Welcome to the Gallup Management Journal's Clifton StrengthsFinder Center, a resource for readers of the books Now, Discover Your Strengths, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, PhD, and Discover Your Sales Strengths, by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano.

Below are the 34 themes of talent in Gallup's taxonomy of strengths, as highlighted in Now, Discover Your Strengths and Discover Your Sales Strengths. Gallup Management Journal members can select any of the theme names to read their definitions and find Action Items that may prove helpful in cultivating these themes and transforming them into strengths. Scan the theme names to choose those that you find appropriate to yourself; almost everyone will find that some will reflect their talents better than others. The Action Items can be printed to serve as a reminder to develop a theme.

We also offer answers to frequently asked questions about Gallup's Clifton StrengthsFinder Profile, a 180-question, Web-based assessment that helps readers of Now, Discover Your Strengths and Discover Your Sales Strengths identify their top five themes.

	Are particular themes more suitable for managers?
	In That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis wrote, "Human strengths have a dark side. Our strengths under duress become our weaknesses. Our strengths contain seeds of our destruction." What does Gallup make of this?
	How is the Clifton StrengthsFinder any different from astrology? Don't people read whatever they want into the results? Isn't this just a leap of faith?
	My company requires an annual performance review for each employee. As part of the review, my manager is asked to identify my weaknesses (or "developmental opportunities," as the company refers to them). Should my manager jettison focusing on weaknesses altogether during these reviews and focus on only my strengths?
	I am a career counselor. Can knowing a person's Signature Themes help me offer good advice?
	I recently started a career in sales, and have been doing very well so far. However, I am worried that two of my Signature Themes -- Empathy and Connectedness -- aren't good
	I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder during work hours and am convinced that my Signature Themes -- among them Arranger and Focus -- were influenced by my workplace mindset. I am sure that if I took it while vacationing in Fiji, my Signature Themes would be different because I am a different person away from the office. Is this possible?
	Why the time limit on each question? I felt rushed.
	I was wondering if some of my less dominant themes might be worth developing. Is there value in assessing and being aware of themes other than my "top five"?
	Is artistic, musical, or verbal talent captured by the Clifton StrengthsFinder? Or is the scope of the assessment limited to traditional business talents?
	Okay -- I have reviewed my top five themes. Now what am I supposed to do? What's next?
	Can talents be misused?
	Is it possible to overdevelop a theme of talent?
	How does a person's mood on a given day -- a person may be stressed out, angry, or very happy, for example -- affect their Clifton StrengthsFinder results?
	I missed answering some questions before the time was up. How do you factor missed questions in the scoring of the Clifton StrengthsFinder?
	I suspect that if I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder 20 years ago, my Signature Themes would have been different. Do the themes change over time?
	How do neutral responses affect the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment?