Jim Collison:
[0:01] Welcome to Season 4 of The CliftonStrengths Podcast, where we'll dive deep into how CliftonStrengths themes build powerful partnerships and help teams thrive. I'm Jim Collison, Gallup's CliftonStrengths Community Manager.
Jillian White:
[0:10] And I'm Jillian White, Gallup's Subject Matter Expert on Culture and Leadership and our Lead Subject Matter Expert for CliftonStrengths.
Jim Collison:
[0:15] Today's theme is Harmony. We'll explore what this theme brings, what it needs and how it fosters collaboration. Jillian, as always, welcome!
Jillian White:
[0:22] Thank you, Jim. Great to be with you.
Jim Collison:
[0:24] Great to have you. Let's start with a little bit of an overview. What does this strength look like?
Jillian White:
[0:29] Yes. We always like to take a minute just to remind us what's at the heart of the strength. When I think about people who are strong in Harmony, these are people who are very talented at finding common ground with others. Remember, this is a Relationship Building Strength. It's very good at taking different viewpoints, finding that common ground and building consensus. These are people, they value peace. They don't enjoy conflict; they look for areas of agreement. I always like to pick an image that goes with the strength. The image that I have for this one is, imagine that you see a rowboat going across a lake, and you see the peace and the calm of everyone rowing together, doing their different parts, but gliding on the water together. So you've got that unity and that calm, but also a very productive element of that working together calmly and in an even-keeled way helps to move forward in that boat.
Jim Collison:
[1:24] In a rowboat, all rowing at the same time, with somebody in the back maybe beating the drum. That's the harmony, right? Because imagine a boat where that wasn't happening, right? I mean, I think that's a good, that's a good example of where everybody's, it's, you know, it's not efficient; it's not going the same direction. And so I like that idea of everybody paddling the same way. Jillian, from your consulting work that you've done, can you give us an example where you've seen this in action?
Jillian White:
[1:54] Yeah, I want to just make a point about Harmony. I think there's a few strengths that I've run into where they can be a little commonly misunderstood, just because of the name of the strength. I find that Significance, sometimes Command, Harmony — I find that happen a lot. I think sometimes you get leaders in a company who see they have Harmony and they go, Oh, my goodness, that sounds weak. Or it sounds like I just bring a kumbaya style to things. And what I think is really neat to remember with this strength, when you look at how it can show up. Inside of an organization, a leader, a team, right, is to remember that the power of the strength is, oftentimes these are people who are very good at finding common ground in order to help a team move forward. There's a very productive and practical element of this Harmony strength.
Jillian White:
[2:42] So one of the pictures I have in my mind, I worked with a government leader who was high Harmony, actually high Harmony and high Restorative. So this individual, she was actually very good at, I'll call it problem prevention. So she would address problems in order to help make things smooth for the group. She was also an incredible negotiator and mediator for the team. So I think the way I would see this show up is, let's say she wasn't afraid to work with some very diverse personalities. She had some very big personalities around her. But what she was able to do was to kind of be that, let's go back to the image of the boat, almost that coxswain on the boat that is sitting there kind of helping to direct and bring people together and help them row together. And she would do connections with each of these different big personalities and help them find their common ground and their common goal. So a beautiful, actually very productive picture when you see it in a mature way inside of leaders in an organization.
Jim Collison:
[3:39] That, that is a great example. And I think sometimes, we associate Harmony with its outcome, as opposed to what it's doing to get the outcome. You know, we say, Oh, Harmony, oh, yes, you know, everybody's, everybody's working together, you know, it's, we're creating this environment. And I love the terms that use the problem prevention, or we find common ground. That doesn't happen by accident, right? There's a talent that goes into that. Because compromise is often involved in this, in getting two parties to compromise for, you know, common ground, by definition of finding that space, is what gets to that end result.
Jillian White:
[4:18] I think that's a great point, Jim. And it's a good one to remember with Harmony. There's certain strengths that lean a little more, I'll say, focused on the individual, and there's others that lean a little more collective. This is a strength that leans more collective. It's for the good of the group. So there has to be some willingness to have some self-sacrifice to find something that's for the good of the group or common alignment.
Jim Collison:
[4:42] Yeah. And I often think we associate it, too, as in the moment, when there's conflict in the moment. And the magic in Harmony is, it's taken care of before the conflict happens sometimes.
Jillian White:
[4:52] Yeah. And that's going to be influenced by the other strengths around it, too. And that's where I think with this strength, sometimes people are a little surprised. These are individuals that typically don't love conflict, but it doesn't mean they don't have conflict. They're usually trying, you know, take that example I just gave — somebody high Restorative and high Harmony — they're actually addressing the problem to try to get to a smooth place. So either problem prevention or, you know, getting to that place of where there's unity and where there's peace.
Jim Collison:
[5:20] No, I love that. It's, it's a good, I think it's a good one to spend time thinking about. So thanks for thinking about it with us today. In Gallup Access, we have a, we have some new resources that are available for you in the Community tab. That tab will be changing names here in the next couple weeks. We'll talk about that more as we get there. But in that tab, some ability to share your resource, share your Top 5 with somebody else and then compare those two. There are some sections of I bring and I need, where you can kind of work through some statements. We're going to practice that here as we think about Harmony. What does it bring?
Jillian White:
[5:51] Yeah, if I am partnering with somebody who's very strong in their Harmony, I'm likely going to feel calm and balance on the other side. So these are people, they bring a bit of emotional equilibrium to a team. They often have a pretty even-keeled approach to things. They are the glue. Remember, they're good at building consensus. It is that Relationship Building theme. It connects people. One other thing I want to mention that's sometimes overlooked with Harmony: If I'm partnering with somebody who's strong in Harmony, they are also likely going to have a very practical approach they bring to our partnership. So remember, this theme, why does it want to find common ground with people? It wants to find the common ground so that there can be an element of productivity to get people on the same page to move forward. So I can expect they're going to bring a very practical, pragmatic view of things that helps us find that common ground to move forward.
Jim Collison:
[6:47] I love that reminder — to move us forward. That's the key to all of this. We sometimes think of, Harmony is another one of those themes like you talked about just a second ago, where it, its outcome is often what is emphasized. And so when we talk about what it brings, that's easy, but it needs too. So let's, let's think about that. What does Harmony need?
Jillian White:
[7:08] Yeah, let's look at the flip side of that. I'm partnering with that high Harmony individual. What do they need from me? Remember, at the heart of what Harmony is, it does value peace, it values common ground. So it's going to appreciate a partnership that is open to finding that middle ground. So be willing to think about finding the common ground, compromise, right? That peace, limited conflict is probably helpful for that partner. Where other strengths like maybe Command would thrive on that, Harmony is going to thrive more in creating that peaceful partnership. If I'm partnering with that high Harmony, I also want to keep in mind, focus on the practical. Remember what we just said: They're going to value having things feel pragmatic. And then find those opportunities where you have common ground. If I'm partnering with somebody, talking about things like, Hey, what's our common mission? You know, what brings us together? And actually articulating that can help feed that Harmony in someone else and direct it.
Jim Collison:
[8:04] In our new Top 5 report, we have this concept of Theme Dynamics, two themes working together. We'll look at them both individually and on teams here. When we think about Harmony, it has a common pairing. What most often pairs with Harmony?
Jillian White:
[8:18] You know what's fun on this is we're getting far enough into the season that I'm realizing we cover each of these statements twice, because it's on each side of the strengths, right? I think we did this one when we talked about Consistency. And so Harmony is most likely going to pair inside of a person, so the same person, with Consistency. Think about what those two bring together. Harmony is all about removing emotional variance; Consistency is all about removing operational variance. So you put these two together, and this is someone who's likely very good at putting systems in place that reduce friction and make things smooth.
Jim Collison:
[8:59] By the way, because it's the most common, I don't think it's bad to, to repeat it twice.
Jillian White:
[9:03] Yeah, that's true.
Jim Collison:
[9:04] Bring it back and give some new insights to it, maybe from the other direction, as we think about this. On that Top 5 report, each, on each page of, of your first five themes, it's got the combinations are in there. They repeat there. We put them there for a great reference, but oftentimes it's a good reminder, you know, that we, we kind of go over and over these themes thinking about this. It's just a great reminder as we do it. OK, let's think about this Theme Dynamics idea in the context of a team. How can teams use these dynamics together to make their teams stronger?
Jillian White:
[9:35] Yeah. And once again, when we're looking at this, I always like to think, who should you be thinking about partnering with somebody who has that strong Harmony? And like usual, I like to talk about what's your catalyst partner and who are your complementary partners on a team? So in that team environment, a great catalyst partner, somebody that's just going to light up that Harmony, go back. What does Harmony value? It values aligning people, creating a smooth environment. it's going to light up if it gets to partner with others that help with that. So imagine maybe Adaptability that can be very present with it, that kind of relational glue for the team; Positivity that can help kind of get people on the same page and celebrate progress moving forward. Those are going to be strengths that I think are really enjoyable. Connectedness that maybe brings, reinforces that bond between people — those are going to feel good for somebody with that high Harmony, a lot of those Relationship Building strengths.
Jillian White:
[10:30] On the flip side of that, I always like to think, where's the danger with Harmony? Where's the danger with any strength? And how do you make sure you're surrounding yourself with a different voice and a different perspective that's going to complement you? So think about Harmony, more willing to sacrifice the common, more willing to sacrifice individual needs for the good of the group. It might be helpful to pair with someone like a high Individualization, who's also going to bring that perspective of what's good for the individual. It might also be good to pair with somebody who is a little more likely to have some gusto to step into conflict. Remember, Harmony doesn't love conflict. So think about a strength like Competition or Command, maybe Restorative, maybe Self-Assurance. These are strengths that are going to be a little more willing to step in and address a problem that brings that partnership perspective that helps round out that view of Harmony.
Jim Collison:
[11:25] I love that you brought both Competition and Command into this idea here. Oftentimes, we think of those two taking courage, and trust me, Harmony takes just as much courage. That's, right, that's one of those areas we maybe get a little biased on.
Jillian White:
[11:39] That's very true.
Jim Collison:
[11:40] And so I love that idea, that idea of pairing those, by the way, Competition and Command, they don't get mentioned a lot. So thank you for bringing those in as well.
Jillian White:
[11:49] Yeah, of course!
Jim Collison:
[11:49] And representing those is a great way to balance this out. Appreciate it. We have some tips for leaders, teams and individuals. Let's talk about leaders first. How can leaders recognize and harness this theme in, with their teams and organizations?
Jillian White:
[12:03] If you're a leader, remember, you're looking for how to spot talent on your team. Look for these people who are good at finding alignment between their partners. Maybe they're that natural negotiator, mediator, connector, broker on the team, usually very pragmatic in how they show up. Leverage their ability to foster unity for the team. So help them be that person. Position them in places where they can play to that and do that — find common ground with people. I would also say a couple things to keep in mind if you're a leader working with someone with high Harmony. Remember, they may not push their voice. So I would say, Be a little more mindful of soliciting their opinion, because it's going to help make sure that their voice is heard as a part of it. And then, when you're working with them, just be really practical. There's certain strengths that kind of live up high and see things big-picture view. Harmony is much more on the ground and thinks about those practical steps to take. If I'm leading somebody high in Harmony, they're going to appreciate me meeting them there.
Jim Collison:
[13:04] What should teams know about working with or onboarding someone who has high Harmony?
Jillian White:
[13:11] Yeah, you know, I've been thinking about this one a little through the lens of, What are some good questions to ask someone if you're partnering with them or onboarding them onto a team? Imagine you've got somebody with high Harmony who's just been introduced as a part of your team. You know, you could ask them a question like, "Hey, what goal, what shared goal are you excited about? Where do you see some alignment with what the team is focused on and what you want to do?" Ask them, lean into that, right? That's going to get them engaged and excited. It speaks to their strengths that fuels that. And then, I would also encourage my friends who are high Harmony — you guys can tell me if this is true — but I have a little of a hypothesis that because Harmony values peace, it also values a peaceful environment around them. So I would be a little more mindful of even just where you're placing that high Harmony and putting them in a position where they can have a peaceful environment around them.
Jillian White:
[14:02] I would also ask them how they like to approach disagreements. Because remember, they're not going to love addressing those, but knowing how that best works for them will help you be a better partner to meet them in working through those disagreements that they might not readily bring up. But you've got an idea of how do we handle disagreements, or how can I approach things in a way that still honors and feels good to your Harmony?
Jim Collison:
[14:25] And now, let's finally look at how does Harmony work well in partnerships?
Jillian White:
[14:29] Yeah. I have a fun phrase I want to encourage anybody who's high Harmony to think about, and that is, How can you be a broker of peace for the partners around you? So think about, if you've got that strong Harmony, how can you use it to help others? You are often going to be a strong mediator for others. You may be able to be that person who can work with some big personalities around you, be even keeled, find the common ground, help your team members find that common ground, put yourself in positions where you can help others by being that mediator.
Jim Collison:
[15:03] With that, we'll remind everyone to take full advantage of all the resources we do have available in Gallup Access. You can do this exercise yourself, as well as you dig into Gallup Access. Click on the upper-left menu and choose Resources, then put in "Harmony." And all the resources, all the podcasts we have available are there in Gallup Access. You can continue to review and learn as well. I want to thank you for joining us today. If you're listening live, stay around for a little bit of a midshow. If you're listening to the recording, I bet we have another one of these. Just click Next. With that, we'll say, Goodbye, everybody.
Jillian White's Top 5 CliftonStrengths are Achiever, Input, Learner, Belief and Responsibility.