Jonathan Jones understands the value of knowing your strengths. He’s been a leader for nearly 18 years driving the culture and intentional focus of DEMDACO, an artist-driven gift and home décor products company based in Leawood, Kansas. As a certified Gallup CliftonStrengths® coach, Jones brings his vast experience and knowledge of CliftonStrengths Assessment to a two-hour workshop on April 23rd. Jones shares insight into how the workshop (with an option for individual coaching) offers a valuable experience.

“The additional individual coaching will give greater insight and greater understanding of one’s strengths. I take people through a conversation of how their top strengths show up for them. This helps them develop language to recognize their strengths more quickly,” says Jones.

How can learning about my strengths through the CliftonStrengths Assessment help me to maximize my potential at work and in life?

Research from a Gallup study shows two things:

1) People who focus on using their strengths are 3x as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.

2) People who focus on using their strengths are 6x as likely to be engaged in their jobs.

When I take someone through their full CilftonStrengths 34 report I tell them we’re going to talk about things they already know about themselves. They might not have the language for it though. Learning that language and developing the ability to identify when your strengths show up is the key thing that supports the findings in that study.

I know my strengths. Won’t the assessment confirm what I already know?

Typically, if people have taken it before it’s usually just their Top 5. While this is valuable reviewing the full 34 give a much fuller picture. The 34 report is like watching something in 4K versus standard definition.

The full 34 report also gives great insight into what strength an individual is leveraging and what is a lower strength. I’ll go into more detail in this in the workshop.

It’s also not typical that an individual who’s taken the assessment goes through a review with a certified coach.

How does it benefit me to take this course with other participants?

The workshop will be very interactive. There will be exercises we’ll do to get people more familiar with recognizing and describing their strength with other people. Learning often goes deeper and becomes more “sticky” when we’re participating with other engaged people.

What does the assessment involve? I don’t like taking tests.

The assessment isn’t a test in the way we think of tests. There is no pass/fail. Here’s how Gallup describes the assessment.

During this 30-minute assessment, you’ll see paired statements and choose which one best describes you. The assessment measures your unique talents — your natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving – and categorizes them into the 34 CliftonStrengths themes.

Tell us more about your background in leadership development and coaching. What do you bring to this experience?

I’ve been at DEMDACO since 2006. My role has always focused on keeping us focused on Purpose and Mission. CliftonStrengths has been a part of that since 2018.

What motivates me the most is helping people connect what they do operationally to our Purpose and Mission. Helping them leverage their Strengths in that process is an even greater motivation. I’m confident participants will leave with some small steps they can take to begin using their Strengths more effectively.

Prior to DEMDACO I worked in different capacities as a minister, so I’ve always enjoyed working with people.