Strengthening the C-Suite: Using CliftonStrengths to Address Burnout

What do you do if members of your C-suite are burned out? Are you and your fellow executives sometimes struggling to do your best work? If you’re feeling stuck, there are solutions.

One of my coaching clients was a sales and marketing executive with a frustrating project—spearheading the annual customer retreat. Every year, the client (let’s call him Eric) took the lead on it, and every year it went okay. He hated the work, but it needed to be done. The project always made him feel a bit empty inside, and the retreat never seemed to be a smash hit.

Eric wanted coaching so that he could explore what was happening and how to do better. We started by looking at his CliftonStrengths. CliftonStrengths is an assessment of natural talents backed up by six decades of research. There are 34 unique talents, and the CliftonStrengths assessment helps you discover which of the talents are naturally dominant for you and which are less dominant.

For instance, the CEO who scores high on the Belief talent may feel overextended because she can’t let certain things go. Executives with high Belief have certain core values that tend to unconsciously drive them in certain directions. Through an understanding of those beliefs/values, they can more intentionally leverage them leading to better performance and satisfaction.

In Eric’s case, we started by listing out the major elements of the project such as determining a guest list, securing a resort property, and selecting the menu and itinerary. It was pretty standard event-planning stuff. Then, we tied each planning element to one or two primary CliftonStrengths necessary to complete that element.

What we found was striking! 

My client was using his top talents in only 40% of the tasks. That meant he was wrestling to get the other 60% done using lesser talents. No wonder he was burning out and having lackluster results.

Eric was using his lower tier Discipline and Command talents to essentially ramrod the project through. In addition, Eric would often get pulled in various directions leading to delays in retreat planning. He discovered through the process that he needed to set the goals and expectations – using his strong Strategic talent – and leverage his team members to manage the details.

Burnout usually occurs when people are working outside their natural, dominant talents. Everyone has a unique profile that sets them apart from everyone else, but many don’t take the time to discover their natural strengths. That’s where this assessment has value. 

I have helped many CEOs understand how to more effectively deploy their natural gifts by using CliftonStrengths. Of course, the subsequent retreat was not only more manageable, it was far more successful. The key was that Eric AND his team were intentionally working within their respective top CliftonStrengths. It was thrilling for me to observe, but I wasn’t surprised. These types of improvements happen all the time when people are living and working in their top strengths.

CliftonStrengths is just one tool we use at Vibrancy Unlocked. We coach CEOs to thrive so they don’t burn out. Contact us at www.vibrancyunlocked.com.