Mastering Gallup’s StrengthsFinder Test: A Guide to Success in 2024
The job market is becoming increasingly competitive. The percentage of college graduates seeking employment is at an all-time high. This means that you could be up against some pretty stiff competition applying for your next role.
One of the most common interview questions is ‘What are your strengths?’ This is often a question that can prove difficult to answer if you have not prepared an answer.
The Gallup’s StrengthsFinder Test — sometimes known as the Clifton Strengths Test — is a pre-employment psychometric assessment. It objectively gathers information about a candidate’s strengths in order to ascertain their suitability for a given role.
Organizations such as Banks, Insurance, and Health Companies may use the Clifton Strengths Test along with sales and marketing companies. However, the test is used widely throughout the industry and is becoming increasingly popular with employers.
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What is the focus of Gallup’s StrengthsFinder (GSF)?
The GSF is a personality assessment with a positive focus; that is, it measures the things that you do well. The test aims to measure a person’s unique talents under themes, and there are 34 themes in all.
The idea behind GSF is that if you are familiar with your characteristic strengths then you can improve the progress of your communications. This means that, not only can you achieve high levels of job satisfaction, but you can also be of benefit to your employer through the matching and utilization of your talents within a role.
Knowing your own strengths and making the best use of these can benefit you in your personal life as well as your work life.
What does GSF entail?
In order to discover your strongest qualities, GSF will give you 177 pairs of sentences that must be answered within one hour. The test will be administered via a computer.
The pairs of sentences have a variety of relationships to each other. Some pairs are opposites, some are similar, and some will appear to have no relationship at all. You will be asked to select which you think applies.
You will select the sentences that most closely demonstrate your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Through this, there will be up to 34 characteristics of your personality displayed.
The results of the test will showcase your top five attributes. The strengths of an individual will ultimately define their personality. Applying your dominant natural talents means that you will be better placed to handle tasks and challenges that may occur in your work role.
In some cases, both sentences in a pair may seem to apply to the given question. If this happens, it actually means that neither pair of sentences is relevant to you. You should select a neutral position in this instance.
Want to experience a realistic practice test? Head to Job Test Prep and check out Gallup’s StrengthFinder preparation resources.
What are the 34 traits assessed in the GSF?
The 34 traits are organized under four theme headings:
- Strategic Thinking
- Relationship Building
- Influencing
- Executing
– Strategic Thinking
- Analytical – gathering information to understand cause and effect
- Context – learning from the past to better understand the future
- Futuristic – excited by vision and future developments
- Ideation – new ideas and simple ways to explain complex concepts
- Input – research and archive of information for future use
- Intellection – people with these skills are problem solvers
- Learner – learning new skills and self-improvement
- Strategic – the ability to solve a problem using alternative routes towards a desired goal
– Relationship Building
- Adaptability – the ability to respond to requests and the needs of others
- Connectedness – understanding the connection between people, events, and places
- Developer – the skill to recognize others’ potential and help them achieve it
- Empathy – understanding and seeing things from another’s perspective
- Harmony – skilled in turning conflict into resolution
- Includer – an awareness of others and not wanting to leave them feeling left out
- Individualization – the ability to fit different individuals together to create better teams
- Positivity – the skill for enthusiasm; people radiate towards this person
- Relator – working hard with like-minded people you know and trust
– Influencing
- Activator – These people thrive on taking action
- Command – natural leaders who are happy to take control of a situation
- Communication – the skill of easy verbal expression
- Competition – to constantly compare performance with others and drive forward
- Maximizer – enabling those performing well already and pushing them further forward
- Self-Assurance – total belief in abilities and decision making
- Significance – the skill to stand out, be exceptional, and consequently recognized
- Winning Others Over – the skill to win new people over to your cause
– Executing
- Achiever – hard workers with stamina to achieve goals
- Arranger – effectively organizing resources to get a job done
- Belief – unshakeable core values and ethics
- Consistency – following rules and procedures to treat everyone fairly
- Deliberative – analyzing all risks and eventualities before making a decision
- Discipline – these people thrive with order and predictability
- Focus – staying focused and on track to achieve your goal
- Responsibility – the skill of fulfilling any promises made
- Restorative – finding new and better ways to solve problems
It is perhaps easy to understand why traits such as adaptability is useful in a demanding or dynamic job role. Or why empathy might be a beneficial character trait in a customer-facing role. Consistency and harmony can be crucial to maintaining positive work relationships with colleagues.
As can communication and the ability to be an includer or to win others over. It is through the analysis of each candidate’s unique skill set that an employer can really make sure that you are a good fit for their organization and the teams within it.
How to prepare for and pass the Gallup’s StrengthsFinder test?
While there is no quick-fix shortcut to developing strengths, there are study guides that can be extremely valuable in helping you pass the Gallup test. There are resources that can enable you to become familiar with the test material and the exam format.
Job Test Prep provides a range of resources and practice papers that enable you to become familiar with the types of questions you will encounter. They can help you approach the test in comfort and with greater speed and accuracy.
Aspects of the test like identifying numbers of paired sentences with minimal answer times (approximately three pairs per minute), and understanding the different relationships between each pair of sentences, could be quite confusing if you have not encountered this format previously.
Confusion can lead to a difference in your answers. It can be the difference of seeming like a ‘Leader’ or a ‘Follower,’ and this could impact your employment role.
In summary
Job Test Prep can provide you with a comprehensive study guide that will make sure you are familiar with the structure of the GSF assessment. The preparation package will also include a full personality test and a motivation and culture-fit guide to testing.
The more you are able to practice, the more confident you will feel when faced with GSF or indeed, any comparable personality tests. You will have a greater understanding, not only of the assessment itself, but also of your own unique strengths and talents and ways in which you can utilize them to make positive achievements in both your personal and work lives.
Knowing what skills you have to offer and how they can benefit a role is one step to placing you ahead of your competitors.
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Written by Karen Stanley
Karen is a former teacher of 20 years and ten times published author. She writes content for educational organisations and businesses, nationally and internationally. She coaches new and budding writers through to publication and is passionate about creativity; she runs creative writing workshops in schools and fostering agencies.
Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
