Today, the job of a business analyst is probably more challenging than ever.
The already intricate landscape of modern business analysis has recently gone through various shifts, mainly due to the latest technological advancements, especially the emergence of artificial intelligence and the huge influence it had on the entire domain.
To keep up, the business analyst must also evolve and always be ready to adapt and adjust to the changes in the industry.
While business analysis techniques
, processes, and methodologies are, as always, highly important, success in this field often hinges on the interplay of individual talents and strengths.
CliftonStrengths for a business analyst will enable you to identify and understand your unique strengths and talents as a business analyst.
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Introduction to CliftonStrengths
As business analysts use a plethora of different skills and abilities in every aspect of their work, focusing on maintaining and further building upon their strengths is the key to remaining relevant in the industry and successful at what they do.
However, nurturing those individual strengths is not easy and often takes a lot of time. This is particularly the case when one is unsure of their strengths and struggles to identify their advantages, as well as weaknesses.
While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to doing this, there are methods that can make it easier for someone to identify and understand their best abilities, talents, and skills.
One of those, that has proven to be very effective and productive, is a tool called CliftonStrengths, used across industries to determine the best strengths of a person, and by doing so improve the performance of both individuals and entire organisations.
Below, we’ll delve a bit deeper into how business analysts can use this tool to illuminate their talents, redefine their capabilities, and maximise their potential.
What is CliftonStrengths Method?
CliftonStrengths is a popular personal development tool that enables individuals to identify and understand their unique strengths and talents.
Created by educational psychologist Donald Clifton and developed and popularised by Gallup (and the Gallup CliftonStrengths Test), this assessment method has been used by millions of people worldwide, including many reputable thought leaders, to uncover their areas of excellence and invest in others as they discover their own.
The core belief behind CliftonStrengths is that focusing on one’s strengths can lead to higher performance, increased job satisfaction, and greater overall success, individually and collectively.
Once individuals pinpoint their natural inclinations and abilities, they gain valuable insight into their abilities, allowing them to capitalise on their innate strengths. The awareness of their natural talents allows professionals across industries, including business analysts, to combine them with learned skills and knowledge to achieve the maximum in their profession.
Even though the assessment for those taking it is rather simple, the CliftonStrengths approach is a rather complex personality profiling method, based on positive psychology. Through his research, Donald Clifton identified the 34 most important talents, or themes, and grouped them into four distinct categories or domains.
These domains and themes provide a comprehensive view of how individuals can contribute to their roles and projects. The four domains are:
- Executing – This domain focuses on getting things done efficiently. Business analysts with executing strengths excel in completing tasks and meeting deadlines. With the right resources, they can certainly get things done. This category includes nine themes or talents: achiever, arranger, belief, consistency, deliberative, discipline, focus, responsibility, and restorative. Obviously, all these strengths are invaluable when it comes to maintaining project integrity and ensuring precision in project execution.
- Influencing – Strengths in this domain revolve around effective communication and persuasion. Business analysts with these strengths are skilled at engaging stakeholders and making compelling arguments. Furthermore, they are able to motivate and inspire those around them, making the entire team or the organisation more effective and productive. Talents that belong in this domain are activator, command, communication, competition, maximise, self-assurance, significance, and woo (winning over others). Each of these strengths can be vital for facilitating discussions, gaining stakeholder buy-in, and driving change.
- Relationship Building – As its name says, this domain centres on collaboration, empathy, and building meaningful connections. Business analysts with relationship building strengths excel in fostering teamwork and understanding stakeholder needs. They have a natural inclination for uniting people to work towards a common goal. Talents from this domain include adaptability, connectedness, developer, empathy, harmony, includer, individualisation, positivity, and relator. These talents can present significant advantages when it comes to creating a harmonious work environment, bridging communication gaps, and building trust among team members and stakeholders.
- Strategic Thinking – These strengths put emphasis on innovation, analytical thinking, and long-term planning. Business analysts with these natural qualities are adept at foreseeing future trends, analysing data, and crafting creative solutions. They can successfully process new information and possibilities. There are eight themes in this domain: analytical, context, futuristic, ideation, input, intellection, learner, and strategic.
An important thing to understand is that all these talents don’t exist in a vacuum. They are influenced by one another, and the main purpose of the CliftonStrengths method is to discover which strengths are dominant for a certain individual. That way, by combining different strengths, it’s possible to create a comprehensive personal talent profile.
How Does CliftonStrengths Assessment (Clifton StrengthsFinder) Work?
The CliftonStrengths Assessment (formerly known as Clifton StrengthsFinder) is a multi-step process designed to help individuals discover their top strengths. Here’s a detailed look at how this StrengthsFinder operates:
Step 1 -Taking the Assessment
The CliftonStrengths assessment typically takes around 30 minutes to complete.
During this time, you will encounter 177 pair statements, each requiring you to assess how accurately it describe you. Each of these 177 equations features two statements on the opposite end of a scale, and for each of them, you’ll have to select which represents your thinking and feeling more and to what extent.
You are presented with a 20-second window to respond to each pair of statements. This timed approach ensures quick, intuitive responses without overthinking, allowing your natural inclinations to surface.
The goal is to capture, as accurately as possible) natural patterns of individual thinking, feeling, and behaving.
Step 2 – Strengths Report
After completing the assessment, you’ll receive a comprehensive StrengthsFinder or CliftonStrengths report.
This report delves into your top strengths, providing you with an in-depth understanding of these strengths. It explains why these strengths are unique to you, how they can aid your success, and ways to maximise your potential by harnessing these strengths in various aspects of your life.
Typically, organisations that hold these assessments provide two types of CliffordStrengths lists.
One of these features your top 5 CliftonStrengths, properly ranked. These are talents that make you stand out among the others and things that you naturally do best. The second type of report features your top 34 CliftonStrengths, which means that it ranks all the themes from the method.
Usually, this report also features recommendations for further counselling and training so you can maximise your strengths and leverage the results for future success.
According to Gallup, the developer of the CliftonStrengths method, the five most common strengths are responsibility, achiever, learner, relator, and strategic. On the other hand, the five rarest strengths are self-assurance, command, discipline, significance, and context.
It’s worth noting that the combination of strengths for every individual is extremely unique, as the likelihood of finding two people with the same talents in the same order is one in 34 million. This makes the entire approach even more valuable.
Some organisations, such as IIBA-endorsed education provider Business Analysis Excellence, offer CliffordStrengths-based workshops that are specifically geared toward business analysts and combine the Gallup approach with the basic concepts of business analysis as laid out in the BABOK guide.
What are the Benefits of CliftonStrengths for Business Analysts?
Understanding and capitalising on these four categories of CliftonStrengths is pivotal for business analysts looking to leverage this approach effectively.
By identifying and aligning their strengths within these domains, business analysts can harness their full potential and contribute meaningfully to their projects and teams.
By understanding assessment results and incorporating them into their work, business analysts can significantly enhance their analytical capabilities and overall effectiveness.
Below are some of the most effective ways a business analyst can use CliftonStrengths in their work and personal development.
Focus on Strengths
When looking to improve, most people look to work on their weaknesses and areas where they feel they lack talent and competency.
The concept of CliftonStrengths is actually the opposite of that. It emphasises working and focusing on one’s strengths.
A business analyst can use CliftonStrengths Assessment results to gain self-awareness of what they do best and leverage those strengths in day-to-day work.
Effective Team Composition
As business analysts typically work within a team, CliftonStrengths assessment can provide valuable information on how to best approach each member and how to make the best use of their qualities.
Each person should be in a role that makes the most of their talents. Of course, a fundamental aspect of business analysis involves teamwork and collaboration. By understanding the unique strengths of team members, business analysts can build stronger, more balanced teams.
For example, a business analyst might leverage their “Analytical” and “Context” strengths to provide data-driven insights, while another team member with “Communication” and “Connectedness ” strengths can facilitate better stakeholder interactions.
So, CliftonStrengths enables business analysts to create more harmonious, effective teams by understanding and utilising the strengths of team members.
Maximising Strengths for Problem-Solving
CliftonStrengths assessment also allows for a more personalised approach to problem-solving.
CliftonStrengths helps business analysts tailor their problem-solving approaches based on their strengths.
Those with “Strategic” strengths can excel in high-level decision-making, while individuals strong in “Arranger” and “Adaptability” can thrive in rapidly changing project environments.
This personalised approach ensures that each analyst can contribute their best to the project.
Enhanced Communication
As strong communication skills are paramount for business analysts, knowing their strengths in this area, analysts can become more effective communicators.
For instance, someone with “Includer” strengths may be skilled at promoting inclusivity in team discussions, while a person with “Woo” (Winning Others Over) strengths can excel at persuading stakeholders.
Therefore, it’s easier to build rapport and rapport with all involved stakeholders by capitalising on known strengths, which also may include communication, empathy, and strategic thinking.
Improved Problem Definition and Requirements Elicitation
CliftonStrengths can sharpen the analyst’s ability to define problems and gather requirements effectively.
“Context” strengths can help in understanding historical context, while “Futuristic” strengths can envision future needs and requirements.
This ensures that the project begins with a solid foundation.
Job Satisfaction
Leveraging one’s strengths leads to a sense of fulfilment, as individuals are working in areas that naturally resonate with them. This goes for the business analysts themselves, but also for each member of the team.
Everyone feels better about themselves and what they do when there’s a feeling of significant contribution. When people work to their strengths, they will not only be more efficient and productive, but also more engaged, energised, and, ultimately, happy at work.
Successful Project Outcomes
When understanding their strengths and relying on them to guide their work, business analysts can make more precise and impactful contributions, which ultimately result in better project outcomes.
Plus, by leveraging their strongest talents, business analysts can expedite problem-solving and decision-making, leading to more efficient and faster project execution.
Drawbacks of CliftonStrengths
Even though using CliftonStrengths approach brings multiple benefits (especially for business analysts, there are still a couple of limitations to the method.
- The focus of CliftonStrengths concept can sometimes be seen as too narrow, as it concentrates on an individual’s top strengths, potentially overlooking areas that need improvement. While working on the strongest talents is very important, business analysts must balance their strengths with the development of complementary skills that are necessary for their work.
- There’s always a risk of pigeonholing individuals based on their strengths. This can limit their growth and adaptability, making them less capable of successfully participating in different kinds of projects.
- Being a business analyst is a very complex role and the CliftonStrengths method can’t address all aspects of it. Unlike some other professions, BAs need to cover a lot of ground during every project and employ a variety of different skills that are often necessary but not always covered with top CliftonStrengths.