If Strengths Are So Powerful, Why Do So Many Teams Still Struggle?

You believe in strengths. You’ve done the workshops. You’re bought in.
So… why does your team still hit roadblocks?

In this episode, Sarah Collins and Bill Dippel tackle the messy middle of strengths-based development—the part where good intentions meet real-world team dynamics. They dig into bold truths about why teams struggle even when they’ve embraced CliftonStrengths, and what it actually takes to turn awareness into sustained culture change.
You’ll hear insights on why one-off workshops don’t stick, how to empower internal champions (aka strengths ambassadors), and what to do when you’ve got skeptics in the room. Whether you’re a leader, coach, or team member trying to get buy-in and build momentum, this episode offers practical strategies to keep the strengths conversation alive—and make it matter. Because knowing your strengths is great. Living them out with your team? That’s where the magic—and the hard work—really begins.

🔥 7 Takeaways 

1. Knowing your strengths doesn’t magically make you a high-performing team. Strengths awareness is just step one—application, trust, and communication are where the real transformation happens.

2. Teams struggle when strengths stay siloed. Without regular conversations and shared understanding, individual strengths don’t add up to collective success.

3. Assuming good intent is powerful—but it needs structure. Saying “assume the best” isn’t enough without healthy conflict habits and clear expectations.

4. Strengths can clash when left unchecked. What energizes one person might drain or frustrate another—and that’s where dialogue (not judgment) is key.

5. Trust takes time—and intention. Strengths work creates language and self-awareness, but psychological safety is what makes people speak up, lean in, and collaborate deeply.

6. Feedback is essential. If your team avoids it, you’ll plateau. Strengths help people give and receive feedback with more grace and specificity.

7. You can’t just give everyone a report and call it culture. A strengths-based team is built through ongoing conversations, curiosity, and shared responsibility.

💥 Sound Bites

“Strengths aren’t magic—they’re tools. And tools only work when you use them.”

“If you stop at the Top 5 report, you’re stopping at awareness—not impact.”

“It’s not about having strengths—it’s about sharing strengths.”

“Teams break down when we admire each other’s strengths, but never talk about what we need.”

“Assuming good intent only works if we’re also doing the work of building trust.”

“If you don’t understand how your strength feels to someone else, you’ll keep creating friction.”

“A strength overdone isn’t a superpower—it’s a blind spot.”

“You can’t be a high-performing team without psychological safety—period.”

“Feedback isn’t a threat—it’s a gift when it’s strengths-based.”

“You’ve got your strengths. Cool. Now what?”

“Strengths don’t remove tension—they give us a better way to work through it.”

“It’s not about fixing people—it’s about finding the best in them together.”

“Just because you’re energized doesn’t mean you’re easy to work with.”

“We need to normalize strengths conversations like we normalize status updates.”

“Your team doesn’t need another offsite—they need honest, curious conversations.”

Bill's Top 10 CliftonStrengths 

1) Individualization

2) Developer

3) Activator

4) Woo

5) Restorative

6) Empathy

7) Harmony

8) Connectedness

9) Relator

10) Learner

Sarah's Top 10 CliftonStrengths 

1) Positivity

2) Woo

3) Communication

4) Harmony

5) Activator

6) Developer

7) Input

8) Individualization

9) Responsibility

10) Arranger 

Official Strengths On Fire Website:  https://strengthsonfire.transistor.fm

GET MORE FROM BILL AND SARAH:
Bill's info:
https://billdippel.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdippel/
https://www.instagram.com/billdippelcoach/

Sarah's info:
https://www.wearecollinsco.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcoachcollins/
https://www.instagram.com/sarahcoachcollins/

Transcript
Sarah Collins (00:00.98) Mr. Bill Dippel welcome back to season two, episode two. Bill Dippel (00:05.568) Let's jump on in. love season two already. It's a little on fire, a little more edgy, little ready to go. I'm all in. Sarah Collins (00:13.186) Let's keep the edginess going. Here's my question for you. What's a bold opinion you hold about professional development right now? Bill Dippel (00:16.342) Good to me. Bill Dippel (00:21.12) Ooh, a bold opinion about professional development. I think so I do do a lot of coaching and use other coaching philosophies. So we've we've we've already hit on Mel Robbins season two, but we brought her up early on. know my Primo question. I know obviously I know Myers-Briggs, Dis, Colby. I think all of those are and we're very honest with our clients when we say hey, I'm not picky what you're using, I want you to be moving forward and I'll help you with all of these because some of those do cross over pretty easily in the strength, some don't but I think for me the thing that I would point out about self-improvement and development from a coaching aspect is how often I have to work around bad coaches. Sarah Collins (01:13.198) you took that in a different direction than I thought you were going to say more. Bill Dippel (01:17.814) So frequently I will someone will come to me and say my we need you so bad and it's a let's say it's a VP or a This and we would love to work with you and I attended that seminar you did and that made total sense and they'll go to their boss and the boss will say done it and it meant nothing it didn't do it didn't work and we got nothing out of it or The CEO will say we're doing it. And two of the VPs came from another company where, coaches would start the process and they would just maybe do a one day, Hey, let's, and then forget about it. Or maybe they started the process, but they didn't. I, I don't, I don't want to throw the coaching community under the bus, but I do believe there are some coaches. I am. But I think there are some coaches that, that, Sarah Collins (01:46.947) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (02:09.464) But you are. Bill Dippel (02:14.27) Hey, I'll just whatever the money is, if it's this, if it's that, and we're always really open and honest with our coaching group. Sarah Collins (02:16.331) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (02:24.59) there's a kitty cat playing with your camera. Bill Dippel (02:24.854) Sorry. There's a cat playing in the back with my camera. Not anymore. So don't worry. I'll get them moving. I promise. So I will often when I'm working with a group, I will be like, Hey, I may not be the coach for you. If you're asking for a one off event, and you think it's I mean, I'll do a one off event by all means, if that's what you want. And these are the outcomes. Sarah Collins (02:53.57) Right. Bill Dippel (02:54.292) We can do that. However, if what you're saying is I need you to come in and do a one day event and I need you to solve four big issues that we have with our employees, I'm not your coach. And let's be really honest about why that is and what that means. And so I, from a co, you know, as somebody that's been in the business now for a number of years, I often have to, I often often have to reopen that door. But when I get approached by that VP or that boss or that employee and they're trying to open it, quite often I will tell them, that's okay, it makes my job easier. It actually makes my job easier because when you experience coaching that does make a difference for you, that really opens that door and makes that a little bit better for you. in total openness, sometimes I'm not that coach either. Even if we have the right set and direction, it's possible that I could be the coach that didn't make the difference for certain teams and certain groups. And I don't want to leave that legacy for other coaches. So I'll attempt to make the biggest difference I can and make sure we step in. Sarah Collins (04:10.006) Yeah. I love that. An actual bold opinion. Bill Dippel (04:14.576) Easy. Bold. I was told I should be a lawyer in a previous life, but then, you know, with this voice podcasting clear. No, I. Yeah, clearly. So. Sarah Collins (04:22.456) That's right, you are where you're meant to be. Absolutely, I agree. I thought you were gonna go somewhere else with that question and I was like, my God, we are gonna say the exact same thing. And I was sort of feeling a little pissed because I was like, damn it, how are we saying the same thing? But you took it a different place than I thought you were going to. I would say my bold opinion is I love assessments. Bill Dippel (04:40.787) Awesome. Sarah Collins (04:45.462) Right? Like I always make the joke that I'm an Enneagram three and I'm a Hufflepuff. Thank you, Buzzfeed. If you give me an assessment, I will take it. But I and of course in my coaching practice, I only use CliftonStrengths. And my bold opinion is companies, organizations need to pick an assessment and stick to it and stop wiggling around with assessments. Bill Dippel (05:01.462) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (05:13.941) Yeah. Sarah Collins (05:14.594) And I mean this in the nicest way, let me explain. Obviously I love CliftonStrengths, I want you to pick that one. But if you don't, if you pick DISC or Working Genius or Enneagram or MBTI or whatever it is, you need to invest years of your people's time into it because these assessments are deep. There's a lot to learn. They're all gonna introduce you to a new language. And if you want your people to use it and not just be it. this fun thing we did at our quarterly retreat or our annual retreat. If you want it to actually impact the people, you need to spend actual time on the same assessment so people have time to learn it, to understand it and to use it. In GlyphtonStrengths, we call it name, claim, aim. But you have to spend the time if you want it to work. I know so many companies and teams that are like, yes, we're doing CliftonStrengths, but last year we did the Working Genius and the year before that we did the Enneagram and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, that is whiplashing your people. Your people are not gonna take these assessments seriously. Yes, someone, like Janet may really grab onto Enneagram and George may really grab onto the Working Genius, but then they're not speaking the same language. You know, we need the same language. We need to be invested. You need to show your people we are taking this seriously. If you're just doing assessments all the time, because they're fun, you're gonna have fun, but you are not going to get actual impact and outcomes. So if you wanna see these things work, pick one and stick with it for years. And then if you wanna move on, move on. But this hopping around from assessments, you're just spending money and wasting time. Bill Dippel (06:48.425) Absolutely. Bill Dippel (07:01.568) Yeah, boom, there it is. And I would, I completely agree with you. know it, well, it may sound like I said, Hey, I don't care which one you use as long as you're moving forward and, you know, use them all. You may look at that as the opposite of what you said, but what my point in that, if I was to expand on it, I think reflects what you're saying pretty obviously, which is yes, I would prefer you use the science behind Gallup. Sarah Collins (07:03.747) Boom. Sarah Collins (07:08.527) I hear a butt. Bill Dippel (07:30.964) Yes, as certified coaches, we know that system so well. That's the one we'll be able to help you with the most. And there is crossover on some where I will work with disc people and I will work with Colby people and we will look at what those differences make. But if you want to stick with those and that's where you're staying again, I am not probably the coach for you unless you want to make that transition and to echo exactly what you just said. Sarah Collins (07:41.848) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (08:00.786) I always start my engagements with companies that have a definitive want to move forward with a three-year plan. It is for me. just look at this as a three-year commitment. How do we step into it? What are the steps? I have a whole roadmap document to show where you're getting on and where you're getting off. And let's talk about what that looks like, what we can accomplish in those timelines and what you're getting for that time and commitment. And so again, Sarah Collins (08:08.994) Yeah. Bill Dippel (08:30.45) It sounded like we might be saying a little different, but I would I think when you dive into it, we're exactly onto the same page. I just added the wrinkle of I got to climb the hill of a of a of a cash based in and out coach. And even me, when I started up, I may have had some events that I took for the money and didn't wasn't worried about the outcomes. And so, you know, I'm as guilty as anyone else. I'm not pointing fingers, but. getting to a point and a level and then being able to move past it, I think that's one of the things I do battle against. Sarah Collins (09:06.926) Yeah. Okay. Well today we are here to discuss another debate question and our debate question that we're discussing today, is if strengths are so powerful, why do so many teams still struggle? And do they? Right? Bill Dippel (09:13.238) Okay. Bill Dippel (09:21.12) No, and do they, right? Yeah. Well, I think we can knock that one down pretty easily. And do they? Absolutely. And in working through strengths and teams, I would say, again, if we're not sticking to the committed timelines, if we're not investing and regularly pushing. forward what we're trying to bring as a strengths-based culture to a team. We're going to see slip. We're going to see some step back. Now, again, at the end of that three-year commitment, if I've got strengths ambassadors and strengths aware managers, maybe that tune up from us is is quarterly or every six months, or it could be even longer than that just to come in and work with some new people. give the ambassadors some work and time. And we're still supporting him in that timeline via calls and zoom. But, absolutely. Once we start working with him, particularly in that first year, I think I, from my coaching experience, we definitely see some bumpy rides, right? We definitely see some, some people that, and I would say from my point of view, one of the things I experienced, I know other coaches experience it. You're not going to tell me you haven't experienced this. Sarah, but that is, in a known team of let's just say 10, the one or the one and a half, two people that absolutely refused to do this. Sarah Collins (10:59.082) It can be, there definitely are some that have very low buy-in and sometimes they never show up. I worked with an organization where when I was working with the whole organization, 50 plus people, there were a couple of people I never saw once and they were high enough ranking that everybody just let it be an okay. And we had enough of the leadership and the top that we were still able to make a huge impact with everyone else. Bill Dippel (11:03.925) Yes. Sarah Collins (11:27.96) But yeah, there were some people that to this day I couldn't tell you what they looked like. Bill Dippel (11:32.298) Yeah, and I respect your your I guess apprehension and I respect you by saying I will not do that. I'm just telling you I'm not gonna do it for our program and the way we coach it's easy enough to exclude people that don't that will absolutely not do this because the the uphill climb to get them to move to the next level isn't worth the time for us or right. I'm not being cruel about our time isn't worth it. But event if they get there eventually, they're still going to be apprehensive about some of the things that we do. And we've just spent a ton of time just getting them to stage one where we could have we could have got the other eight, nine people in that group all the way through ambassadorship and knowing how to talk strengths. Sarah Collins (12:02.892) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (12:07.267) Right. Bill Dippel (12:28.926) and building dynamic partnerships and building and working towards that. I would say that's certainly one thing that we need to as coaches be very cognizant of is how do we deal with the one-offs and they aren't that frequent, right? They really aren't. But they do crop up. similar to what you said, I recently just started reworking with a fairly large company here in Reno. And I sat down with management and I said, Sarah Collins (12:43.34) Right. Bill Dippel (12:57.62) when they called me back in and said, let's talk about moving forward now. And I said, if you're not going to stick with this or if we're going to start and stop again because we had done that once, just stop and save your money. Don't do it until you're absolutely ready to keep doing it. And then when you're ready for that, call me back or I'll I can recommend other coaches, but let me know when that time comes, because if we're going to. Sarah Collins (13:11.51) Mm-hmm. Yeah. Sarah Collins (13:19.555) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (13:26.984) If we're going to show all of the employees that we don't take it serious enough to stick with it, all you've done is made my job and your job much harder to roll this out. Sarah Collins (13:37.518) I will say when I am in a session and the people show up that are apprehensive and I in fact had someone once a older gentleman look at me right at the beginning before I even got started and said well this isn't the type of thing I'm into but I was told I have to be here and it did make me shake in my boots a little bit. Bill Dippel (13:55.126) Right. Sarah Collins (13:59.086) But my woo totally comes out to play. I am like, oh, I have my sights set on you, sweetie, and we are gonna go for a ride. And I am happy to say that I have converted some people who were very apprehensive, maybe even a little combative about having to do this. And we actually, in one organization, someone who did not wanna be there thought it was a waste of time. Bill Dippel (14:09.525) Yeah. Bill Dippel (14:21.716) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (14:28.758) They invested over years and I kept showing up, I kept investing and he ended up being one of the ambassadors. And it was mine and the leaders, one of our greatest wins was to take someone who was so just apprehensive and just honestly kind of a curmudgeon about it and make them one of our ambassadors, make them one of the people screaming it from the rooftops. So, but it took that like time and dedication. Bill Dippel (14:46.868) Yeah. Yeah, I Totally. I couldn't agree more. I mentioned it on the first episode, season two, we've converted some people that were definite naysayers early on and so many of them. And I would say almost a good portion of them have become ambassadors or the embedded coach reach out that wants to because once they start using it and understand why it means what it does and how to step into it, work so well that they, okay, I get this part of it. Every now and then somebody just will never make that, will never make that pivot. I get that. So I was in a, I was in a, I was in another country doing a company that I was working with for a while. And I was going over the four needs of followers regarding Gallup and CliftonStrengths and where they got there. And I used Sarah Collins (15:32.664) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (15:46.306) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (15:52.374) I highlighted the four needs and one of them was hope. And one of the guys twisted his face up sitting at one of the tables and it was about 30 people in the room. And I looked at him, I said, so I noticed you winced at the word hope. Why would that, right? Because I think also for us as coaches, if we try to avoid when we know something isn't agreeable, that will fester into a big problem. Whereas Sarah Collins (16:21.144) Right. Bill Dippel (16:22.164) good coaches will lean into it to say, let's talk about it. I may not get you there, right, but I might learn something more about it. And furthermore, hopefully I will get you to that next step. I don't know that I did in this case, but we tried hard. what the lesson here was, he was on a nuclear submarine as part of his youth. Sarah Collins (16:48.578) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (16:49.214) and was traveling the seas for the Navy in a nuclear submarine. And he said, hope is one of the words we are not allowed to use. There is no hope on a nuclear submarine. will be it will work and it will happen or it won't. We don't hope anything happens. And I said, it's a. Well, I mean, it's a pretty fair point, right? I mean. Sarah Collins (17:10.69) You know, that is so depressing. Sarah Collins (17:16.354) Sure, sure. Bill Dippel (17:18.56) But I did say, how would you get 200 sailors on a submarine with no hope of returning? Right. There has to be some form of hope, right? Sarah Collins (17:25.56) Mm-hmm. And if you thought like this, there's no way that this is gonna work, right? Which would be no hope. No one's getting on. You're absolutely right. There has to be a beacon of hope there. But. Bill Dippel (17:39.53) Yeah, yeah. And those those sailors are followers of the command structure and the group. And if you told them there's no hope you're returning from from this deployment, good luck. Good luck getting them on. And, know, there was there was some hemming and hawing and we had a discussion over it. Some of the other people in the room highlighted some other hope ideals around the Navy. So there was there was a moment. But again, talking about teams. As coaches, we have to be aware of when there might be a little ruffling of the feather and where we can lean into that rather than step away from. Sarah Collins (18:17.934) Yeah. And I think for teams that do struggle when they have been introduced to strengths, if you've got a few of these folks that are holdouts, you can still have success. We don't have to have everyone 100 % on board, right? It would be nice. We just have to make sure that those holdouts are not becoming cancerous to this and really trying to sabotage or constantly playing devil's advocate about everything. Cause I think that can sour the pot of what we're trying to do. Bill Dippel (18:47.562) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (18:48.824) The other thing I would say based on you brought up the four needs of followers, would say strengths are not a silver bullet. Like strengths are how we do things, right? They are great reflection tools to why am I the way I am and how do I do things best and how are my teammates and my managers and the people I'm managing, how are we working best? Strengths are the how, not the what. But there's a lot of other things teams need and I don't mean. Bill Dippel (19:11.648) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (19:17.504) Obviously, I just said like not more assessments. I just mean there are other tools out there, right? Like a manager needs to learn how to manage, right? And there are just, how do we give feedback? How do we work together? How do we work with someone who's a low performer? There's a lot of other things that teams need to be successful. Strength is a great lens to be able to incorporate with a lot of those things. So like when I'm talking to a manager, I've got other tricks and thoughts and coaching up my sleeve for them, but I love using strengths as a foundation to think about what we're doing. So I'm always saying, I'm gonna coach you on whatever it is you need, right? I have some independent coaching clients and we are just on a coaching journey for their professional development. But I use strengths as the foundation so we can always come back to it. Personally, I love the positive psychology behind it. I love the abundance mindset. I love the thinking of what. Bill Dippel (19:53.43) Yeah. Sarah Collins (20:12.994) we do have as opposed to what we don't have, but we've got to build other tools upon that. Bill Dippel (20:18.57) Yeah. Yeah. Good, good point. And I think I would ask you the question too, if we're talking about teams and why they might struggle, the thought that came to my mind and I'm going to pose it as a question instead of just leaping into it is this stuff is hard. Right? I mean, it isn't. So how do you find getting over the hard part of doing this? Because when you and I talk about it, we mentioned enthusiasts and hope that they're Sarah Collins (20:36.332) Mmm. Bill Dippel (20:47.69) They're germinated to follow along and make sure we're hitting the themes and doing what we do. In season one, we did a great job of exploring those and breaking them down in a subtler way. But now we're diving into them pretty deeply. And admittedly, this is hard. How do you embrace that with a team? Sarah Collins (21:04.896) Yeah, I mean one, think acknowledging that it is a lot. There are 34 words and each word you could write an entire book about each of the themes, you know? And so it is a lot. actually recently coached, I have a team I've been coaching, we're on year three now, and they are so strengths aware and they have really gone through it. We've done all sorts of stuff. They use it all the time. And they have someone on there like, tangentially on their team. She is, but she's not. And they want to bring her in to some of the work that we're doing. And so I met with her to do a one-on-one. She had taken strengths before, but had never really been coached on it. And as we're discussing it, she is telling me, I'm like a little intimidated because this team is so strengths aware. They bring it up in every meeting and I'm lost. I don't understand what they're doing. I feel so far behind. So that is like the, It really highlights what you're saying about this is hard because there's a lot there. And my philosophy on a lot of this is just do the next right thing, right? What's the next right thing you can do? I think the easiest point to start is learning about yourself. We are all so self-involved. We love ourselves so much, right? How does this matter to me? So learn about yourself. Use it as a tool to learn about yourself. So you're gonna get familiar with 10 strengths. You're gonna know those. and then start to add in the other people, right? I do one-off workshops, of course, and sometimes people are like, okay, in the two hours, we wanna learn about all of ourselves and our partnerships and our teams, and I'm like, my God, we cannot do that in two hours. Bill Dippel (22:46.526) What the? Sarah Collins (22:50.016) You know, ideally we want months, years of time so we can take the time to allow people to really understand themselves because then it's easier to learn about your team. It just does take time. It is, you're you don't have to be a master of this and there's a lot of tools you can use to help you. So Bill and I live and breathe this. So we have it memorized. But there are books, there are websites, there are podcasts, there are resources that you're going to get from a coach. you can use those as shortcuts, you know? And so it's like, use the tools and resources you have in those moments where you don't have everything memorized, and also go into conversations with curiosity. You know, it is hard, but if you're meeting with someone and they have strengths that you don't have and you don't understand how they work, ask them, how does that analytical activator show up for you? What does that look like? How does it come out to play? That's what us coaches are doing anyways, because I don't know how it shows up for someone. I know a little bit about the strengths, but I don't know how it's gonna look for you. So it's like, do the next right thing, focus on learning about yourself first, and be curious. Just be curious. Use those resources you have and be curious and ask questions. What would you say, Bill? Bill Dippel (23:52.042) Yeah. Bill Dippel (24:02.652) Love that. Love the curiosity end of it. We're always trying to promote that when we're working with teams. As you said, so often we are asking people to, Hey, go talk to your coworkers that have this one point that we bring up every seminar, no matter how frequently we put it together is individualization is not individualization. It's not individualization. Context is not context is not context. And we highlight that. in every seminar we do by showing and actually having two people in the room that have the same theme in the top five read their read their results out loud from a part of their of their report and we do that because not everybody I would say most people don't realize that when you see woo number three and the person across the room has woo number two or let's say number three as well your write-up is exactly the same. It's going to say the same thing about both of you because most people will, it seems like a fairly obvious thought process, will think that the write-up is canned, you're saying this is who I am at this level, so it's going to be the same write-up for all of us. And as you and I know and all of the Gallup coaches know and hopefully most people are teaching around this, it isn't. The write-up is absolutely and completely different for both of you. The odds on you having Even one of the same parts of the write-up is pretty small depending on all of the other themes in the in the top 10 and That curiosity when you're asking go ask somebody How does context work for you? Because here's how it works for me. You're gonna hear differences From that person saying well even in my write-up. It says I do this this this which is absolutely correct I don't use context in that way. I don't use it for other people. I'm purely situational. I don't use it for my relationships. I use it in my job only or however I feel I use it in that way. And the report is brilliant about pointing out how the interplay between the different themes play within that top 10 and how they affect each other. Sarah Collins (26:23.872) Absolutely. And I think that is one of the key things that people can use as a resource when they are feeling like, is a lot. It is, it is a lot, but you have tailored resources at your fingertips. Bill Dippel (26:36.554) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this, and the other part about this stuff as hard as again, I know it sounds a bit self-serving, but partner with a good coach, partner with somebody that can, I'm on call for many of my clients that within a reasonable timeline, I will get right back. I had one call me this week talking about a I would say a tricky moment with two other employees that may have stayed out of their jumped out of their lane a little bit. And we pulled up their reports. We looked at their assessments. We talked about why that and context was at play in that particular instance. So we talked about what that looked like, why that was important for that person, how we might approach a discussion to say that that needs to be addressed. So let's talk about what your strengths are. and how that might play out a little better in the future. So partnering with somebody that has the ability to distinguish that, to be on call, to be able to talk about it and then strengthening your ambassadorship or the managers as coaches within your walls goes a long way to solving those right at the gate. And you don't have to worry about calling in an outside influence to do that. But until you get there, have someone like Sarah, I would call Sarah and I have called Sarah for coaching questions around, hey, I'm dealing with this client. What do you think? How might you approach this? Because we will come at it from a different thought process. Sarah Collins (28:13.996) Yeah. Talk to the audience about ambassador. You talk about embedded coaches, ambassadors. If people listening don't know, what does that mean? What does that look like? Talk about what that is in your world and why it can help when teams are struggling or help them not to struggle. Bill Dippel (28:29.47) Yeah, I think the ambassadorship is different for all coaches depending on how it comes out. But the concept is kind of the same regarding how we empower that. for our larger coaching clients in particular, it can be with a small group too with one ambassador. But what that would look like is when we have a hundred hundred and fifty client group, we're coming in on a fairly regular basis working with their new people. And also working with management. How do we, how do we work on that stuff that is hard, but we can't, depending on obviously how embedded we are with them, we can't deal with 200 people monthly and start there. Also, we want to keep the fire burning with those other groups within that, within that. So one of our programs that we run people through is a strengths ambassadorship within those walls. where let's say for 200 people, let's get four of your people that are really into this, that really want to step up and do more about this. And let's get them some added tools. Let's get them direct access to us and our coaching team. And let's let them do some of the strengths discovery. Let's let them sit in with us and watch how that happens. And when those people are being reached out or those companies are trying to step forward. The ambassadorship can take some of those duties and if they run into a sticky spot, we're on call directly with them for instant access. know who they can reach with and deal with that. But those ambassadors are also spending a lot of time here. We're having a whole corporate retreat. So the ambassadors will come up with ideas around how do we involve strengths in this retreat? What's the action, the guide, the playtime that we're going to do? And they'll run it by us. We'll give them some other ideas, right? So now we're empowering some people at the company to be even better coaches. We're empowering them to know more and more about strengths with the ultimate goal being hopefully they want to become coaches on their own as we would hope most management would at least at maybe not fully certified, but at some point taking it on and moving into that coaching role and the ability of having some people in-house. Bill Dippel (30:53.82) And for a smaller team, it could be just one that can handle that is a really powerful way to not only keep strengths moving when we can't necessarily be there frequently, but also to empower team members and leaders that want to step into that role and make it happen. And I would also say it doesn't have to lead towards towards, let's say, full certification, but it has. I actually lost a wonderful client in Reno. because they sent four of their people to go because they loved what we did. And I, I consider that the ultimate, the ultimate thank you. And, and the pat on the back for we love what you do so much. We're going to invest a ton of money to send our people off to, to go get certified and work in this so that our reliance is really built specifically in-house. Sarah Collins (31:27.32) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (31:48.172) Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing I love about the ambassadors within an organization are they know your organization as well. Everything Bill said, plus they know it. So like when I was at Rumble Ludkey, which is a law firm here in Lincoln, we did ambassadors there and I don't know anything about lawyers. Let's be honest. Like who am I? Right? Like, but the The ambassadors did. So I had come in and done tons of strength stuffs and then additional training with our ambassadors, but they get to be there, boots on the ground. They're there every day. They're pushing the mission of strengths forward and they know the lawyers, they know the legal aides and assistants, right? They know it. And so they really understand how it's going to show up and work and they can be in there infusing it, which I think is really cool. And I'll say Alex Phillips is one of my greatest success stories. She was at Rumble Ludkey, became one of those ambassadors, ended up getting certified, stole my job. The greatest thing that we can have happen, she took over because they wanted to do it so much, they gave her that role. Bill Dippel (32:51.926) Stolen. Sarah Collins (33:01.748) and was doing it internally. And one of the coolest things now is she's actually moved on to a different organization. She's still an embedded coach there and she is collaborating with me, right? She's still working with me. We're actually, she's putting on a big event for 200 people later this summer and I'm gonna co-facilitate it with her. I've never been more proud in my whole life. Like that is just feels like the pinnacle of it because you know, she's still Together, we actually have come up with one of the coolest activities. Now, I can't reveal it here because I want everyone who's gonna be there to be surprised by it. But together, our heads together thinking she knows the company, I know strengths so well, she knows strengths, I facilitate so much, you know, coming together to think about what can we do that would be really powerful and impactful. We came up with the coolest idea, the way she has executed it is literally phenomenal. And that's what makes it really fun. Bill Dippel (34:00.596) Yeah, yeah. Having a partner that knows the company so well. It's a it's a great spin. I wasn't thinking of how the ambassadors know the company. But as you mentioned it, several of the ambassadorships that we run and I actually have a coach that just does our ambassadorships. That's what that so when we have ambassadors that are running, she's communicating, she's always working with them. And if she needs more from me, we jump in it. But how often we're working with the ambassadors. getting feedback around, the next time you're coming on site, this is what we need to deal with. Or management in these areas feel this might be a huge opportunity for our next steps. So what might that look like and how can I help? I mean, can there be any greater way to come in and be ready to work with a client than knowing from the inside from somebody that knows the business so well, what it is that we're going to step into? It's phenomenal. Sarah Collins (34:35.704) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (34:58.008) Yeah. Okay, I totally agree. I want to ask you a devil's advocate question. What if someone were to say, does being strengths aware make people too self-focused, self-involved and less team oriented? Bill Dippel (35:03.829) I'm ready. Bill Dippel (35:13.302) Hmm. That's wow. I, so I don't know that I've ever quite got that question that way. And I, it, I would say that probably leads to the way that we developed our strengths discovery sessions for the teams and our consistent engagement, part of the roadmap document that I, that I hit on because we will work with individual strengths frequently and a C-sweeter or a manager where we have defined that's going to really help them. But the emphasis for us is always on how can you coach better and work with other people better? So I don't know that I've got that question a lot. guess I would have to approach it with exactly that refrain coming back at it, is, knowing your strengths and how you use them and how you step into them. mission critical. It's fantastic and it's incredibly powerful, but it's half as powerful as understanding the strengths and utilizing those of the people around you. So that might be the only way I might approach that. And if they're still going to say, Nope, it's just, I'm going to do it my way. and just, just not know my strengths and step in and out. Then I guess it's a coaching opportunity that to help them see that. inevitably they're going to be talking about other people. just don't know a way to, I personally don't know a way that we're not going to come up with that at some time, but yeah, how about you? What would you do in that? Have you seen that? Sarah Collins (36:47.683) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (36:51.534) don't know that I've ever seen it either. think that naturally almost everyone I've worked with becomes curious about other people when they start talking about strengths. I think at the beginning it's easier to learn about yourself. You're more curious about yourself. But anytime I end up in a coaching situation or facilitation, people are always like jumping to look at other people's. know, they're just, if I am always trying to bury a team grid, if we're going to do it until we're doing it. Bill Dippel (37:14.628) yeah. Sarah Collins (37:21.41) because it will be the first thing people grab is like, okay, well, what, is this person this way? And they're like, this explains so much. So I agree with you. I think that people are really team curious, but I could see people using, of course, I think there's team curiosity. I could see people like really focusing on themselves and not bringing it to the team because it does take intentionality to do that. Bill Dippel (37:23.862) Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (37:50.498) You know, I will sit with folks who I'm coaching where we've coached their whole team and they'll say, well, I have to go to this meeting with these two people and I'm feeling a little anxious because we have to talk about this hard thing. And I'll be the one to be like, well, let's look at their strengths. And they're sort of like, yeah, yeah, like we, we have some insight, like we don't know exactly how they're going to show up, but we can figure out what's important to them, how they might approach this. Bill Dippel (38:07.818) Mmm, go on. Sarah Collins (38:19.554) So let's use it. And I think that people are always like eager and excited to do that, but it's not always the first thing they think of. And that goes back to your point, like if you're a team and you're struggling and you've done CliftonStrengths, do you have a coach you're working with who can challenge your people to keep using the tool? Because I think a lot of this, like, if we think about the core question we're addressing today is like, if we've done CliftonStrengths and it's great, but my team is still struggling, why? Bill Dippel (38:28.022) Right, very. Bill Dippel (38:40.054) Yeah. Sarah Collins (38:49.346) Well, did you just set it and forget it? You did it and you talked about it. You had a great time. And now it's out of sight, out of mind. Bill Dippel (38:59.476) Yup. Don't not worried about it. Not seeing it right. And having the nothing breaks our heart more than you open your, your desk drawer and I remember doing that. That was right. That was Sarah Collins (39:12.994) The thing that drives me crazy is, you know, I go to all these networking events and I run into people and I tell them what I do. And so then people inevitably, I'm in Nebraska. So we got a lot of people have taken this assessment. They'll say, my God, I did CliftonStrengths. And then I always feel obligated to ask what their top five are. And the thing that breaks my heart is they'll say, I don't remember. Hold on. Let me get my cell phone out and check my email. I'm sure I've got it in here somewhere. I'm like, Bill Dippel (39:37.546) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (39:38.786) What a waste. I tell people sometimes, which is probably inappropriate, but I say, what a waste, what a waste, what a waste of time and money. You did all of this and now you don't even remember what they are. And that's why I'm telling people like put them in front of you so you see them. But here's the thing. If you invest in a coach, mean, people put their time where their money is. So if you want to invest in this and you want to keep sure it doesn't die, pay a coach who's going to push you. Bill Dippel (39:43.229) What a waste. Yeah. Bill Dippel (40:04.075) Yeah. Sarah Collins (40:07.096) to keep doing it because if they're on your docket, they're gonna say, okay, remember this, pull that back out. They're gonna get your people to keep going back to it. And if you don't have that, then it is easy. If you don't have an internal person who's pushing it, it is easy to set it and forget it. And so it could be a thing you did once and then everyone just forgot. Bill Dippel (40:27.646) Absolutely. So good. So very good. I, I brought this up earlier in this episode and I'm curious from your point of view, I don't want to call it a bad seed per se, but the one person in a group, right? The one, the one that's, the naysayer, the one that crosses their arms in the group and is like, I, yeah, I took it cause I was told I had to, and now I I'm gonna, I'm going to contribute nothing or Sarah Collins (40:41.272) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (40:53.752) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (40:54.578) Even worse the actively disengaged according to gallop, right? I'm going to holes in this the whole time we're sitting here or attempt to So when you get that how often are you using a power of two or and trying to get them to invest? from a hey, let's get together and Really dive into this. What's your what's your call to action for the for the the naysayer? Sarah Collins (41:19.66) I mean, I feel like I'm really lucky that I haven't had any like aggressive naysayers. have not, especially in a one-on-one I have, and I don't really have people poking holes in it. And this is probably not the right approach. My strengths are showing right now what I'm about to say. You're going to see my strengths. cause a lot of times people want to push back on like the data or the information, you know, like they're, they're that, that harder stuff. And I'm always like, Bill Dippel (41:34.294) Excellent. Bill Dippel (41:47.168) Mm-hmm. Sarah Collins (41:48.316) have you seen my strengths? I'm not a data person, so I'm gonna just tell you how I feel about it. And it might not be right. You can go look it up online. So I'm always like, here I am in my full nakedness of what I am, which means I am here to woo you and to build a relationship with you. And if there's any of this sciency stuff I'm saying you don't agree with, then please. please go, go to the internet and have your conversation. You can chat with JadGBT about that. And so I don't know if that like disarms people where they're like, this girl's gonna be no good to me. She will not be entering into a debate. So I don't have a lot of that, fortunately. But I think it's just like, most of the time, if I sit down one-on-one with someone and I can tell they're not that bought in. Bill Dippel (42:18.238) Right. Right. Sarah Collins (42:39.054) I, when I do an introductory strengths works or strengths coaching session, I have this little formula I do where I say, tell me about your career. I want to know from the beginning to today, what are the jobs you've had? What was your career trajectory? And this disarms people, even the hardest of hard people, when they get to start telling me about their story and how their uncle Timmy had a lawn business and they started working for him when they were 16. Bill Dippel (42:53.396) Mm-hmm. Great. Sarah Collins (43:06.83) As they're going through their story, I can see them softening up to me, right? And then I say, okay, let's talk about your top 10. I'm gonna tell you what I know about the strength, but you tell me how it shows up for you. And then as they do that, I start making connections. Oh, I can hear how your harmony and your discipline were showing up there. Do you see that? They'll be like, oh yeah, right? And so then once we do that, they're... There is not an objection in sight. All I have done is mirrored back to you who you say you are. Bill Dippel (43:39.38) Right, right. Hard to argue if I've told you who I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So smart. Sarah Collins (43:41.752) Hard to argue, hard to argue. That's called wooing 101 people. Just mirror back to them. Bill Dippel (43:51.382) And if you don't have woo, hit them with data. How long were you at that? Right. Give me the percentage of time you felt, you know, you were at that job. What was the right or so many good coaching tools to get people to lighten up. You know this about me. I coach frequently at a tea shop in Reno. And part of it is because I get to buy tea for them. You want to see people lighten up. It's like, go grab a tea. And then they're standing there and they're waiting to pay and the. Sarah Collins (44:09.058) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (44:18.506) They know me really well at the tea shop. They're like, no, you're here with Bill. Sorry. We can't take your money. Man, bang. Well, somebody bought me a tea and now we're just going to chat. This is great and disarming, right? Instantly. Well, and which of your strengths feels good about me buying you a tea? You know, let's talk about it or tell me about, you know, how you felt this assessment went. How was it? What was the good parts? Sarah Collins (44:31.778) Mm-hmm. Bill Dippel (44:45.394) And as we're sitting there sipping and laughing and having fun, and now that it's getting nice out, we're doing this in the, in the early summer, we're sitting outside in the, in the shade and relaxing. There is, you know, if I can get them out of their work environment, I think that's a good step off to get moving. If you're the one that's battling, I've had people, when, as co-coaching with Renee, I've had people be like, I want her to do it. Right. I. Sarah Collins (45:02.38) Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Sarah Collins (45:14.072) Right? Bill Dippel (45:14.868) I like the way she's doing it. And the answer is good. So she can do it. Let's, you know, if you, if you resonate with that style of coaching a little bit, then you should, you know, we should, we're equipped to give you that. So. Sarah Collins (45:25.09) Yeah. So I want to get to our poll for today. So I posted on the LinkedIn. If you're a listener here, you should follow Strength on Fire on LinkedIn and or follow Sarah Collins or Bill Dipple, William Dipple, which are you? you a Bill or a William on the LinkedIn? Bill Dippel (45:30.39) Yeah. Bill Dippel (45:43.242) Wow, just push, just push. I believe it is Bill. but, you know. No, no, I get it. Sarah Collins (45:46.284) Okay, okay, I'm just trying to get it right for the folks out there. Anyways, we will be posting weekly polls so your voice can be heard on the pod. So the poll for this episode was, what's the biggest reason teams don't get the full benefit from strengths? And we have no real strengths convos coming in at 36%. No team development at 64 % and then big goose eggs under too focused on weaknesses or misunderstanding strengths. So the running leader there is no team development. Bill Dippel (46:17.174) All right. Bill Dippel (46:21.616) No team development is why we struggle. So as a coach, what are we doing if we're not there running team development or and by the way, as part of our part of our pre assessment that we do with management and and employees, depending on the size and the structure of how we've done this, we ask in an advance in an advanced document, have you done this sort of work before and does management did management stick with it? So we have an idea walking in, right, of what the engagement looks like. But the true magic, and I think for people to, you know, to pull the curtain back a little bit on that assessment, what we're doing with it is we're creating a heat map of does management think that they're doing everything right? Or what does management feel they're doing wrong? Is it the consistency of... of employee acknowledgement. Is it the framework of they have enough tools to do what they're doing? Where do they feel they're accelerated and where do they feel they might be a little lacking? And then we take that heat map and we compare it to the employee heat map. And that gives us a wonderful working playbook on if they align, if the heat map for those align and they feel like they can that the faults might be in the same spot. We've got a wonderful leaping off point to know this is, we're going to start addressing this right away. But an even more fruitful leaping off point for us is when they don't align, when management feels, yep, our employees are a hundred percent engaged. They've got everything they need. And that's the hotspot in the heat map for the employees. Now we know not only do we have to address that, but we clearly need some work in the communication realm. around being open with each other and looking at management styles as to why you're not getting that feedback directly. Sarah Collins (48:21.902) Yeah. think the other thing is, which first of all, kudos to you for that. That sounds like really incredible assessment and information for you and for the client to have a great collection tool. think a lot of it for the no team development just comes down to people think, we got to just fill in space at this retreat. We've got to fill in space at this meeting or we heard this thing was cool. So they just do. a one-time workshop or maybe a two-parter workshop and they think that that's gonna get it. And the truth is, like I always tell people, you get what you pay for. You can have me come in for a one-time workshop. I will do that. I think it's my greatest marketing tool and it's gonna give you a taste of what is possible. And usually people wanna come back for more, but if you just get busy and you do the one-time workshop, guess I'm here to tell you, it will not transform your team. Bill Dippel (49:08.086) Yeah. Bill Dippel (49:17.278) It will not. No. is completely true. Yeah. Sarah Collins (49:18.03) It will not, it will not. So exactly right. Like if you want to invest in strengths, you have to invest in it. You get out of it what you put into it, which is to really get it, you got to put the time in. You do. And if you are not, I think the people on the poll are right. You're knocking the team development. And I think the 36 % that said not talking about strengths, I think that happens too. You have to actually be intentional about bringing it up. When you, if you are investing in development for the team, you also have to be investing that at the top of a meeting, you're saying, hey, anyone have a strength shout out they want to give today? Right? You have to be invested in putting your strengths in your email signatures. know, people have to see other people's strengths. You have to spend some real time and energy investing both time, money and mental. Bill Dippel (49:49.92) I get Sarah Collins (50:15.316) energy into it. The more people invest in it, the more they see come out of it. Bill Dippel (50:16.468) Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Look, if you're a, if you're an owner or a manager and you just want a one day event, and that's the last time you want to hear about strengths, don't bring Sarah or I in because what's going to happen is your employees for the next three weeks are going to be going, wow, that was amazing. We covered a lot of stuff. I can see where I can use this. I really want to push this forward. Right? Like you had mentioned early on putting, putting good coaches that, that want to Sarah Collins (50:40.654) Yeah. Bill Dippel (50:49.792) do better for your people and are genuine about how they do it and have the tool set and the skill set to promote that, that is going to lead to a lot of business, right? That's how we do it. And if you want your employees to be really tuned into this, just bring us in for a day and then hope you think you're not going to hear about it again. Wait as people start talking about it and comparing and. Sarah Collins (51:00.642) Yeah. Bill Dippel (51:14.708) Like you, I hide the strengths grid. I actually envelope it in a folder called classified and put it in my kids. Sarah Collins (51:21.211) that's so cute, I wanna steal it. Bill Dippel (51:24.414) And then I don't let anyone open the classified folder until I get three quarters away through the event when I'm going to go over team dynamics and work. And I'm like, how many of you are interested in the classified folder? Let's, let's open it up and it works so well. We're going to put a bunch of kids together today for a group we're working with next week. So, but yeah, we, and we, got a stunner. got a rubber stamp from staples that says confidential. Sarah Collins (51:36.748) Okay, I'm totally doing that, that's so fun. Bill Dippel (51:53.984) do not open until told, but they'll put anything in a rubber stamp. Apparently it looks really official. So, and then we stamp it onto the, onto the ledge of it. It's, it's fun. Yeah. It's great. Sarah Collins (52:01.938) my God, that's so cute. Okay, I have a comment from LinkedIn. I want to read and give a shout out to Sarah Wexelman. I actually had the privilege of working at the same organization as Sarah. She's an HR professional and a certified Val Clifton Strengths coach embedded. And she made a comment to our question here that was on LinkedIn. What's the biggest reason teams don't get the full benefit from strength? She had a really great response. It said, Too often I see team strength sessions placed in the one and done category and treated as a fun diversion for the annual retreat. I heard Mike McDonald, shout out Mike, refer to it once as dangerously recreational. There isn't continuity until your organization reaches a place where strengths are embedded in the culture in onboarding, manager training, goal setting, feedback, evaluation. Bill Dippel (52:43.402) Ha ha ha ha. Bill Dippel (52:47.734) Thank Sarah Collins (52:56.266) etc. It's a journey. Bill Dippel (52:58.838) whoo and I as a full time lover of Mike McDonald. If he used the term dangerously recreational, I'm I'm putting that out there at some point. That is fantastic. I look I again I I do do one days. I do do you know small multi days where you know we're putting three in the pitch is always to put more time into it and to make sure people are getting better at it. Sarah Collins (53:11.798) Yeah. Yeah. Sarah Collins (53:27.37) Exactly. Bill Dippel (53:28.274) I understand the term dangerously recreational and I love Mike McDonald for using it. We do want to make a bigger difference. We want to make sure we're making as big a difference as we can. And that's from both sides. I don't want the employees frustrated that we did it for a part of a day and then walked away. And from the coaches, how disheartened you and I will get if we're not still engaging and trying to make the next phase of it. So, yeah. Sarah Collins (53:55.758) Absolutely. love that and Sarah, thank you for responding to our LinkedIn poll and for all of you listening go to strengths on fire on LinkedIn. I'm like a little advertisement. I just want I want our audience engagement. I know there's people out there listening I run into people out in the wild who say they listen so I want to hear their voice. We only have so many guest slots open, but I want to hear your voice. So if I hope that this episode was evidence to you that if you leave a comment. Bill Dippel (54:05.802) Look at you, who is going today on the street? Bill Dippel (54:19.678) Right? Sarah Collins (54:25.706) I will be reading your name and your comment out loud, okay? Bill Dippel (54:28.95) You're gonna be getting some notice from us, right? We wanna make sure, so. Oh, good. Sarah Collins (54:33.602) That's right, that's right. So Bill, you know, we usually do a dumpster fire fireworks segment, but in all transparency to break the fourth wall, we recorded episode one, season two, about an hour ago. So if people are curious about our fireworks and dumpster fires, they can just go back and listen to those, because we really don't have any new ones. We would just be sort of pretending if we came up with them today. Bill Dippel (54:47.348) Yeah. you Bill Dippel (54:58.038) Wow, but I also don't want to let our I don't want to let our our listeners and our future guests off the hook, right? We're we're gonna skip it for us today because we just did it. But don't worry if you're on dumpster fire and firework is going to be part of your part of part of where we go. We're not. Yeah. We don't. So I love that we aimed at each other. I'm not even certain we were aware we were going to do that today. So. Sarah Collins (55:15.502) part of their homework. Yeah, we don't normally answer those questions. Bill Dippel (55:25.812) Yeah, if you want to know our dumpster fire fireworks back up to episode one and just go to the last half of it real quick, you'll you'll hear where we're at. And there were some good insights in that one, too. So I like that. So excellent. Sarah Collins (55:37.034) Absolutely. Well, Bill, is there anything else that you would add before we move on and end our show for today? Bill Dippel (55:42.11) Well, I would say I don't know that we have a quorum on why team strength coaching can be sometimes not effective. I think we've highlighted some ways it falls down and we've highlighted some practical strategies on how to make it better. I think all of that fits pretty well. But I think it really comes down to incumbent good coaching. Don't be. dangerously recreational, which I absolutely love. So awesome. All right. Sarah Collins (56:14.944) Absolutely. And if you have any burning questions about CliftonStrengths, can leave those, you can send those to us in a message. You can leave them on our LinkedIn. We want to answer your questions this season on Strengths on Fire, the great strengths debate. Bill Dippel (56:31.89) Absolutely. Leave a comment on this as well. We're going to respond and put everybody on a spotlight to make it happen. So thank you guys so much for listening. We love that you're here. And as our arsonists and everybody else knows, we'll talk soon. Sarah Collins (56:48.654) Bye!