Table Of ContentStrengthsQuest:
discover and develop your
strengths in academics,
career, and beyond
Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. &
Edward “Chip” Anderson, Ph.D.
with Laurie A. Schreiner, Ph.D.
New York
GALLUP PRESS
1251 Avenue of the Americas
23rd Floor
New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 2001 – 2002, 2006 The Gallup Organization
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Gallup®, StrengthsQuest™, StrengthsFinder®, Clifton StrengthsFinder™, and each of the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder
theme names are trademarks of The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. All other trademarks are property of their
respective owners.
Cover design by Chin-Yee Lai
Manufactured in the United States of America
First edition 2002
Second edition 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 10: 1-59562-011-7
ISBN 13: 978-1-59562-011-8
to those who helped me discover my strengths:
my wife Shirley, and our family
—DON
to God, my Creator, who inspired this work, gave me talents to do this
work, and guided me to my beloved wife, Irma
—CHIP
to my daughter Lindsey, who is becoming the person she was created to be,
and to my parents, who always affirmed my God-given talents
—LAURIE
Note to Educators
The second edition of StrengthsQuest: Discover and Develop Your
Strengths in Academics, Career, and Beyond is an attempt to be responsive
to student needs while preserving the voice and vision of the original
authors, Chip Anderson and Don Clifton. Don passed away in October
of 2003 and Chip died in July of 2005. Both men had great passion for
students. Both were giants in the movement to bring a strengths “revolu-
tion” to higher education.
More than 100,000 copies of the first edition of the StrengthsQuest
book were sold since its publication in 2002. The book introduced tens
of thousands of college students, their families, and the faculty and staff
who worked with them to a major paradigm shift in higher education:
to see students as bringing innate talents with them into the college en-
vironment — talents that, when combined with skills and knowledge
in strengths development, would lead to their achievement and success.
Build on great talents rather than focus on deficit remediation was Don and
Chip’s exhortation as they traveled across the country. They were deter-
mined to see a strengths revolution — and they certainly planted the
seeds of that revolution through their powerful presence.
As Chip’s friend and colleague, I still hear his inspirational voice
while writing this edition: “What would we do if we really loved our stu-
dents?” Those words have given me direction in writing, and the result is
my answer to that question. If we really love our students, we will ensure
that each one knows how uniquely talented he or she is. We will see and
nurture the potential in them. We will care deeply about the meanings
and purposes of their lives and we will help them see the connections be-
tween their powerful talents and their callings and their futures. We will
focus on helping them build strong, healthy relationships as the founda-
tion for a satisfying life. And we will give them practical suggestions for
how to do all of this.
This new edition is also an important step in continuing Don and
Chip’s legacies. With their deaths, many of us wondered what would
become of the strengths movement. But Connectedness was an area of
powerful talent in Chip; he saw everything he did in life as part of a
Master plan. He knew that his actions would have a ripple effect long
after he was gone. He knew there was a reason our paths crossed. So this
StrengthsQuest
edition is my best effort to honor his life and work, and to be part of the
“ripple effect” in higher education.
New features you’ll find in this edition include:
Fresh student voices and action items (Chapter 3, “Affirming
and Celebrating Your Talents”)
New material on relationships (Chapter 4, “Relationships from
the Strengths Perspective”)
New suggestions for making the most of your talents in each
theme (Chapter 5, “Insights Into Strengths Development”)
A new approach to the career chapters, based on research we’ve
done with college students and the Holland vocational types.
• A new appendix with detail on the relationship between Signa-
ture Themes and the Holland types, based on the national valid-
ity study of the Clifton StrengthsFinder with college students.
You’ll also find a wealth of resources available to instructors on the
StrengthsQuest Web site at www.strengthsquest.com. Please take advan-
tage of the material that is available to assist you with class activities and
assignments.
I hope you’ll find this edition provides your students with a new
look at how identifying their most naturally powerful talents and build-
ing upon them to create strengths can be the first step toward becoming
the persons they were created to be — and experiencing success in col-
lege, career, and beyond!
—Laurie A. Schreiner
Table of Contents
Preface .................................................................................................xi
Chapter I: Th e Nature of Strengths ............................................1
Chapter II: Gaining Direction for Your Quest ...........................15
Chapter III: Affi rming and Celebrating Your Talents...................21
Chapter IV: Relationships from the Strengths Perspective ...........73
Chapter V: Insights Into Strengths Development ......................97
Chapter VI: Considering Strengths When Planning
Your Education .....................................................141
Chapter VII: Developing Academic Strengths in College ...........149
Chapter VIII: Developing Leadership Strengths in College ..........219
Chapter IX: Becoming Your Own Best Educator and Learner ...227
Chapter X: Strengths and Career Planning ..............................235
Chapter XI: Further Insights Into Choosing a Career ...............281
Chapter XII: Let’s Start a Revolution .........................................291
Appendix: Holland’s Vocational Types and the Clifton
StrengthsFinder .....................................................297
Other Technical Reports on the Clifton StrengthsFinder .................301
References and Suggested Resources ................................................305
Acknowledgements ..........................................................................311
StrengthsQuest:
discover and develop your
strengths in academics,
career, and beyond
