Part 5 of our 8-part Strengths Connection Series
Welcome back to our Strengths Connection Series! We’ve now reached part five of eight, and today, I want to focus on something that often distracts people when they start working with their Gallup strengths assessment: the bottom talents.
When you first look at your report, you’ll naturally spend some time reviewing your top talents—those strengths that resonate with you and come naturally. But if you have access to your Full 34 report and can see all 34 talents ordered almost immediately, your eyes tend to drift toward the bottom. The instinct? To focus on a perceived shortcoming or weakness. But, I’d like to help you reframe how you think about your bottom talents.
Looking for a quick read? You can find the key insights from the video in the summary below.
What Do Bottom Talents Really Mean?
The 34-talent report isn’t a statement on your value or success. It simply distinguishes what comes most naturally to you (your top talents) from what requires more effort and energy (your bottom talents). Those lower-ranked talents are still strengths, but they aren’t your superpowers. While you can absolutely perform those actions, doing so may drain you or be less enjoyable.
It's important to remember that you’re capable of operating in those lower talents, but it may come with inefficiency and lower satisfaction. So why push ourselves to work in those spaces if they don’t align with our natural strengths? Instead, we can lean into our top talents for greater energy, success, and enjoyment.
Owning Your Bottom Talents and Letting Go
The key to thriving is accepting that we don’t need to excel at everything. It’s about owning the things at the bottom of our list and releasing the pressure to be exceptional in those areas. There’s likely someone on your team who shines where you might not—so why not collaborate? Teamwork thrives when we understand how our talents complement each other.
This is a core focus of our work with strengths-based development in teams: understanding where there might be gaps in talent and leveraging other strengths or other people on our team to fill those spaces.
A Personal Example: My Bottom Talent
When I took my Gallup assessment, my bottom talent was Positivity. Initially, this surprised me. I didn’t think of myself as someone who lacked positivity, but when I looked closer, it made sense. While I can get to a positive mindset, it usually happens through strategy and consideration. I don’t instantly jump to, “Everything’s going to be great!”—I build a plan, and that plan is what helps me feel positive.
Recognizing this about myself was freeing. I no longer needed to force myself into a mindset that didn’t come naturally. Instead, I could lean into what I do best: strategic thinking.
Using Bottom Talents to Your Advantage
The goal is not to ignore your bottom talents but to understand how they fit into your overall strengths mosaic. If your job requires you to spend a lot of time in those bottom talents and it’s draining, it might be time to have a conversation with your manager. How can you refocus on your top talents and reduce the energy drain from your bottom talents? There's plenty of data from Gallup to demonstrate the positive impact on productivity, efficiency, and performance by helping individuals work within thier talents. It's really a win-win to explore this in your role.
The more aware you are, the more power you have to shape your role and contribute effectively—both to your own success and to your team’s.
Focus on Your Strengths
What’s important to remember is that Gallup’s research shows you can grow exponentially by focusing on your top talents. Yes, you can work on improving your lower talents, but the growth will be marginal compared to the growth you’ll see by honing what comes naturally.
So, don’t spend too much time worrying about the bottom of your list. Tuck it away as a nice thing to know, but focus on the top, where all your power lies, and watch how you can exponentially increase your impact and effectiveness. I hope this helps you look at your report in a new light!
Share this installment with a colleague or friend who might benefit from reframing their bottom talents. If they missed the earlier parts of the series, those are available on our website. We’ll see you next week for a discussion on Strengths Work in Teams and how to use strengths-based development for collective success.
Until then, stay curious!
Gallup®, CliftonStrengths®, StrengthsFinder®, the 34 CliftonStrengths® Talent Theme Names® and Domains® are all trademarks of Gallup, Inc. Copyright © 2022 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
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