Selling with your strengths – The CLAIM phase
Selling with your strengths – The CLAIM phase
In the last blog post you could read more about the NAME phase for selling with your strengths. In this blog post we are talking about the CLAIM phase. Here is the transcript of the third podcast episode I recorded with Mark. Enjoy ☺
Christine
Start and tell us more about the claim phase.
Mark
So if you could, if you can recall back to the, to the nine phase what we did at the end of that was we went away. So in that interaction, we left there, and we spoke to some people that know us quite well. And what we asked those people to do was listen. So we read out our signature themes, which is our top talents, we read the descriptions out from the insights guide that we got from Gallup, just after we completed the assessment, and we read out the description of our personal top five for each of them. And then we asked for a response. So we asked the people that were listening individually to say, what do you think of this description of me. And those people that have helped you with that, they would have given you some feedback as to what they thought. So now you’ve got your perception of that report and what it says in it, and you’ve got the perception of three other people as well. And those people know you well. So they should have a pretty good understanding of how you how you come across to them. The reason behind doing that is that how we see ourselves isn’t always how others see us. We learn from listening to other people’s feedback on us, we’ve probably never asked before. We’ve never asked the people that notice that well to think about us and think about how they would describe us. And it’s a really interesting activity to do. Even without looking at your strengths or your talents. Just asking people how they perceive you by think that the Gallop strengths gives us a platform from which to do it. So it doesn’t seem quite maybe as odd is it might be going up to someone who knows you quite well and saying what do you think of me. So it gives us a bit of a platform to do that. And we can learn a lot from that. Because well, what we’ll find out is that the people that know us really well actually see different things in us than we do. So when they read those five descriptions, they’ll pick out some things in there that you wouldn’t pick up themselves. So that’s really useful insight. Because everything that’s written in those descriptions, or those lines of text, and I say lives, there’s not lots of them. But what’s contained within there are all individual talents. And they’re all specifically for you. They’re aimed at you they’re not generic. Those talents, as I mentioned before are all about you and your talents, and how your talents, your top talents especially intertwine with each other. And that’s what makes us all unique. So in that report that insights guide, it is just about you. It’s not about anyone else. It’s just about you. So it’s really interesting, as I said before, but other people that know you well, to have a comment on that.
Christine
Yes, I think it’s really nice way because what I always say with the startups that I work with, as well when I ask them, okay, what are your strengths? What are your skills, and things like that people sometimes have difficulties defining them. And I think we’ve mentioned that before as well. Because for if it feels natural and be good at something, you don’t see it as a strength. You don’t see it as a talent or skill. Because it just feels normal to you not something special. So it’s, I always say okay, go and ask your friends, ask your family. Ask people who know you well, what do you think you could add? And then there might be things coming that you didn’t think of putting onto the list. And having a platform like that, like you said is even better, because you have this external system that gives you things and then you go out and ask people.
Mark
Yes, very good.
Christine
What else? So because I’ve done, I’ve done also mine, obviously my insight report, I’m happy to share also my five, top five ones. And you’ve seen it, obviously. So I can also say that it, I think it’s quite accurate. But we talked about this already, that sometimes people are not maybe too happy about it, or they get this strength envy that you mentioned before as well. But it’s very interesting. And it’s, like you said unique, even though people think we had this in our workshop now that someone said, The it’s even though it’s generic, and you said, no, no, no, it’s not generic what comes out because it is really just about you. Because it’s based on some science and all the questions that you’re not like a five minute assessment that you do in a magazine, it’s like, the proper thing.
Mark
There is a generic report as well, which is the one that comes out, I think it’s called a signature theme guide or signature theme report. And that looks at the top five in a slightly more generic way. Just to say that people with his talent usually are like this, then the ins are set for the insights guide, and you’ve just mentioned is personalized to you.
Christine
What should people do next?
Mark
What claims about is you matching those top five talents to things that we can recall, we’ve done some activities that we’ve done in the fairly recent past. So I think I’ve mentioned this last time, what I would ask the individual to describe are instances where they have used their, their top talent, their number one talent as an example. When did you when did you last use? And how did you use it? And what happened? What happened when you use it has it made you feel and as the name suggests, the idea behind this is that the individual person is actually claiming it and seeing it as their own. They’re seeing Yes, I do. I do use this particular talent. And here’s an example of how I use it. So it could be that they, the person comes up with a description related to how they use it in a work environment. And often people come up with a description of how to use it out of work as well. Sometimes there’s a split between work and non work and which I find quite interesting, I was coaching someone a two days ago. And we she was talking about her work situation and how she feels at work, and how she feels very confident. She knows what to do. And she’s really into her work. And then she started talking about out of work, what she does out of work, and it was a complete opposite. So when she completed the, the assessment, she was predominantly thinking about her work environment, because that that was that was what she wanted to do. She wanted to make it about a work, which was fine. But what actually comes out of it is that in a non work environment, her talents aren’t being used. She’s not using her talents, and she feels quite uncomfortable out of work, because she’s trying to do what everyone else does. So it’s a really interesting thing, the split between work and private life or personal life. Because the things that we’re most comfortable with should be things that we utilize, both in and out of work. It shouldn’t be, well at work, I’m going to be like this and at home, I’m going to be like this, we should be utilizing the same talents because generally what I said before, this particular lady was basing it on a work life. That’s how she was answering the questions. I guess that was a best experience of her talents because she’s not actually using most of them. When she goes out of work, and she finds it really difficult. And this isn’t just within the last year. She finds it very difficult to go out. She finds it difficult to walk into a busy environment. If she’s meeting someone in a in a pub or a bar She says she can’t go in until that person’s arrived. And she just feels really awkward. And that’s a lot to do with her trying to fit in with what other people do rather than what she’s naturally good at. So I thought that was a really interesting conversation.
Christine
So interesting. Yes, indeed. And I always think that not a thing, it’s obvious normal that everyone acts different in different situations slightly, because when I’m talking to you, maybe a bit different, then I’m talking to my boyfriend, and I’m talking, when I’m doing a training, then I’m talking to some students or another client or something like that. However, I’m really a big believer in trying to always be yourself and use exactly that your strength in every situation, no matter where you are, but it’s normal that we adjust to situations. Also, you probably different with your parents, and your with friends, and so on. I understand this. But I really urge everyone to try to be as authentic as possible in everything that you’re doing. And that goes also into knowing actually who you are, and knowing your strengths to them be able to make use of them. Yes, very interesting observation.
Mark
Good point. Yeah. So throughout this claim activity we go through, usually go through the top five. And I quite like I mentioned before, that I quite like using the top five, for these activities. And the reason for that Christine was telling you mentioned before, is that if you if you just understand and see your top five, you don’t look at the ones that are at the bottom. So you don’t get that envy, you don’t really know what they make. At some point, it’s a good idea, it’d be all become a good idea to reveal all 34, but not necessarily right at the start. Although when you go on and do the assessment, take the assessment, it will probably ask you, if you want to upgrade it straight away, which is fine. But just don’t get too caught up about what you’ve not got this just focus on what you have got. Because you can be great with that you can be great with your top five. So that’s why I like when I work with people, I like to focus at the top. And then maybe we look at the middle as well to the supporting themes of talent. Because we’re in there. So we take a look at that top five. And we say right, so how would you use this? How did you use your achiever? How did you use your empathy? As a couple of examples? When can you think of a time when you use them? And then what happens is you start to buy into Yeah, this is me. Yeah, I’m not I’m not questioning this is mine. Because people that the the next activity if people aren’t bought into those talents will be really difficult when we come back to the next one. So we have a conversation and often the conversation kind of diverts a little bit into Am I miss applying my talents? Am I using them in a way that’s not productive. So sometimes we get those situations and, and we’ll talk about those and what people can do to apply their talents in a more positive way for them. And then when we finish the activity, Christine, what happens is I’ll ask the people to go away with a with another little activity to do. So what we looked at initially, we looked at people going away and asking their friends about the about the report, then we looked at claim which was describing in the past how we’ve used it, the next bit is to catch ourselves using their talents. So rather than looking back three months, we’re looking now, we’re trying to identify when, in real time we’re using our talents. And then just make a note of what you were doing when you use a talent so that next time we come back, we can talk about that.
Christine
Like we already said in the in the first one in the first stage, there is stuff that you have to do and to figure out how you actually use things already. Like to make it yours and to understand yes, it is actually me, like you said, but also on how you can develop them further. And it’s not a quick thing. It’s really drilling into it, absorbing it and making it yours understanding it and then be able to use it in any future situations like you said in work or in private life. Because I think this might be difficult no but with other profiling systems as well. If there’s no coaching attached and stuff, don’t act on it. People don’t understand the reports properly. They don’t understand properly what to do with them. I’ve done profile profiles in the past and see exactly what happens. Okay, yeah, I read them okay. This is like me, but then you don’t really do something with it. So I think the steps that you’re going through and helping people actually to understand it and how to apply it is one of the most important things.
Mark
Yeah. I mean, it’s great to do it. Like you say, Christina, it’s great to do. I mean, I love doing them. I’ve done quite a few. But like you say, it’s, how do I move it forward? What do I do with it? Now I know it. That is often the challenge. And that’s why people like myself for a here really, so that you can do something with it. That is it. But it is largely driven by the person being coached by the participant is largely driven by them. So they have to buy into it themselves and see it as a way of getting to where they want to be.
Christine
Yes, exactly. And this is the claim. No, you claim it to be to be used, I guess.
Mark
You’re claiming your talents.
Christine
That leads into the next phase? And that needs to be done beforehand?
Mark
Yes. It’s just that pace, Christine, around catching yourself using your talents and recalled what happens? Yeah. Rather than, as I said before, rather than looking back at when I used them, it’s looking at now as I used, yeah. Which is an even greater recognition of the fact that you’ve got these talents. And it’s just recording what you were doing and what talent was showing up for you. While actually, you know, what were you actually doing, that you felt really connected to, because when we use our talents, we feel really connected, we connected to ourselves, and when we’re not using their talents, so when we’re waiting for someone outside the bar, because we don’t want to go in, and there are, there are plenty of people that would feel the same way. So this person wasn’t in isolation. But when we’re going into strange environments, and doing strange things, we’re not using their talents, it feels a bit awkward. So we probably pick up as we really start thinking about what we’re doing, and whether we are or we aren’t using their talents, we’ll probably pick up those things also, that don’t make us feel so great things that maybe at work, or it could be able to work things that we we find really quite clunky. And we’re not. We don’t really need to record those. But it’s good insight into how we feel. And it also an insight into maybe what some of our lesser talents are, you know, the ones that aren’t near the top, the ones that near the bottom, you give us an indication of the sorts of activities that are not driven so much by talent, but more by false.
Christine
Yes, yeah, that’s true. But I think if you if you start recognizing, oh, I’ve done this, and this matches my talent, or my strength, then it’s a great motivator as well to see okay, yes, I’m actually using it. Oh, let’s see what’s happening. And I think more you start using them automatically, because you, you start looking at them. Yes, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Perfect. Well, I think unless you have anything else that you want to add that you might want to mention, before we wrap up this episode, this is your chance, you can claim it, you can claim this space now.
Mark
Claim it Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s how that session works, Christine, and then the next one, we’re gonna aim it. So we’re gonna work out where we’re going to take it where we want to go. You probably already mentioned it before. I will check it again, where you want to go with it, and then how we use our talents together.
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