Of the 84 people who submitted their responses to the Meetings Today survey (part of the March 2016 Friday With Joan newsletter all about strengths), 29 submitted their StrengthsFinder results. The statistics provided below are based on the individuals who submitted their talents.
Type of Planner/Exhibit Manager:
- Association: 59%
- Corporate: 27%
- Independent: 14%
Length in Meetings Industry:
- Under 3 years: 4%
- 4-6 years: 0%
- 7-10 years: 24%
- 11-19 years: 24%
- 20+ years: 48%
Current Position:
- Director/Senior: 38%
- Manager: 45%
- Coordinator/Assistant: 17%
Percentage of job spent on meeting planning/exhibit management:
- 1-24: 7%
- 25-49: 17%
- 50-74: 28%
- 75-100: 48%
Of the group, the top 5 StrengthsFinder talents that show up most often:
Strategic, Learner, Responsibility, Empathy, Achiever.
Those with the Strategic talent are naturally sharp. They are big picture thinkers who tend to craft elegant solutions for complex problems, and have split second processing that considers alternatives and discards fruitless/inferior options.
Those with the Learner talent are naturally curious. These perpetual students typically have infinite capacity to absorb anything and everything new, and have an endless passion and enthusiasm for acquiring new skills, knowledge and experience.
Those with the Responsibility talent are naturally dependable. Their rock solid reliability typically creates lifelong connections with other people. Promised results typically occur with virtually no supervision.
Those with the Empathy talent are naturally intuitive. Their authentic, compassionate nature draws people in. They tend to instinctively read people, their moods, their emotions and their motivations.
Those with the Achiever talent are naturally driven. Their inexhaustible energy drives them to accomplish more each and every day. They tend to feel excited when faced with mountains to scale and horizons to reach.
If all 29 individuals were working on the same team, we would see their top 5 talents interacting as a Life Line CoreDrill. A CoreDrill refers to a visual representation of one’s top 5 talents in the CoreClarity categories, helping an individual see where he or she may want to focus time and energy in order to experience joy and success.
We use the term Life Line to describe the characteristics of an individual, or in this case, a group of individuals, who have talents that create, develop and sustain relationships with others over time; talents that thrive on gathering, processing and making decisions; and talents used to push the self toward results.
For this group, although it is not an in-tact work team, the characteristics of the group are that of servant leaders who are our natural caregivers and caretakers.
They motivate by example and are steady and reliable. They are a core component on every team and typically experience joy when they are in service to others.
When we look at the entire group, over 50% of the group reported that their goal when planning a meeting or managing exhibits is about the experience that is gained. This speaks to the Life Line CoreDrill in several ways. First, because Life Lines are natural caregivers and caretakers, it makes sense that they want to ensure that others have a positive experience. Providing that experience is a way to support or care for the people attending their event.
Secondly, Life Lines experience joy when their actions benefit others. Achieving the goal of “creating a good experience” likely brings great joy to the meeting planners and exhibit managers.
Finally, having the goal of creating a positive experience reflects the Life Line characteristic of being a servant leader. Meeting planners and exhibit managers must manage logistical and strategic planning, which event attendees may not be aware of. This behind-the-scenes work that Life Lines naturally do allows the event to be a success, creating a beneficial experience.
The top 5 talents when we break it into type of planner/exhibit manager, are as follows:
Association: Learner, Input, Strategic, Responsibility, Achiever (Life Line CoreDrill).
Corporate: Empathy, Responsibility, Connectedness, Developer, Harmony (Passionista CoreDrill).
Independent: Strategic, Arranger, Includer, Positivity, Learner (Passionista CoreDrill).
A Passionista CoreDrill shows us purpose-driven individuals, or in this case a group of people, who are intrinsically motivated by their passion. Typically approachable and outgoing, they are externally-focused people who love leading others to action.
If your top 5 talents aren’t represented in these groups, it does not mean you are not the right fit for the role you are in, it’s simply what is most represented in each group.
What we can conclude from the survey results is there’s a clear support for what Gallup found to be true of successful people. There is not one specific talent that makes people successful. Rather, if you are working well in your talents and building your life upon them, you will be successful.
For more information and analysis of these results, check out the June edition of Friday With Joan.