Believing all actions have meaning for the greater team.
Leaders, and colleagues, need to position people on work project teams effectively and efficiently to ensure work gets done and people stay engaged. A lot of leaders often spend too much time trying to guess where to put people because they don't have a point of reference.
What follows is a "scouting report" for those with Connectedness® talents, as identified via the CliftonStrengths assessment.
If you are a leader or a colleague of someone with talents, consider how you can best position them in the context of your team and your projects. You can also use this as a discussion piece to find out how they see and use their Connectedness® talents.
Each person with Connectedness® talents operates differently. Make sure you're not missing out on their unique contribution.
Disclaimer: The following insights represent the author's opinions based on their understanding of the CliftonStrengths® themes. These are not statements created by or formally endorsed by Gallup®.
Scouting Report
Position: Transitioner / Midfielder
By seeing the connections between people or events, they build bridges and understanding within the team, and with other teams.
Contribution
Ways in which this team member can make a direct and immediate impact. Use these insights to consider where you place them on the team or in an organization.
Those with Connectedness® talents are fantastic bridge-builders between people and can therefore play a fantastic role in keeping team members connected to one another. They see that the team succeeds when each team member succeeds and that when one team member falters it has a ripple effect through the team. Therefore, it can help position these individuals in ways that allows them to have regular contact with each team member. They likely won't do well if they are kept isolated or have limited opportunities to connect with their teammates.
Because these individuals keep a deep faith that everything is connected; they can often provide a source of stability for the team. Put them in positions where they can help people see the bigger picture, how their current team benefits from the actions of others, and how remaining in service to others will ultimately help support the team.
Many with Connectedness talents focus on people, but some have an uncanny ability to see how the past effects the present, and the present effects the future. Therefore, they can often help teams understand how they got to where they are, and how that impacts the future. As teams consider which actions will help them achieve their goals, these individuals can help remember what actions helped them succeed thus far.
Tendencies
Ways in which people with this theme might "overplay" their talents.
Those with Connectedness talents might become wrapped up in thinking about the larger or distant impact of what could/should be relatively small decisions that they might delay taking action. Work with them to understand what impacts they can help control or manage, and what impacts are far behind their or the team's scope of control.
Talent Combos / Position Modification
Empathy®: "The Feeling Midfielder" In the same way those with Connectedness talents have a sense of the "bigger picture", those with Empathy talents can sense the emotional energy within interactions. Those with talents in both themes bring a fantastic ability to sense how people connect with each other and how they feel about those connections. If we return our soccer analogy, if those with Connectedness talents are an outside midfielder (seeing the team's interconnections from the sideline); then those with this Empathy + Connectedness combo are center midfielders, right in the thick of it - feeling both the flow of the game and serving as the nexus of an interconnected team.
Competition®: "The Attacking Midfielder" Those with Competition talents love the challenge of earning the win. Those with Connectedness talents tend to bring care and attention to everyone; because to take care of one person is to take care of all people. Those with this Competition + Connectedness combo are likely to consider that healthy competition between individuals, teams, or organizations raises the quality of everyone's contribution. Put them in a position where they can survey all potential connections and permit them to help push those connection to do their best - for where one succeeds you all succeed.
Game Film
Check out these videos from Gallup to learn more
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