The Lumière Observership Program: discovering CliftonStrengths

musings from an observer's diary

After a very long time the written words hit me home with such intensity. It felt like a personal note shared by a best friend who has known me, co-navigated the varied life stages and seen me through my highs and lows. The same friend who exchanges notes and glances with your parents and husband about your idiosyncrasies every time you act or behave in a way that is uniquely "you".

Hold on-

1. Have they spoken to my close friends?

2. Is someone spying on me?

3. Are they monitoring my online activities?

The answer is none of the above.

The written word I am referring to is the CliftonStrenghts Assessment Report. As I got engrossed into reading about my top 5 strengths, personal insights, top 15 talents and many such gems that emerged out of the assessment, I felt seen, heard and validated.

Strangely, I had taken the assessment as part of my onboarding at another organization but apart from getting the reports in my email there had been no practical usage of it in the real-world work scenario. And here I was at the Lumière office sitting across with a coach who was walking me through the multiple reports and giving me exercises to be practiced in the real world.

In my introductory session of Strengths coaching, the coach told me to get the assessment reports printed and to go through them and make notes. "Make notes", I thought to myself, what do I make notes about? I wasn't quite sure. It was an ignorant mind that hadn't yet gone through the reports, playing the devil.

The reports turned out to be a script of my non-existent autobiography. I made copious notes as I flipped through the reports. Words, phrases, sentences were covered with underlines, quotation marks, question marks, asterix and my note making was at its peak.

A gazillion dots connected-

1. why do I feel the urge to unpack the moment I am back from any trip?

2. why do I ask myself so many questions before making a decision?

3. I thought I was very adaptable how come it doesn't show in my top 5 talents?

   and many many more...

I could not wait to take these notes to my next coaching session.