Making decisions: I’d like to provide some context

A colleague of mine is a fantastic project manager. Before she starts a new project, though, she wants to understand its context and history. She relishes researching the past, learning from it, and applying those lessons to do a better job in the future.

Having that sort of contextual perspective is imperative for her to excel at her job because she has the CliftonStrength of Context in her top 5 strengths. People with this strength enjoy thinking about the past and tend to understand the present by researching its history.

Contrary to what you might think, people with Context strength don’t want to know these things in order to do them the same way. Rather, they want to learn from the way things were done previously, take time to consider what worked and didn’t work, and how and why it was or wasn’t effective, so they can improve processes going forward. This description fits my colleague to a T.

Getting The Best From Employees With The CliftonStrength Of Context

If you have someone with this strength working for you, allow them to research past scenarios relevant to the task at hand, whether it’s a client relationship meeting or a new team project. When they’re able to glean information and gather details from past stories, it helps them process the best options going forward. Whenever possible, put them in roles where they can use this information to suggest ways to improve on past performance.

They tend to thrive in professions with a lot of history and longevity, like accounting and education but can be highly effective in any role that allows them space to analyze the history and prior experiences with clients, vendors, etc., so they can more effectively move those relationships forward.

Be aware: these employees feel strongly that learning from the past and sharing that knowledge with others will help the company be more successful. If you ask them to ignore the past, you’ll quickly find yourself with a dissatisfied employee.

Stuck In The Past

While it can be beneficial for your company to have employees with the CliftonStrength of Context, who consider the past in order to apply those lessons to the future, they may not always be perceived as future-focused by other employees. Co-workers may be frustrated at times if they feel like their co-worker with Context dwells too much on the past rather than focusing on the future.

In particular, if you also have an employee who has Futuristic as one of their top 5 CliftonStrength, he may be extremely frustrated working with the employee with Context. People with strong Futuristic talent are very forward-thinking and visionary. They’re inspired by the future and the possibility of what could be. They don’t want to “waste” time learning from the past.

But when people with the two strengths learn to bridge that gap – and the misunderstandings they most likely have about one another’s strengths – they can make a great pair. It’s important to remember that strengths are based on how you do something, not what you do. Both can focus on the future, but they get there in complementary ways.

How Millennial Guru Can Help

At Millennial Guru, we use the CliftonStrength analysis to help your employees understand what their strengths are and how they can most effectively be used in a work setting.

More importantly, we help your employees recognize what their co-workers bring to the table – even, maybe especially, when their strengths don’t seem to have much in common on the surface.

Instead of conflict, we help you build cohesiveness and appreciation, which leads to more employee satisfaction and better productivity.

Interested in finding out more? We offer free, no-commitment consultations so you can learn more about our workshops and discover how Millennial Guru can help your employees be more engaged and achieve better results for your business. Don’t wait - contact us today for more information.