CliftonStrengths x Leadership Lab

Recently, eight of our Leadership Lab team invested in becoming CliftonStrengths Partnership and Team coaches. To celebrate this, we wanted to take the opportunity to share some stories about Leadership Lab and CliftonStrengths. Erica Austin from Leadership Lab shares her personal experiences and Tessa Dodge, CEO of Strengths Network also contributes her thoughts.

Tessa (pictured below) is CEO and Founder of Strengths Network and has been working with CliftonStrengths for 20 years.

“When I first came across CliftonStrengths in 2006 (It was called StrengthsFinder back in the day), I was sceptical and unimpressed.  I had an allergic reaction to anything that looked like it put people in boxes. Through a set of unexpected circumstances I found myself in Los Angeles, I was in a room full of people learning about this tool and training how they could help others discover their strengths. As the first day got underway – the true power of this way of thinking started to dawn on me. By lunchtime – I had moved from sceptic to engaged as I discovered that instead of putting people into boxes it actually smashed them and focused on uniqueness. I was hooked.”

In 2008, Strengths Network was born to partner with Gallup to deliver coach training. Later in 2013, Gallup released them to deliver training independently and in 2015, the Leadership Lab met with Tessa and together, they imagined how this tool might be woven into the Leadership Lab LinC project.

“It started with our Accredited SN coaches coaching many amazing Canterbury Community Leaders but more recently, Leadership Lab have invested in having their own key leaders trained as Accredited Strengths Network Coaches to work in the different projects they lead. I could never have dreamt how significant that meeting with Chris and the team from Leadership Lab back in 2015 would be. Putting this tool into their hands has been inspirational. The impact their work is having continues to change lives, teams and communities.  It is one thing for us to know our “Strengths” but it is quite another to know how to integrate these with those around us. This Strengths based way gives us all a way to be heard, seen and understood – and this is what helps teams build connection and trust and form a foundation to navigate the opportunities and challenges every team faces.”

Erica Austin is one of those Leadership Lab team members who has moved from coachee to coach. With her first encounter being back in 2015 as part of the LinC incubator programme:

“What I discovered was more than a list of talents, it was a mirror that reflected back to me my natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. That language of strengths helped me see myself with greater clarity and compassion, and over time it reshaped how I approached my work, my leadership, and my relationships.”

Having completed her individual coach training, Erica has coached individuals from across all of the Leadership Lab: programmes: from Puāwai (15–18 year olds), to the Leadership Incubator, Te Whāriki (focused on intersectionality and systems change), and most recently the Te Tiriti Incubator programme. Through this work she has witnessed the power of the strengths language to spark insight, shift perspectives, and give people permission to lead more authentically.

Erica talks about the recent Partnership and Teams Coach training being a “good reminder that facilitation is not about control, but about tending the soil – creating conditions where people can flourish in their own ways.”

“I often return to the metaphor of a seed. When a seed is planted, so much happens beneath the surface before anything becomes visible. In the same way, our talents often begin quietly, unnoticed, even invisible. With reflection, practice, feedback, and the right environment, those talents take root, grow, and eventually bear fruit.

As coaches, our role is to help make the invisible visible – noticing growth in ourselves and others, and creating spaces where people feel supported in their journey. That’s what excites me most about continuing this path: walking alongside individuals, partnerships, and teams as they cultivate what is already within them, and witnessing the impact as it becomes visible over time.”

Read some previous Pānui about CliftonStrengths and projects we’ve used them in:

• Leveraging Strengths to Navigate Change
• From Coach to Tiriti Partner
• Place-based responses to COVID-19 in Aotearoa

Congratulations to Erica, Tammi, Steve, Fi, Chris, Lyn, Daisy and Greg and recently completing the Partnership and Teams Coach training with Strengths Network.

Erica Austin and Tessa Dodge – thank you for your sharing your insights for this piece.

You can read more stories of impact as well as thought-provoking pieces from across our Leadership Lab ecosystem by signing up for this monthly pānui (see bottom of www.leadershiplab.co.nz) or by connecting with us on our Leadership Lab LinkedIn and Facebook . You can find an incredible library of resources that you can read, listen or watch on our website here.

Thanks heaps for your interest.