Strengths

Scores | Charts | Descriptions

Communication®

People especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.

Score Distribution

Shows scores for this strength across all staff.

Users with Communication strength

Theme Description

You like to explain, to describe, to host, to speak in public, and to write. This is your Communication theme at work. Ideas are a dry beginning. Events are static. You feel a need to bring them to life, to energize them, to make them exciting and vivid. And so you turn events into stories and practice telling them. You take the dry idea and enliven it with images and examples and metaphors. You believe that most people have a very short attention span. They are bombarded by information, but very little of it survives. You want your information ‐ whether an idea, an event, a product's features and benefits, a discovery, or a lesson ‐ to survive. You want to divert their attention toward you and then capture it, lock it in. This is what drives your hunt for the perfect phrase. This is what draws you toward dramatic words and powerful word combinations. This is why people like to listen to you. Your word pictures pique their interest, sharpen their world, and inspire them to act.

Action Items

• You will always do well in roles in which you are paid to capture people's attention. Your strengths will probably flourish in teaching, sales, marketing, ministry, or the media.
• Start a collection of stories or phrases that resonate with you. For example, cut out magazine articles that move you, or write down powerful word combinations.
• Practice telling these stories or saying these words by yourself, out loud. Listen to yourself actually saying the words. Refine.
• When you are presenting, listen closely to your audience. Watch their reactions to each part of your presentation. You will see that some parts prove especially engaging. After the presentation, take time to identify the parts that particularly caught the audience's attention. Re-draft your next presentations around these highlights.
• Practice. Improvisation has a certain appeal, but, in general, an audience will respond best to a presenter who knows where he or she is headed. Counterintuitively, the more prepared you are, the more natural your improvisations will appear.
• Volunteer for opportunities to present. You can become known as someone who helps people express their thoughts and ambitions in a captivating way.

How to Manage a Person Especially Talented in the Communication Theme

• Explore with this person how her Communication strengths can be developed so she can make an even more significant contribution to the organization.
• She finds it easy to carry on a conversation. Ask her to come to social gatherings, dinners, or any events where you want to entertain prospects or customers.
• Ask her to learn the folklore, the stories of interesting events within your organization, and then give her the opportunity to tell these stories to her colleagues. She will help bring your culture to life, and thereby strengthen it.
• Take the time to hear about her life and experiences. She will enjoy the telling. You will enjoy the listening. And your relationship will be closer because of it.
• Discuss your plans with her for your organization's social events. She is likely to have good ideas both for entertainment and for what should be communicated at the event.
• Ask her to help some of the specialists in your organization make more engaging presentations. In some situations she should actually make the presentation for the specialist.
• If you send her to public speaking training, make sure to place her in a small class with advanced students and a top-level trainer. She will quickly chafe in a remedial beginners class.