Understanding and Investing in Your Deliberative Talent -- Season 4

To learn more about Gallup's additional strengths resources, visit the Gallup Strengths Center: http://on.gallup.com/1l04XVZ.

Gallup's Theme Thursday is a live Webcast that targets strengths coaches and enthusiasts to provide a deeper context behind the language of strengths by talking in-depth about each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes.

On this Theme Thursday Season Four webcast, Jim Collison, Gallup's Director of Talent Sourcing, and Maika Leibbrandt, Senior Workplace Consultant, talk about Deliberative.

Deliberative takes great care in making decisions that avoid foreseeable risks. They are thoughtful, considerate, aware, and really tuned in to what’s going on. It is about minimizing risk at all costs. It’s wanting to jump, and knowing that when you’re jumping that nobody is going to fall. When somebody with high Deliberative is at their best their diligence and decision making brings confidence. They are up for making choices, especially choices that matter. Individuals with high Deliberative enjoy the process of sorting through options to move things forward. When they are at their best they are anticipating obstacles and preventing mistakes.



If you are high in Deliberative get involved in big decisions. Raise your hand for being involved in sorting through options. Sort through the existing evidence to make the best decision moving forward. Ask early and often for as many details as are currently available. Ask for the agenda. Ask for the enrollment data for students. Ask what expectations are expected of you early and often. Slowing things down is a by-product for the amount of time and consideration Deliberative puts into things.


Ask for the opportunity, whether that is time or information, to consider your options, particularly with existing tasks. Ask for clear understanding of how success is going to be determined. Deliberative is so much better when it has had an opportunity to really interact with all the parts of a particular task.



Worry less about making on the spot judgements. You can be responsive by promising people that you’re going to think about things. Avoid roles that are going to require you to make on the spot judgement. Get in front of it by finding phrases that buy you the time that it takes to consider things. Teach others the value that they get by working with you.

When working for someone high in Deliberative look for caution. Look for healthy skepticism. These are individuals that are probably going to think before they ask. Look for that thoughtfulness as a sign that they are starting to engage. Expect them to be great listeners. Expect them to be discriminating and selective. It can take them some time to warm up and recognize that confidence in partners.



One way you can recognize high Deliberative is to know what they’ve decided, and what they’re currently thinking about. Staying connected with them, means staying present with them in their execution process. Celebrate what they’ve gone all in on.



To help stretch Deliberative offer to think with them. Consider weighing your options together. Be a sounding board by helping them prioritize and classify the potential risks that they can see. Make sure that you’ve offered up all the information you have about something, and give them the opportunity to sort through it.



When partnering with Deliberative respect their privacy. Offer your expertise. Help them know what role you play best, and how you play it. Let them know what you can be counted on to contribute. Be a good partner by just being transparent, patient, and showing up.




If Deliberative is one of your Dominant Themes, invest in it this week through the following challenge items:

Set aside 20 minutes just to yourself to sort through the current ideas you have.
Find the right words to explain your thinking process to others.
When working with partners find a way to communicate when you will get back to them.

If Deliberative is not one of your Dominant Themes, invest in it this week through the following challenge items:

Develop a coding system on your calendar.
In your next big meeting take a drink before you speak to give you time to slow down your brain, and it will give others time to process what is going on.