The Power of Complimentary Strengths

by

The Conversation That Moved Me Forward

I recently contacted a fellow coach for a conversation about a project I was developing. Based on her background, I thought she may have some insight or feedback that could be helpful. I had been thinking about this project on my own for a few months, but I felt that I was hitting a plateau. Because so many of my natural strengths are relational, my first thought was to reach out to someone in my network.

Once we joined the call and I shared more details with her, she immediately had several ideas. She also shared how much she was enjoying brainstorming together and that she loved helping others to generate ideas. While generating new ideas does not come as naturally to me, it did for her and she found it fun. It came as no surprise when she shared that Ideation was #1 on her CliftonStrengths report (while it is at the bottom of my list). I did not know what her strengths were when I first reached out to her for a conversation, but this explained a lot about why this conversation was going so well. 

Being able to partner with someone who was strong where I was not made all the difference. 

I realized what I actually needed was a colleague with different strengths than mine to talk this through, not necessarily her expertise from her past experience. I left that call and wrote down more notes and ideas in the next 30 minutes than I had in 3 months. 

What The Research Says

Based on research from Gallup, they identified 8 elements of Powerful Partnerships. The very first one is “Complimentary Strengths.” 

“The best happens when you and someone who has strengths that complement yours join forces and focus on a single goal. Your strengths cancel out your partner’s weaknesses, and vice versa. You accomplish together what could not be done separately.”1

Successful teams understand their own individual talents and strengths, recognize where they are not as strong and understand how other team members’ talents and strengths complement their own. This can apply to a larger team or even a partnership with one other person, such as my conversation with a fellow coach. 

Partnering with someone different than you allows you to see things that you can’t always see on your own. In this case, our call partnering together helped move me along with this project more than anything else that I’d tried on my own. 

Differences Are Advantages and People Need One Another

Two of the main principles of CliftonStrengths illustrate this concept of partnering with those with complementary strengths. 

  1. Differences are advantages. “The differences existing in humanity are not necessarily problems you need to solve. Instead, they may actually be resources that could create an advantage when developed and used wisely.”2

How could the differences amongst people on your team actually be advantages? Does someone bring more analytical strengths while another person brings more relational strengths to collaborate across your organization?

  1. People Need One Another. “We each have unique themes and leveraging the best within each individual creates complimentary and higher performing partnerships and teams.”3

How could partnering together help you achieve more? How could your team operate more effectively working together?

How You Partner With Others

As you think about your own team or colleagues and partnering, how do you move forward? Take some time to reflect on the following questions: 

  • When was the last time you partnered with someone different than you? 
  • What are you good at and what comes naturally to you? 
  • Who in your organization approaches work differently than you? 
  • If you partnered together with someone who approaches projects differently – what could be possible?  

This is the power of strengths-based partnerships. Working together for greater individual success. 

Interested in learning more about strengths-based partnerships for your team or organization?  Contact us to discuss further.  

  1.  Why Partners Need Complimentary Strengths: https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/122237/why-partners-need-complementary-strengths.aspx ↩︎
  2. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/249809/unlocking-power-cliftonstrengths-results.aspx ↩︎
  3. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/249809/unlocking-power-cliftonstrengths-results.aspx ↩︎