Competencies are typically defined as characteristics and behaviours that predict successful organisational outcomes. Most organisations using competencies have focused their efforts on defining skills, knowledge and behaviours associated with success in a particular role, function or at a particular level in the organisation (e.g. leadership).

Strengths, on the other hand, are personal. They reflect aspects of you that energise you and make you feel at your best. Unlike competencies, strengths have a strong emotional component and are relatively stable over time. While skills and knowledge can be developed, strengths are core to who you are and consistently expressed across situations.

The most powerful performance happens where competencies (skills and knowledge) and strengths (your natural energisers) overlap. This is where productive habits form and sustainable peak performance is achieved.

Strengthscope® sees strengths and competencies as overlapping areas. When skills and knowledge (competencies) align with what energizes you (strengths), productive habits can develop, leading to sustainable peak performance.

Seven is a “magic number” for short-term memory retention. Focusing on your top 7 strengths helps you concentrate on what truly energizes you, rather than trying to excel at everything.

No, the sequence is alphabetical, not by score. Each ‘Significant 7’ strength is a potential area to explore in relation to your goals.

Yes, but some may have other strengths close in score, known as ‘bubbling under’ strengths. It’s worth exploring these as well.

No, since management and leadership roles tend to vary significantly from organisation to organisation, there is no one set of strengths that make up a ‘good manager’. Also, research has found that similar managers and leaders call on vastly different strengths to undertake their role, with equally impactful outcomes. What is important to the success of a manager or leader is knowing one’s strengths and applying these as optimally as possible, whilst managing or minimising performance risks to make them less relevant.

The Strengths wheel uses a 0-10 scale to show your relative position compared to others. Focus on the pattern of scores rather than the numbers themselves.

Not necessarily. A high score indicates potential, but optimizing strengths requires awareness and effort. Some people may not fully utilize their strengths due to a lack of awareness or investment in development.

Yes, this is possible but doesn’t occur very often. This is because we tend to build skill and competence in areas we are naturally more drawn to. However, a person might not have had the opportunity to develop skills and experience in an area of strength, meaning that it has remained an under-developed strength. Of course, this area offers lots of potential for development and learning for the person and could over time become a fully optimised strength.

Scores are compared to other responses. A lower score may indicate an area that doesn’t energize you or could be weakening if overused.

A low rating doesn’t mean you’re not good at something. It might indicate an area that doesn’t energize you or is underdeveloped.

The first question you need to ask is, “What is the impact of this non-strength on my performance?” If there is little or no impact on your current work or future aspirations, then you probably shouldn’t invest too much time trying to develop in this area. However, if there is a negative impact on your performance or potential as a result of this area, or if there is the risk of such impact, you should consider ways to make your non-strength less relevant by mitigating or improving it.

Possible approaches include:

Using other strengths you have to compensate for the effect of the non-strength area. For example, someone with low Common Sense might use their Leading or Collaboration strength to bring in others who have Common Sense during problem solving tasks.

Finding someone else in the team or organisation who can compensate for your weaker areas to partner with you to perform the work.

Being more intentional about learning and putting in place daily habits that don’t come naturally to you. We call this “Going to the gym when you really don’t want to”.

Using support mechanisms (including technology) as a substitute for a particular area which does not energise you. For example, someone who is not energised by ‘Efficiency’ might use an online diary application to apply a more methodical approach to managing their time and tasks in future.

Finding a new role which enables you to play to your strengths more of the time.

Your strengths profile is unique. The chances of having the same top 7 strengths as someone else are 1 in 346,000. Your profile highlights where you can make the most significant contribution at work.

Strengths have infinite development potential if developed correctly. However, overusing a strength or using it inappropriately can be counterproductive. For example, a collaborative person might seek input even when a quick decision is needed, or someone focused on tasks might overlook relationship aspects. Each report includes information on managing strengths in overdrive.

We have a separate page about this here: https://help-profile.strengthscope.com/en/articles/253656-should-i-complete-strengthscope-again

The Strengthscope® wheel is divided into four quadrants: