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Coaches who become Strength Coaches

Written by Pauline Borrel | Sep 18, 2023 8:51:02 PM

Hello to you,

Have you ever tried ... the Gallup Global Strengths Coach certification?

Émilie Rivière is a coach with INNERSHIP. She is a certified "Strengths Coach" and we are going to share her experience with you today.

A Strengths Coach facilitates coaching based on enhancing our understanding of how to apply our greatest talents and strengths in our everyday lives. As a Strengths Coach, you focus directly on your coachee’s strengths by helping them become aware of their innate and unique talents. 

 

What makes us unique is often right in front of us.

Through this type of coaching, the Strength Coach will use these questions as they guide their coachee:

 👉How do the coachee’s talents manifest on a daily basis?

👉 How can the coachee apply these talents more intentionally and productively to achieve their goals?

Hello Émilie

❓What is the Gallup Global Strengths Coach certification?

It is a certification that allows you to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to help individuals and teams reach their full potential by focusing on their strengths. 

Strengths-based coaching can be used in different contexts:

👉 At the Individual Level: For the creation of a professional or personal development plan, career development, performance boost, goal achievement, etc..

👉 At the Collective Level: To promote team cohesion, improving ways of working together, team productivity, reaching a particular team goal, etc...

🔎 How does this type of coaching take place?

We start by providing the coachee with a personality questionnaire which will narrow in on their natural strengths. But it doesn't stop there! It's one thing to have the strengths, but another to know what to do with them.

The Strength Coach then guides the coachee through 3 main steps:

  1. Name it! Getting the coachee to fully understand their talents by teaching them how to identify them, to describe them, and to highlight what resonates most with them.
  2. Appreciate! Encouraging the coachee to explore the following questions: How do my talents manifest in my daily life and how do they help me? How do they help me succeed in my professional and/or personal life? What makes my talents so unique?
  3. Focus! Getting the coachee to ask themselves: How can I use my talents more intentionally? How will my talents help me achieve my goals? Then supporting them as they create a concrete action plan!

 

🏗️ Which resources are used and available for the 'Strengths Coach'?

For the Global Strengths Coach Certification, Gallup has grouped the strengths into 34 themes. The individual report (given to the coachee) lists them from 1 to 34: 

  • 1 to 10: These are the dominant themes - what we naturally put forth without even thinking about it! These are clearly our strengths.
  • 11 to 29: These are the "toolbox" themes - we can apply these strengths but it requires a particular intention. It's less natural.
  • 30 to 34: It's just not natural. It takes a lot of effort for us to activate these strengths.

For each of the themes (Dominant, Toolbox, and Not Natural) and the strengths that correlate, the report specifies: How to put these strengths forward, how each strength is unique and the blind spots that may exist.

The description of the report varies according to the combination of themes from 1 to 34: The report is extremely personalized to each coachee! 
 
The 34 themes are grouped into 4 areas: 

 👉 Execution
 👉 Influence
 👉 Relational
 👉 Strategy
 
The report, through the themes and groupings offers a reading grid. During the Strengths Coach certification, you will dissect and analyze each theme to know them in-depth, to then be able to discuss them with your future coachees!

🎢 Were there any challenges?

Like everyone else I guess, the challenge was finding time in my busy schedule! The Gallup Global Strengths Coach certification is:

  •  4.5 days of classes (virtual or in-person)
  • One 2 hour exam, requiring review and preparation
  • A minimum of 6 individual coaching sessions to be validated via a Satisfaction Questionnaire sent to the coachees

 It is demanding but it is also what makes the certification more credible!

⌛ Let's talk business. It is still a big investment of time and money. Why did your company (ed. Nestle) decide to train you for this particular certification?

Gallup's research on the benefits of such an approach has been proven. Gallup has decades of research on employee engagement, among other things. They make available many reports and statistics on this topic.


Here are some of them:

  • People who learn to use their strengths every day are 7.8% more productive
  • Teams that receive feedback based on their strengths are 8.9% more profitable
  • People who focus on using their strengths are 3x more likely to report an excellent quality of life
  • People who focus on using their strengths are 6x more likely to feel engaged in their work

 ❤️ What did you like about it?

What's interesting is that the report is hyper-personalized and doesn't put people "in boxes." Many people may have the same themes in their top 5 but because of the combination of their themes, how they are described and manifested, the description of the report will be unique. That's what I particularly like about it. There is a 1 in 33 million chance that you will have the same top 5 (in the same order) as someone else!
 

This certification is a good mix between the robustness of the theoretical aspects AND the diversity of the concrete tools/exercises. And then above all I like the mindset: when you capitalize on what you do best, it's very rewarding!

🍿 A personal experience that made the difference

After the coachee completes the individual report, I review and analyze it first. Then, after meeting to review it together, we send it back together. What does this change for me as a coach? It adds a red thread to the discussion! The exchange is really based on strengths.
 
Not all my coachees take this test (called Clifton Strengths) so I don't do this review every time but this certification allows me to put much more emphasis on the awareness of strengths.
 
It highlights the uniqueness of each person. It's a great approach to diversity and inclusion at the collective level! Everyone can contribute in their own way. When teams become aware of this, they become more efficient and also more united and inclusive. Anything is possible...!

 

Did you know about this certification? I can't wait to hear your answers and to read your feedback. Do you want to know more? Don't hesitate to contact me on Linkedin.  


So, what should we try next time? 

 
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