns with
your strengths? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, you know,
probably the most common statistic we
share on this is we, we measure across a lot of organizations, a lot of clients,
and as part of our little, larger sort
of global polling as well. This idea of, Do you get the chance to do what you do
best every day? Right? Do you get the
chance to do what you do best every day? And when people are confidently
answering "Yes" to that -- they're
saying, "Yes, absolutely!" -- they're 6 times more likely to be engaged in the
work they're doing. And that's
regardless of industry. That's regardless of level in the organization,
of tenure. Six times more likely to be
engaged. And when we talk about "engaged," we're
talking about that, that commitment,
that psychological commitment to the work -- to give that extra effort, to go
over and above. But the one that strikes
me the most, the data point that strikes me the most, is they're 3 times more
likely to report having an excellent
quality of life. I mean, listen, as coaches, if we're not caring about the
quality of life our people are living,
what are we thinking about here? Right? This is, that's a huge, high bar to
cross. So, if I find a tool, I find an
approach, a mindset, that can help get me 6 times more likely to be engaged,
and 3 times more likely to have an
excellent quality of life, that's something I'm gonna, I'm gonna pay
attention to. Right? And so I think the, the beyond that,
there are there are more sort of
qualitative benefits, if you will, right? So beyond just sort of the
empirical data we know, right? It's,
it's things like having more energy. Which makes sense, right? If I'm able to
do what I love, I'm gonna get more
excited about it. I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring more energy to that work, I'll be
more amped up, if you will, right? I'm
gonna have more confidence. I'm much more confident if you ask me to do
something that I'm good at than if you
asked me to do something I struggle with. Right? So like, Jim asks me to
come on and talk to somebody, I'm gonna,
"Hey, let's talk." Jim asks me to build out a project plan for the next 6 months
on something, I'm gonna find a way not
to do it. Right? And then, as a result of these things, as having more energy
and being more confident, I'm gonna have
less stress in my day, because I'm "in the zone," if you will. Right? Doesn't
avoid, doesn't eliminate all stress. I
still have plenty of stress in my life. But I've got less stress than I used to,
because I'm able to play to my
strengths. Jim Collison: Oftentimes in someone's
career, the moment this career-changing
decision is made during a moment of stress or burnout, right? And so when we
think about this, maybe we're not coming
at it from a totally positive perspective. How do we recover? What are
some tips, because this could be also
used to recover or to come out of a situation with burnout. Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, so burnout's
powerful. I think -- I think it's
important for everybody that's hearing this message to understand -- most of us
have experienced some burnout at some
point. Our data would show that 8 in 10 employees have experienced burnout, at
least sometimes, in their, in their
role. So it's part of, it's part of the work, the working life. It's part of
being human. That, that's going to be
something we, we experience. So I think, it begins with understanding what
burnout really is. Right? So, the World
Health Organization, WHO, has a definition of burnout, that, that it's a
syndrome conceptualized as resulting
from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. So I
think it's powerful to break this down
to think about. Workplace stress is there. Chronic workplace stress is an
ongoing, never-ending, repetitive, sense
of stress from work. But the issue is not the stress. Burnout comes when we
aren't able to successfully manage it.
So understanding our strengths, and understanding how we're going to thrive
in a role, helps give us a framework for
how we can manage those chronic stressors of a role. Right? So, in the environment we're in right
now, when everybody's routine is
disrupted, and all of our norms are sort of thrown, thrown into a hat and jumbled
up, how do you find a way to make sense
of it, and play to your strengths on a daily basis, to feed yourself with what
you need to get through the day? I think
about all, all of my friends, who are similar to me, and they get energy from
being around other people. How do you
create an opportunity for yourself, in your role, every day, to connect with
somebody -- to be around people? Maybe
it's virtual, instead of, instead of in the same room, but it's on us to find
ways to manage it. Right? And so what happens when we're able to
do this, is we're able to identify, How
much effort is it taking me, to manage this chronic stress? And if that becomes
something, right, if the effort to
manage the chronic stress is becoming something you're having to battle over,
and over, and over again. Right? It's,
again, it's best managed when it's not done alone. So how are you having those
ongoing, frequent focused conversations
with your manager, to be able to be authentic about what you're dealing
with? Right? And I think, you know, to
boil it down to it to a simple idea -- we cited some data earlier. If asking
somebody to do something every day that
they're great at can help lead to higher engagement, can help lead to higher
quality of life -- asking somebody to do
something they're not great at every single day can have the, the sort of
opposite effect. Right? So, I think
understanding how we can apply our strengths day in, day out, helps us to
mitigate some of the issues of burnout,
for sure. It doesn't eliminate burnout. But I think -- I think what I want
everybody to hear from us, is that
honest communication with our managers helps get a platform, to talk about how
you can deal with this. But burnout is
not something you just get used to. Burnout's not something you just, you
know, accept as the reality. If you feel
yourself sort of experiencing these things, begin by, by looking at what,
what can you do to to adjust to it? How
can you change and play to your strengths to try to, to manage that
stress a little differently? How can you
talk to your manager to be honest about it, and realize it shouldn't be
something that lasts forever? Right? I
just, I think that's important for all of us to understand. That it's something
that a lot of us deal with, but it
doesn't need to be the new normal. Jim Collison: Austin, as we think about
these 34 themes, divided into these 4
Domains, that we talk about all the time, what kind of advice would we have,
when we think about our own career
counseling? Maybe we're in that spot where we're engaged, or disengaged, or
we're somewhere in between, right? How
would we, how can we use these themes, these domains, in our own, kind of
career coaching? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. Again, I think
it goes back to starting off with
understanding that it's, this tool, the CliftonStrengths Assessment, and the
domains, they don't give us a
prescription for, this kind of profession will will light you up, and
this one won't, or this kind of
profession is going to be a perfect fit, and this one won't be. What I think it
it helps -- what I love about the
domains, in this area -- is thinking about the kinds of activities I get to
do, in each of those domains. Right? So
from an Executing perspective, if I, if I've got a lot of Executing themes, how
can I find a role? How can I find
aspects of my role that allow me to be accomplishing things every day? Getting
stuff done. Checking it off, off the
list. Showing that kind of progress. If I've got, if I'm heavy in the
Relationship Building Domain, how do I,
in my role, get the chance to work in small groups? How do I get the chance to
take care of people around me? Be, be a
linchpin in some key relationships. Right? If I've got a lot of Influencing,
how do I get the chance to meet new
people? How do I get the chance to champion ideas and sort of be on the
forefront, leading initiatives? If
you've got a lot of those Strategic Thinking themes, how am I giving myself
the time to think and process? How am I
chewing on those big, complicated, long-term things, that we can really
benefit from in my role? So I think it's
about understanding that the domains can help paint a picture for the kinds of
activities, the kinds of
responsibilities, that may give us energy. And then, how do I find a way to
ensure I'm able to do a little bit of
that at least every day? Jim Collison: We are going to have a
whole bunch of people who are either
going back to work, doing the same job, they're going to have new roles, or
they'll have the same ones, that they,
that they started this with. As we think about improving your career, how do we
kind of summarize this? How do we bring
it all in and say, OK, we know all this, what can we do now, to really launch us
on a path of success? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah. So I think
it's gonna come as no surprise, I think
it begins with you taking the time to force a conversation with your manager.
"Hey, here's what I'm looking for.
Here's what I love about my role. These are, these are the lists of things in my
role that just really excite me, that I
love. I want to find a way to do more of this." Right? And then, "Here are the
things in my role that I understand are
part of my job, but I don't necessarily love doing them. They don't bring me a
lot of energy. It takes a lot of effort.
How can we work together to find a way to do a little bit less of this, or
maybe approach them differently?" I
think oftentimes in this conversation, around how I can start changing my
career, and improving things today,
people put it all on their shoulders to go rogue, and start doing things
independent. It works best when you are
honest, candid, transparent, and partner with your coach, your manager, to figure
out what it could look like. Right? There are going to be some parts of your
job, every day, for many of us, that
they don't light you up. They don't get you excited. Right? But being able to
talk about that, and embrace it, and own
it, right, can help you get through them quicker, can help you worry about them
less. They were taught to me, this idea
was taught to me early on in my career, this idea of cheers vs. chores. Right?
Every job has got some cheers, those
things that get you excited, you just, you'll do them all day long. And every
job's got some chores, some things that
you have to do to enable you to do these other things. So beginning by
understanding your list of
responsibilities and activities. How many are cheers? How many are chores?
How do you maximize those cheers? How do
you find a way to amplify them, do more of them, do them more frequently? And
then minimize the chores. Get through
them quicker. Partner with people, find other ways to approach them. That, to
me, are simple, tangible steps we can
take, right out the gates. Jim Collison: Austin, I think the end to
my story, as we think about how that
started by taking an assessment, picking the thing I didn't like -- that I wasn't
good at, and then forcing myself into
that role for 6 years of really, very miserable -- it taught me a lot about
myself, but not something that was very,
very engaging, and over the next 20 years, really looking to find that right
place. Right? You mentioned, I have a
lot of Influencing themes, as we talked about that, and it gave me the
opportunity -- even in my role, my
13-year role here at Gallup, has been an evolving process of getting into that,
you know, into that space where I can
continue to do more. As we started the webcast this morning, you'd mentioned to
me, How are you doing? It's been a rough
Monday for me. And yet, I said we would get on the webcast, and I'd light up,
right? It would be, it's a, it's an
opportunity to do what I love to do. It's an opportunity to do what I do
best. My story today puts me smack dab
in the middle of those themes, doing what I really, really love to do. How
does your story end? Austin Suellentrop: Yeah, so I left that
organization, I talked about it early
on. I left that company very abruptly. Because I was I was rubbed the wrong
way. And I just, I just didn't, I felt
disconnected. I felt that discord. My, my life changed. My career changed when
I found a manager that took a chance on
me, saw things I was really good at, and gave me the opportunity to stretch, and
to challenge myself. And working in an
organization and in a place where she empowered me, and she gave me the most
powerful feedback I could ever, ever ask
for. Because it was the first time I was hearing things that were affirming and
constructive. Right? So I had the chance
to work for a manager who believed in strengths. Who believed in developing
people. But the thing I love most about where my
career took me is I, I now, after 10
years-plus of working with strengths, I now walk into almost every situation,
and I can tell myself, I'm going to
trust my intuition. I'm going to trust my instinctive reaction on how to handle
this. I'm gonna be Austin. I'm gonna be
myself in this situation. Because I know that's what my team needs from me. I
know that's what I've been hired to do.
And I know that's what my partners expect of me. I'm not having to play a
role. I'm not having to put on a face,
in my job, I can be authentically me. And the comfort that brings in my
day-to-day life -- and the example I'm
able to set for my children, and for my wife, and my family of, this is what it
looks like to live a life based in
strengths. I'm very transparent. My, the people I work with, know the things I'm
great at, they know the things I'm not
great at. And so, it's not that I don't have to do expense reports. I still have
to do expense reports, right? It's the
fact that I just do them and I get them over with, and I move on with my life. I
don't dwell on them. Right? There was a
time of my life where I dwelled on them. I put them off. But I'm not expected to
do expense reports for the team. I'm not
asked to organize, you know, massive spreadsheets for the team. It's part of
my responsibility to myself. But the
things I'm responsible for to my team are things I love to do, things I'm
great at. And that comes from the
summation of all my experiences, and the managers I've worked for, who haven't
enabled me and empowered me to be me.
And it's really a powerful thing. Jim Collison: I think Austin, with that,
we'll remind everyone to take full
advantages of all the resources, we do have available the Gallup Strengths
Center, except we don't call it that
anymore, it's called Gallup Access. You know, when you've been doing that for 5
years, it just kind of rolls off --
gallup.com/cliftonstrengths. Out there, we post full transcripts to these
programs, as well. So if you want to get
them, that way, you can do it. Don't forget, we also have a CliftonStrengths
Community Newsletter comes out. It's
called CliftonStrengths Insight. And we'd love to have you sign up for that.
Bottom of the page, on, out at, out at
gallup.com/cliftonstrengths, you'll see a place you can sign up and subscribe
for that, as well. Don't forget, if you
have questions after the fact, we're going to spend some time after this in
the postshow, one of the advantages to
joining us live, answering some questions, but if you have some
questions that didn't get answered, send
us an email:
[email protected]. I mentioned listening live. You can join
us there, if you follow us on
Eventbrite: gallup.eventbrite.com. Don't forget, you can also join us now, for
the brand-new Gallup at Work Virtual
Summit. Just announced, we're about 45 days, or so, 43 days away from that. And
it's going to be completely virtual.
$195 for everybody, and we'd love to have you come and join us, and be a part
of it. Get more details, June 2, you can
get more details: gallupatwork.com. Join us in our Facebook Group:
facebook.com/groups/calledtocoach. You
can also join us live in our LinkedIn, our LinkedIn page: "CliftonStrengths
Trained Coaches." If you just search for
that, you'll find us as well. Want to thank you for joining us. If you're
listening live, stay around for some
postshow. Austin, we have some good questions. We'll get to those in the
postshow. With that, we'll say, Goodbye,
everybody.