CliftonStrengths

CliftonStrengths (also known as StrengthsFinder) is an assessment developed by Don Clifton while he was chairman of Gallup, Inc. The company launched the test in 2001. Test takers are presented with paired statements and select the option they identify with best, then receive a report outlining the five strength areas they scored highest in, along with information on how to apply those strengths.

Clifton and his team developed the test using Gallup's historical polling data, interviews with leaders and work teams, and consultations. They identified four primary strength domains: executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Within those domains, they identified 34 strength areas:

• Strategic Thinking: Analytical, Context, Futuristic, Ideation, Input, Intellection, Learner, Strategic;
• Relationship Building: Adaptability, Connectedness, Developer, Empathy, Harmony, Includer, Individualization, Positivity, Relator;
• Influencing: Activator, Command, Communication, Competition, Maximizer, Self-assurance, Significance, Woo;
• Executing: Achiever, Arranger, Belief, Consistency, Deliberative, Discipline, Focus, Responsibility, Restorative.

Between 2001 and 2012, approximately 600,000 people took the test annually. By 2015, 1.6 million people were taking it each year. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2015 that 467 companies on the Fortune 500 list were using CliftonStrengths. As of 2022, more than 26 million people had taken the test.

Gallup released StrengthsFinder 2.0 in 2007. The book became one of Amazon's top-ten best selling books and remained on that list through 2016.

Further reading

• Marcus Buckingham & Donald Clifton (January 1, 2001) "Now, discover your strengths". Gallup Press. ISBN 978-0-7435-1814-7
• The Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 Technical Report
• 2018 CliftonStrengths Meta-analysis Report