Strength Based Mentoring

People exceptionally talented in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decision or choices. They anticipate obstacles. CliftonStrengths This week our guest blogger is Janae Solomon. Janae has been a mentor since 2015 and last year took on the awesome challenge of serving as the Program Coordinator for TeamMates of McCook, Nebraska. Her top five strengths are Learner, Deliberative, Individualization, Input, and Developer. Here’s what Deliberative looks like for Janae: When I took the Strengths survey through TeamMates a year and a half ago, Ally warned us that there might be a strength we or our mentees would have a hard time taking ownership of because it had been previously been a label or a perceived flaw. That was Deliberative for me. When that came out as my number two strength, I thought “Yeah, I overthink things and take too long to make decisions. How is that a strength?” Thankfully, because of Ally and Tess’s strength...

People exceptionally talented in the Consistency theme are keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. They try to treat everyone with equality by setting up clear rules and adhering to them. CliftonStrengths This week our guest blogger is Cathy Hanna. Cathy is the co-coordinator for the TeamMates program at Chase County Schools in Imperial, Nebraska. Her top five strengths are Responsibility, Deliberative, Consistency, Discipline, and Harmony. Here’s what Consistency looks like for Cathy: I am in my third year as Elementary School Counselor and as co-coordinator for our Chase County TeamMates Chapter.  I went to the Strengths Training this last summer so I am in the beginning stages of Strengths spotting.  We introduced Strengths to our mentors in September and to our mentees in November and have had great feedback from those who have been trained.   Consistency is my number three strength and defined by Gallup as being keenly aware o...

People exceptionally talented in the Deliberative theme are best described by the serious care they take in making decision or choices. They anticipate obstacles. Clifton StrengthsFinder People will high Deliberative naturally sense the potential obstacles in any given circumstance. They can see road bumps, pit falls, and dead ends. These individuals not only see these obstacles, but are driven to point them out to others in order to steer the team away from them. Once pinpointing these potential obstacles, Deliberative individuals assess whether or not the risks outweigh the benefits. If you have a team member or leader who has high Deliberative, you can rest assured in their choices, because any risk they take has been highly calculated. When asked to describe his #1 of Deliberative, Brandon Leppke, TeamMates’ Program Director, explained that it means that he takes "as much time as possible in order to make the best decision possible." He says that somethin...