Before We talk about the Team, Let's Talk About You
A team debrief is, by design, about the team.
We look at the Team Grid. We talk about who complements whom, where the gaps sit, and how different strengths can work together. It's easy, in that setting, to come away thinking mainly about what the exercise did for the group.
But something important happens before we ever meet for the team event.
Each person takes the CliftonStrengths assessment and receives their individual results, followed by a feedback session with me. In that one hour, they get a language for something they have probably sensed about themselves for years without quite being able to name it.
And that language matters more than it might seem.
When you can name your strengths, you can claim them and aim them.
Gallup teaches this as a simple three-step process: name it, claim it, aim it.
Name It: Discovery: What it is: Identifying and naming your dominant talent themes (strengths) and the patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour that come naturally to you.
Claim It: Awareness & Appreciation: What it is: Recognising the value of your strengths, taking ownership of them, and understanding how they show up in your work and relationships
Aim It: Intentional Application: What it is: Deliberately directing and investing your talents (strengths) towards specific goals, tasks, conversations or challenges.
Most people can describe what they struggle with fairly easily. Fewer can describe what they're good at with the same precision.
Part of that is cultural. Talking openly about your strengths can feel a little like boasting. And part of it is simply that many of us were never given the vocabulary to describe them.
"I'm good with people" is not quite the same as saying, "I lead with Empathy and Positivity."
The first is a broad description. The second gives you something specific to explore.
And something specific to act on.
What I notice in these conversations is that talking openly about what you're good at, alongside what you find more difficult, can feel surprisingly safe. The tone is positive, but the conversation can still be candid, often more candid than people are used to being about themselves at work.
That combination is powerful. It makes the insight easier to remember, and easier to use.
But the benefit doesn't stop with understanding yourself.
Once you have a clearer picture of your own way of working, it's often easier to appreciate that other people may work very differently.
Someone who needs time to think before speaking isn't necessarily disengaged.
Someone who wants to talk through an idea out loud isn't necessarily unprepared or looking for attention.
Someone who sees risks that you don't isn't necessarily negative.
Different isn't the same as wrong.
Part of what the assessment can help you notice is why certain situations wear you down, or why conflict can arise when your way of working runs up against someone else's. Once you understand that about yourself, it becomes easier to meet that kind of difference with respect, and to see the other person as a valuable collaborator rather than an obstacle.
That's one of the things I value most about the individual work before the team session. For me, emotional intelligence starts with understanding your own patterns. That self-awareness can make it easier to recognise, respect and respond to the patterns of others.
It can also change the conversations you have about your work.
A person who understands their strengths can have a different conversation with their manager about what to take on next. They can ask for a different kind of task, or push back on one, with a reason they can actually explain rather than simply a feeling that something doesn't fit.
They can begin to notice not only what they're good at, but where they naturally contribute, what gives them energy, and where they may need something different from the people around them.
That is where a strengths assessment becomes more than a profile.
It becomes a language for making choices.
And that's the part that can outlast the team day.
The team conversation helps us understand how we work together and can begin to build a more emotionally intelligent way of working. But it starts with something more personal,
understanding how I work.
Whatever format the team side takes, the part that stays with a person the longest may well be the one hour that was only ever about them.
If you're curious what your own CliftonStrengths profile might tell you, that conversation can happen on its own.
No bunker required.
You can reach me at authenticleaders@outlook.dk.
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