Is The Strengths Movement Helping People-Or Letting Them Off The Hook?

Season 2 is here—and we’re starting with a spark. In this kickoff episode, Strengths on Fire hosts Sarah Collins and Bill Dippel take you behind the scenes of what worked (and what didn’t) in Season 1, and unveil an all-new format packed with bold questions, real talk, and more audience interaction than ever. The big question on the table: Is the strengths movement helping people grow—or giving them a free pass to opt out? You’ll hear honest stories about coaching clients, marriage dynamics, team challenges, and even awkward feedback moments—all through the lens of CliftonStrengths. Along the way, you’ll learn how to call people in instead of letting them off the hook, how to use your strengths to handle tough tasks (even if they’re at the bottom of your list), and why great leaders turn criticism into recognition. Whether you’re a coach, leader, or someone just trying to figure out how to grow without burning out, this episode will challenge you, entertain you, and get you thinking deeper about how strengths really show up at work and in life

🎯 Main Takeaways

1. The strengths philosophy can be misinterpreted as a permission slip to avoid uncomfortable tasks—but that’s not the intent.

2. Great coaching is about helping people use their strengths to do hard things, not avoid them.

3. Different strengths can achieve the same outcomes when used creatively and intentionally.

4. Just because a theme is in your bottom 5 doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in that area—it just means you’ll get there differently.

5. Managers and leaders must understand strengths deeply to avoid enabling unproductive behavior.

6. Feedback and growth go hand-in-hand, and sometimes our strengths (like harmony) can prevent us from seeking necessary critique.

7. New podcast segments like “Fireworks” and “Dumpster Fires” offer real-life wins and struggles that make strengths more relatable and human.

🔥 Sound Bites

1. “We’re not letting people off the hook—we’re showing them how to hook in differently.”

2. “You can get the same outcome in the world through different strengths.”

3. “Just because something is at the bottom of your list doesn’t mean you can’t do it—it means you won’t do it the same way as someone else.”

4. “Strengths used irresponsibly can turn into excuses.”

5. “Deliberative isn’t a hall pass to never make a decision—it’s a signal to manage decision-making intentionally.”

6. “We’re not just here to hear stories; we’re here to debate what actually matters.”

7. “That command and self-assurance combo? It gets sh*t done—but it can intimidate a whole room if you’re not careful.”

8. “Your top strengths are your best tools, but they still require sharpening.”

9. “We’re not just here for dumpster fires—welcome to the fireworks.”

10. “When someone says ‘that’s not my strength’ as a stop sign, they’re misusing the tool.”

11. “Letting people hide behind their bottom strengths is a disservice to growth.”

12. “I’m not good at strategizing—but I’ve learned how to get strategic through my strengths.”

13. “This isn’t about coddling people—it’s about calling them forward through what’s right with them.”

14. “Sometimes you don’t need to change the task, you need to change your approach to the task.”

15. “Our job as coaches isn’t to let people stay comfortable—it’s to help them show up better.”

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 (00:01.698)
Good morning Mr. Bill Dippel it's exciting to see you today!

Bill Dippel (00:04.078)
Sarah Collins. my. Did you notice my shirt this morning? Did you end of season two? Right. My shirt came up as a topic of of hey, I wear a black shirt. I was in mourning. We were going to we were ending season one.

Sarah Collins (00:18.05)
What is on it?

Sarah Collins (00:24.734)
huh.

Sarah Collins (00:28.128)
Okay? So you're in a white shirt.

Bill Dippel (00:30.626)
Today, skeletons with party hats.

Sarah Collins (00:34.347)
they're skeletons with party hats? I couldn't tell if they were squids or spaceships. Didn't guess skeletons with party hats. That's how good I can see.

Bill Dippel (00:39.886)
Skeletons with skeletons talking about the new edgy season two party hats or how happy I am that we are back in season two starting it off kicking it off. I get here. Here it is. The strengths debate has begun. I I loved loved season one. I cannot tell you how much we and to all of our arsonists we found

Sarah Collins (00:45.164)
oooo

Sarah Collins (00:51.778)
Back on the mics. Welcome to the great strengths debate friends.

Sarah Collins (01:03.052)
I loved it.

Bill Dippel (01:09.428)
so many nuggets of wisdom, so many gems of wonderful moments talking to other coaches, to guests, to clients, to just enthusiasts that I got so much of it from a coaching point of view to be able to continue relaying it to events or to groups I was working with.

Sarah Collins (01:31.256)
Yeah, it was just super duper fun too. I just love to be on these mics talking to people about strengths. It was a great time.

Bill Dippel (01:39.31)
Well, you're kind of built for the mic. mean, really, you know, you know, I get I hear it, you know, another again, our first through line for season two, the voice is back. So we'll take it. But I mean, when our when our listenership starts going full YouTube, you know, that you're the one bringing them in clearly. It won't be me. So.

Sarah Collins (01:41.922)
Wow, even though you're the one with the voice!

Sarah Collins (01:52.056)
The voice. That's right.

Sarah Collins (02:05.622)
I always did want to be on a radio, but then I was afraid people would say I had a radio face, which is not a compliment, and I never wanted a radio face.

Bill Dippel (02:14.318)
A face for radio.

Sarah Collins (02:17.452)
Face for radio is not a compliment, so I really hope no one ever says that to me. So if you're out there thinking it, keep it to yourself.

Bill Dippel (02:25.058)
We're again, we're still designing the T shirts. That might be another, that's another term somewhere on a, I mean, so.

Sarah Collins (02:28.141)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (02:32.002)
Well, I'll tell you what, I think it's no surprise to the audience and those that are listening that we love season one because could we have said, I love it more. Yes. that's so interesting. That's so fantastic. I have never known more that I was a cheerleader than listening to the episodes of season one because everything anyone said, was like, yes, that is such a good point. I love it. I love it.

Bill Dippel (02:55.64)
Sarah and I had this discussion in between the seasons and we were doing a wrap up around what we thought went really well and what we'd want to change. And both of us pointed out every time someone makes a comment, both of us are, I love that. That is so. And while it's true, I do love the comments that we get from everybody. At some point, even I'm kind of laughing as I'm listening to it, listening to the re to the relaunch, because I'm

Sarah Collins (03:20.876)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (03:24.738)
I'm like, wow, yeah.

Sarah Collins (03:26.198)
Well, and that was sort of inspiration for season two. We knew we wanted to come back on the mic for season two. We knew we had more guests to get to. We had more topics to talk about. But we thought, you know, in podcasting, you can't just be like a hot dog bun is for a hot dog and not a hamburger. Like, OK, obvious. You got to be a little edgier. And so what do people want to listen to? And I think that's how we got to the great strengths debate, which is what we're launching into today is because we want to talk about those questions that everyone has. Coaches get.

Bill Dippel (03:31.31)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (03:42.95)
Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Bill Dippel (03:49.176)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (03:56.216)
people talk about in their offices when we leave, like, well, what about this? And so we thought, let's bring those questions here and let's debate them. And even though I think you and I, and probably most of our guests will be on the same side of this, I will play devil's advocate. I will. I am prepared. I am prepared to say the things everyone's thinking.

Bill Dippel (04:15.992)
I'm actually not even positive we'll all be on the same side sometimes. We've cooked up some pretty interesting Gallup-based questions, and I've gone through our first couple of segments, made some highlight notes, talked about things that, hey, I find really interesting both from a client point of view or from a personal point of view.

Sarah Collins (04:19.47)
okay.

Sarah Collins (04:37.426)
you mean you're prepared for this episode. Wow.

Bill Dippel (04:39.478)
have I ever led you to believe I'm unprepared for an I just so are Arsonist. No, I created all of the sheets. I do the Riverside. I do the editing. I think I think preparation. But in fairness to today's question, which we'll get into in a couple of minutes, I do all of that because I'm not naturally prepared because.

Sarah Collins (05:02.164)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (05:03.618)
I am not really good. I love to fly off the seat of my pants when discussing things or coaching or because we can go into some really interesting areas. But when it comes to like letting and this is honest, letting Sarah down or letting our arsonists down, I got to be I'm like my responsibility will not allow that to happen. Right. So, yeah. So, you know, back to that question, I'm not certain we're always going to agree and I'm not certain our.

Sarah Collins (05:07.757)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (05:25.548)
Yeah, absolutely.

Bill Dippel (05:31.958)
Our guests are gonna agree with that.

Sarah Collins (05:33.422)
Well, I love it. Bring it on. And in case they do, I will play the devil's advocate just in case. In which case, prediction for season two, I will put my foot in my mouth and I may say more things that I regret on this podcast.

Bill Dippel (05:37.58)
Yeah. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (05:44.47)
Wait, wait, that's just a prediction for season two. Did anyone hear season one? I mean, both of us had our brilliant moments of, how did I, why did I say that? So, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Collins (05:48.942)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (05:55.246)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. People know a lot about my reading, how I love a little bit of fairies in there, dragons, know, cold grots, a party barge, all sorts of things.

Bill Dippel (05:59.712)
Mm hmm. The part the party barge cold brats. There's the shadow daddies. I mean, there's there was a lot of yeah.

Sarah Collins (06:12.109)
A lot of personal fodder up in there.

Bill Dippel (06:14.466)
Yeah, I'm not, you know, and yet it just makes you more fascinating, Sarah. It just makes you more fascinating. So I bet our listeners are about to notice, especially our arsonists that went through all of season one. Right. Thank you, Lizzie. Thank you, Mark. Right. Thank you for our our to our many, many listeners today. We do not have a guest. We.

Sarah Collins (06:18.51)
Hmm, sure.

Sarah Collins (06:30.314)
Mm-hmm. Yes, shout out.

Sarah Collins (06:40.098)
No?

Bill Dippel (06:40.77)
We are kicking this off the way we did season one. It is just Sarah and I kind of pulling back and exposing how we do it, what we're at, kind of our thoughts on season one. And then we're going to get into a little debate ourselves around a question we put together. This is going to be a little format of how we're going to run season two. So if you like this, put some posts up, give us a shout out, let us know.

Sarah Collins (06:56.078)
That's right.

Bill Dippel (07:10.27)
And if you have thoughts on the on the season or if you just want more information about sarah that she didn't release in season one Then by all means jump on and ask the question. Let's see what we can get some see if we can get some some Correspondence going

Sarah Collins (07:26.05)
Yeah, we're going to be posting on LinkedIn. If you are following Strengths on Fire on LinkedIn or either Bill or I, you're going to see that weekly we're going to be posting some polls because we're bringing in what you think to the podcast. You're going to hear the poll that we asked LinkedIn at the end of the episode. That's something new and fun we're doing. We're also we're keeping our dumpster fire because everyone loves to talk about their dumpster fire. But we are adding a fireworks moment. Bill, can you tell our listeners what does it mean to have a fireworks moment?

Bill Dippel (07:49.036)
everybody.

Bill Dippel (07:55.906)
Well, as an arsonist that, you know, as an arsonist lover, as an as a lover of the term arsonist. Yep. Yep. I think if we're going to highlight where people think their their strengths are going to get them to the dumpster fire, we should give them the moment to sparkle. We should give them a moment to explode in the sky with brilliance. And that looks like.

Sarah Collins (08:02.626)
Sounds super weird, but okay, keep going.

Sarah Collins (08:16.108)
Yes, ooh, so punny.

Bill Dippel (08:23.682)
Give us your firework moment as an arsonist. What at what point on top of after the dumpster fire or before the dumpster fire did you see just absolute flow? What was your moment of brilliance? What was was it natural and reoccurring? Was it something that just exploded for you that you weren't expecting? And what strength was that? How did you get there? I think our other listeners are going to be really curious to hear. Well, yeah, I stumble in those ways, too, as a dumpster fire. But boy.

Sarah Collins (08:45.218)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (08:52.628)
I absolutely really like, and I have experienced some of those wonderful moments of the firework explosion.

Sarah Collins (09:01.11)
Yes, absolutely. I love that. So we are going to mix things up because when we have our guests, instead of just hearing their story, we're going to debate the question of the episode with them. We're going to go back and forth. We're going to hear their dumpster fire. We're going to hear their firework moment, and then we're going to hear from the audience. So be on the LinkedIn, be making comments, be responding to our polls so your voice can be here.

Bill Dippel (09:08.046)
you

Sarah Collins (09:26.028)
Now Bill, before we roll into our first question, can you remind our dear listeners of your top 10 strengths?

Bill Dippel (09:33.278)
No, no, I.

Sarah Collins (09:35.406)
This is like improv, you always say yes, okay? Just yes and, yes and.

Bill Dippel (09:39.406)
I ruined the improv moment. You're right. No, I was channeling my inner Micah there. I, I'll have to look, right? I think one of the great moments from season one is having the Micah come on and be like, you know, I don't really know the exact order. And how amazing was that to hear from somebody that is so entrenched in that? We're going to have some other Gallup or former Gallup employees on this season as guests.

Sarah Collins (09:47.573)
Hehehehehe

Sarah Collins (10:00.514)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (10:07.916)
We hope so.

Bill Dippel (10:08.782)
And I do want to point out to we the first couple episodes going to be Sarah and I we are bringing the guests back. So I want to I want to make sure and we're going to and kudos to you if I'm going to pull that back. I have been flooded with a ton of RSVP. My guest is ready invites. And yet I I've been like, well, I casually invited some people and, you know, Sarah is on it along with along with some of the polling that we're doing. So.

Sarah Collins (10:14.828)
Yes, we will have guests, of course.

Sarah Collins (10:36.248)
That's because I also have responsibility. So while I may show up as a chaos factory live to this show so I can bring my greatness, which is winging it in the moment, being the talent, the voice, the face of the pod, I also do not want to let Bill down and be the one who shows up without a guest. you know, here I am doing the things I need to do.

Bill Dippel (10:45.634)
Yes. Yes.

Bill Dippel (10:50.926)
You are? You are the face of the pod. I am just called Arm Candy. That's pretty much what I am. Yeah. Love it. All right. My top 10. Let's talk. So number one and obviously the either the first or second greatest strength of all time, individualization, right?

Sarah Collins (11:00.472)
That's right, that's exactly right.

Sarah Collins (11:12.546)
Wow, and if you listen to season one, you know Bill thinks that because he brought it up in every episode.

Bill Dippel (11:17.39)
every single one. So the way my golf game is, no, I'm just kidding. Individualization backed up by the one that probably means the most to me, developer, right? Watching people fueling it better. My activator rounds out number three, so jumping right in. I gotta go, gotta get moving. Rounded by the one that battles individualization for that top spot. Both Jim and Collison and I would agree that that would be woo.

Sarah Collins (11:28.258)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (11:44.578)
followed by restorative, that problem solving, gosh I can't let Sarah down so I've got to figure out how do we record, what are we going to do and get that in. And then I'm hitting on empathy, harmony, connectedness which I'm going to talk about a little bit today in our question because it came up earlier. I like my relator, right, I got to have some depth in my relationships and then my only strategic theme kicking me in is learner.

Sarah Collins (12:02.072)
Ooh.

Bill Dippel (12:14.24)
at number 10. But then I also go, number 11 for me is responsibility. So when you and I are talking responsibility, that's big. And I go to about 14 when things fall apart for me. So 12 is communication and 13 is positivity, which, gosh, Sarah just brings her positivity so much and it's another way we bind, right? So.

Sarah Collins (12:36.884)
Absolutely. I love how you like described yours. I also just have to give a teaser. I have invited a good friend to the pod and on her episode, we are going to do the woo verse relator connection debate or connection face off. And I'm excited because I have woo and our guest has high relator and Bill has both. So I cannot wait to do that. So we are really, we are going to be doing some fun, fun things.

Bill Dippel (12:58.88)
I do.

Bill Dippel (13:04.108)
I did see that in the show notes. And she wrote back and was like, I can't wait for this. I saw the back and forth. And you did point out Bill has both when you sent it to her. I was like, she is salting the possibility here. I love it. So how about your top 10? Hit me with yours.

Sarah Collins (13:06.306)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (13:18.03)
That's right.

That's right. Okay.

I don't have them in front of me because chaos factory positivity communication woo you know got those big three right up the top

Bill Dippel (13:35.308)
Well, you did those backwards for you, but go ahead.

Sarah Collins (13:38.062)
That order doesn't matter. I mean, don't know how many times I have to say this. Like if the great Micah can say it, believe me when I say it. Stop telling me my order.

Bill Dippel (13:41.28)
Of course. Of course. Of course. OK, sorry. I just want to be there for you. I just want to make sure. All right, go ahead. All right, hit me.

Sarah Collins (13:49.996)
I appreciate that. I appreciate that. You know, we've got positivity, woo communication in some sort of order, but those big three obviously shining through. Also in that top five, I have Harmony and Activator. I totally forgot. Totally forgot Harmony and Activator. And then in the top 10, Developer Responsibility, Individualization, Arranger and Input. Not in that order, I am aware.

Bill Dippel (13:55.32)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (14:06.114)
Wow, I was about to dive in on you there, right? Nice.

Bill Dippel (14:19.064)
I wasn't going to care. I sure you know, whatever order you want it to be in number 11 context, by the way, good for you.

Sarah Collins (14:22.174)
Mm-hmm. Yes, and I will say I go to 13, which I think is context, consistency, no, context, consistency, your face, your face made of face, contact, consistency, and empathy. That's right, those are very, yes, near and dear to my heart.

Bill Dippel (14:32.342)
Yeah, no, actually I just gave you the face, but no, so far you're right. You are correct. Well done.

This is my, this is my, have to be ready for everything because I have both of our assessments up ready to, ready to talk.

Sarah Collins (14:50.466)
Yeah, exactly. You are ready for everything. And I have a client's assessment in front of me, which is going to do me absolutely no good today.

Bill Dippel (14:57.346)
No, it won't. Although we can talk about the client, that might be a fun way to. Hey, you should listen to the. And by the way, the the small shout outs I did at the end of season one where I mentioned Nora and Mark and the the neighbor that walks by and waves when he knows I'm on a podcast. I made sure all of them downloaded and listened to our you know, I hey, you better listen to this episode. So yeah.

Sarah Collins (15:02.038)
Yeah, that's right. should listen. I talked about you on our pod today.

Sarah Collins (15:19.96)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (15:23.95)
Okay, so before we jump in, have one thing I want to say. I'm still totally stealing this from Mel Robbins, FYI, if anyone is like an advid podcast listener. I just want to say, if you are here listening to this, then kudos to you, because many people are not prioritizing their development and their understanding of themselves and those around them. And I believe that if you are here with us today and you have your ears on this,

Bill Dippel (15:26.51)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (15:38.594)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (15:51.64)
That means you care a little bit about strengths, which I have to believe that means you care about learning about yourself and those around you. And that makes you a unique, special butterfly because many people are not. Many people are not listening to podcasts. And those who are are often listening to just entertainment ones. And while I love those too, I think it's really awesome that you're taking the time, whether you're in your car, you're in your bathroom, you're cleaning your house, whatever you're doing, you are listening to this. So.

Just gonna give you a little bit of kudos there.

Bill Dippel (16:22.476)
Nice. Well done. I don't I'm not taking anything away from Mel. I like I love Mel, love them. Let them let them. But I would tell you that and I know why you think you're stealing that from Mel as well. I know her philosophy and when she covers that. But I would just tell you as a developer, I am always trying to talk to people and explain I love that you're here and this is why. Right. So I. No, I would not.

Sarah Collins (16:27.246)
Oh yeah, the let them theory, let them, you know.

Sarah Collins (16:46.144)
Mm-hmm. So you're the next Mel Robbins is what you're saying.

Bill Dippel (16:51.882)
I if only I had a moment like Mel, right? So I think Mel's one of my one of my favorites to to listen to I kind of love that edgy-ness that she brings quite often and her books phenomenal I've I've loaned it out or purchased it for a couple of people when in our coaching it's been very relevant for them because sometimes you know, you gotta let them right you have to let them but then and most importantly

Sarah Collins (17:13.848)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Bill Dippel (17:21.11)
let you, right? What are you going to do? So I am with you. Completely and utterly understand and agree with that part of it. So yeah. And thank you all, the arsonists and the wannabe arsonists or the people that just are checking it out want to come in. arsonist curious. Wow. I'm going to take it. You know what? I like it. Yeah, no, it's good. I'm stealing it. We're arsonist curious.

Sarah Collins (17:36.61)
Arsonist curious.

Sarah Collins (17:45.538)
Take it. Take it. Take it.

Bill Dippel (17:50.414)
I'm pulling that out. All right, I like it. So let's get to it. So the debate today, I am ready. What are we hitting on the debate?

Sarah Collins (17:50.592)
Okay.

Now we have our question. Are you ready to move to the debate?

Sarah Collins (18:01.558)
Is the strengths movement helping people or letting them off the hook? Now, Bill, can you set us up? What does this question mean? What are we getting at? Why do people ask this question?

Bill Dippel (18:06.072)
only

Bill Dippel (18:11.864)
So frequently out in the coaching world, what we will experience is, especially if we're working with a group and they have that aha moment or often as a one-on-one when you're dealing with somebody in that suite, let's say the C suite or just having a one-on-one moment, sometimes the reaction we get and what we hear is

So what you're saying is because I don't have any strategy in my top ten, I don't have to ever strategize. Oh, so that's it. I'm out. I don't have to. Everyone else, you get to strategize for me and I will do this, right? Oh, my empathy is number 30, you know, 37. So I don't have to, you know, worry about other people's feelings. I can just

Sarah Collins (18:46.93)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (18:55.853)
Yep.

Bill Dippel (19:07.438)
And you're giving me permission to do that, right? Yeah.

Sarah Collins (19:10.892)
Right. Exactly. Exactly right. Yes. People all the time, they'll hear the philosophy of strengths that you know your strengths and you should double down on your talents. Those things in your top 10 go all in. And so sometimes they take the complete opposite, just like Bill said, and they'll say, okay, so that means I don't have to do the things that I don't have. Great.

Bill Dippel (19:32.462)
I would also say in thinking about this debate today, sometimes it's the subtlety of the avoidance. Sometimes it's not the just outright, well, you said I don't have to do it, so that's it. I'm not good at it. I'm not going to do it. Period. It's over. However, sometimes, and this is where a little of the personal moment comes in for me. For instance, and we've talked about this season one.

Sarah Collins (19:41.902)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (20:00.778)
many times. My wife is a pure strategist, houses much of the strategy. I, as I mentioned, have the one anywhere above 14 is just one of them. I do joke and coach quite often around Renée and say, well, if I need a strategy for work, it's Renée. It's my job to talk to people. So we may be fostering that idea that you can let it go. But in reality,

You and I know from running small businesses together and communicating often that's not true. I do have to strategize. I do have to work and get to a point where I have to ramp up my restorative or my responsibility or the things that I lean into, which I think is part of the coachable moment when it comes to us addressing this question is what strengths are we going to lean into?

Sarah Collins (20:56.046)
And I always tell clients when this comes up, and I agree with you, it's so subtle, because it's not this or that, black or white. It's not like we're gonna focus on our strengths and we're totally gonna ignore everything else and you just don't have to do that. Like we, I always tell my clients, we're focusing on what's right, not what's wrong, right? We focus on the strong things. But that doesn't mean that we're ignoring what's wrong. It just means first and foremost, we wanna focus on what is

right with us. And so that can I think it can feel like a this or that. And the truth is there's too much nuance in there for that to happen. We want to be strategic. Like, yes, it makes sense that you know, you have your wife who's very strategic. So you're going to lean on her to do a lot of that work. But of course, there's still going to be strategic work that you have to do. It's probably going to look different. And for the sake of your business, it should look different.

Bill Dippel (21:44.27)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (21:51.373)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (21:51.596)
because that is not going to be where you are the mastermind. We shouldn't be locking Bill in a room and be like, spend the next two days strategizing on how to grow the business by 10%. Bill would probably come out of there and be like, just like petted the cat the whole time. I did not do it.

Bill Dippel (22:06.262)
Yeah, I just, yeah. Wow. Did we get our first SSM season two? Right that way. Does that qualify? Is it coming? All right. Because, well, and, go ahead.

Sarah Collins (22:11.694)
Sarah Sopak's moment, get ready for a lot of them. But what I'm always telling people is you can get the same outcome in the world through different strengths. So even if you had no strategic thinking themes in your top 10, that doesn't mean that you do not strategically think. Every single human being does some strategic thinking.

It just means to do it, you need to do it through the talents that you have. So it's like we can bind our talents together to figure out how do you do it and where is it the easiest for you? Now that may not be your main part of your job. We may not want to say like lock Bill in the room and tell him to be strategic, but in those pockets of moments where we need him to be strategic, that's where we look at strengths combinations to say how can Bill

be strategic in the places that he needs to be. So we're not letting anyone off the hook. We're not excuse making. We are being strategic in general about how we approach work. And then when we have to do something that we do not possess, we have to think creatively based on what we do possess. Welcome to Sarah's first soapbox moment of season two. Cheers, my friends.

Bill Dippel (23:27.82)
Yeah. There's the through line. Another through line is just jumped seasons. I love it. And I would point out an early guest we had on season one, Ali Alden, is a business coach who I work with very regularly and frequently my wife, Ali and I would get together on the business and they are both high strategy together.

You know, that's a two hour meeting and an hour in I'm like, I'm am petting the cat, right? I'm like, my gosh, because I can't I just don't have the stamina to keep the strategy going. But what we are really good at understanding in that way is now now that Bill started to wander, let's set up how is Bill going to form the relationships in these strategy things we need to set up. And then I get queued up. Then I want right or.

the ability to say, well Bill you have developer, how can you make this better for you and Renee? What is the developing that come up with some ideas where we might step into these things? And we talk frequently about dynamic partnerships when we're in the Gallup coaching world. That is the power of that particular component, right? That is how those moments come together for us. How can we find a dynamic partner that will fill that need?

I think I've come across so far on this debate as saying, yes, it lets people off the hook because I keep getting guilty of it. Right. I keep pointing out the parts where I've been a little guilty of it. Another one. And I listen to the Gallup called the coach podcast regularly. They have a new co-host on with Jim. And I'm sorry, I do not remember her name, but she is fantastic. And I was listening to connectedness the other day. And I mentioned this to you when we were on a.

Sarah Collins (25:01.838)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (25:21.838)
pre-show about something came up in the Gallup Connectedness pod that really struck home with me. And again, it's another example of where I might falter in this way and that is in the connectedness vein, one of the blind spot possibilities would be you don't need to act, everything will work out. Right? The universe will align, everything is fine. And there are absolutely moments where

Sarah Collins (25:45.902)
Hmm?

Bill Dippel (25:52.158)
I should probably step on a landmine or I should, right, I should swerve to do specific things. But again, that connectedness is holding my hand to say, hmm, you know, well, hold on, maybe not. Maybe something else will align, something will happen. And that's not where I would say I feel frozen. But there are moments in that where I think, yeah, actually, I should have acted. And I think

in my mind when I'm thinking of my themes, my strengths, and sometimes where I might use them as a weakness, I think that's one that gets me in trouble sometimes.

Sarah Collins (26:25.357)
Hmm.

Sarah Collins (26:30.798)
Interesting. Okay. So you see, I'm trying to relate this back to our question of the letting you off the hook.

Bill Dippel (26:34.039)
Yeah, yeah.

Bill Dippel (26:41.486)
Mm hmm. In that, is it letting me off the hook? Is connectedness letting me off the hook to take action in certain circumstances? Right. Am I am I looking at it as a as a it'll work out. Everything's OK in the connectedness world. I don't need to take an it's letting me off the hook to have to step onto a difficult moment. And again, I have, you know, I have empathy.

Sarah Collins (27:04.162)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (27:09.418)
I have some of those that might lead me to have that too. But I connectedness is one that traps me sometimes in doing this.

Sarah Collins (27:17.646)
Okay, so you're making me think about if you are listening to this and you are a coach or you're a manager, which also means you're a coach, FYI, or a leader, when we're working with our people and they are maybe getting trapped into this mindset, it is really good to help them think about how to move beyond this. I don't have to do things a certain way because of my strength, just like with Bill's connectedness, because I think about like people with deliberative. Deliberative is an executing theme that typically these folks

take great care and consideration when they're making decisions, but that can also slow them down. So I could see someone saying, well, I have high deliberative, so I'm going to need a lot of time to do this. And I think to honor deliberative, we should give them some time, but I'm often advising people who are managing people with deliberative to give them a deadline. Right? And that's how you don't let them off the hook. You say, yes, and intellectual too. Intellectual loves to think about things.

Bill Dippel (27:59.342)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (28:09.64)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (28:16.428)
So it's like, okay, you have these themes. We want to get your greatness. We wanna give you some time to noodle on it. We want to give you some time to think about the best way to do this. However, we can't give you a week, we can give you a day. Right? And so it's like, have to be able to put up some, that's how we manage these strengths to get them to move.

Bill Dippel (28:30.126)
Right, right.

Sarah Collins (28:38.424)
So we're not just allowing people to kind of be out here loosey goosey getting totally driven by their strengths and we're losing the priorities in business or life. We've got to think, okay, how do we manage these strengths so they can actually activate and do the things and perform at a higher level than just sort of like allowing excuse making to happen.

Bill Dippel (29:00.216)
So good. So very good. And coach, coach Sarah, right? know you as an amazing coach. I actually like the fact that when I threw connectedness out, you didn't make the bridge immediately. You were like, I'm curious about the question. How does it relate back? And I'm fascinated by that because how much do we always learn from each other and the other coaches we have on here? Because you didn't put

Sarah Collins (29:04.718)
Yes, hello!

Sarah Collins (29:15.861)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (29:24.758)
Right.

Bill Dippel (29:28.652)
that string together right away. How amazing is it that now we have that? You've now made the comparison to deliberative and how that might play in that specific way. It took you a moment to get there. But every time I am working with my co-chees and the people we work with, how often I think, well, there's the example when I ask you what strength is it that you think is doing that, I have in my mind where it's about to go.

10 % of the time it goes there. At best 10%, right? It's how often do we hear it and it's, explain that to me. And then they explain it to me and that is perfect. That is so well done. And I wouldn't have put that theme as being in that way. So for me, I think that connectedness after I heard it on the other podcast really resonated with me. I thought and I wouldn't have put it there either. again, knowing it, listening to it and building up on it.

Sarah Collins (30:01.219)
Right.

Bill Dippel (30:28.12)
Pretty fascinating for me. So, yeah.

Sarah Collins (30:29.802)
Absolutely. So I have a devil's advocate question.

Bill Dippel (30:33.411)
Hit me.

Sarah Collins (30:35.67)
What do you do if your job requires you to do something but it's in your bottom of your strengths? For instance, communicate. I've got to be a great communicator, but communication is my 34th strength. what, so what am I supposed to do? Like this feels like an impossible scenario.

Bill Dippel (30:41.827)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (30:51.658)
Yeah, let me give you that from my point of view. Let me give you my answer to that, which is a pretty simple one. And that is you and I have highlighted that we met together at Charlotte's event a couple of times and then we put this podcast together while being at that event. I know I had and I'm pretty positive you and I have communicated. So I'm comfortable in saying both of us had drug our feet on doing on a podcast for some time.

Ali, my business coach, had asked me to do it for a couple of years and I literally was dragging my feet. Again, my relationship, right? I got to talk through technical, I don't always love Zoom coaching. How am I going to pull that together? Where am I going? So we could easily look at that as a job or something that kept coming up for me that I was sticking my flag in the sand and being, no, I don't want to do it.

I might but I know I need to do it. I'm being told I need to do it, but I don't want to do it and What happened was and I think this was pretty fair for you and I you and I wooed it up together We met we met we continued wooing we had some love in that And when we met we had some commonality and some thoughts around hey, we should do a podcast that would be good. My gut dropped someone else telling me I need to do a podcast great. That's what I want

And then when we both went, should we do it together? Bang, turn, key for me, right? Now my woo is on fire, which lit my activator, right? Well, what software should we use? How would we step into it? Where would we go? My responsibility gets turned on that it's not just me now. I can push it off and not worry about it. My responsibility doesn't need to get inflamed because I don't

I'm not worried about doing it. Now I have to worry about it. I have to put it on. So I think the easy answer for me in your question, if I'm using that example is how do we lean into the strength that is powerful for us? Right? How do we not let it off the hook? And that's a good example of I don't I don't I don't believe it does let people off the hook. We are giving them and I know early on I sounded like I was letting myself off the hook on a lot of them.

Bill Dippel (33:14.498)
But I think from the coaching community and a good coach will get you to understand you don't get off the hook on this. We need to find another way to activate and turn that on. And for you and me, was Woo, Activator, somebody I really like, someone I respect in the coaching community. I don't want a responsibility to let them down. I have harmony. We're working towards a common goal. I need to activate on other themes to make that work for me. And that's what

That's how we coach with a lot of people. I had a client here yesterday talking about we had worked real hard to talk about a situation she was about to step into and she bailed out. She was going to do it. She had the plan. We gave her the plan. She built on it. And then she came yesterday and said, yeah, I got to tell you, I didn't do it. I completely bailed out of it.

And we broke down why she bailed out of it. And she was devastated because when she actually got to what she was going to go do, it was fantastic. It would have been perfect for all the people she was going to bring. It was absolutely a perfect scenario. And she just felt horrible and texted her, texted the people she didn't bring. It was like, I should have, I don't know what I was thinking. I blew this.

And in reality, we had to sit there and go over so why? What was the theme? What stepped into that? And how can we learn from this and build on it? And kudos to her because she is asking the question, how can I be better? What is it? So we went over her strengths and depth. And she may be a guest this year, so we'll we may be able to break that down a little further. But just going over her themes and understanding why she did it and how she can avoid that landmine again, not letting her off the hook.

Sarah Collins (34:40.43)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (35:04.768)
or overcharging her responsibility which was there. She actually had one theme that was in Superdrive and one she was using in the basement as a coach would say or immaturally and we broke those down and she came to some real good clarity around one phone call would have fixed that particular item. So again, my position on this is it doesn't let you off the hook. As good coaches, our job is to get you past that hindrance.

Sarah Collins (35:21.848)
Hmm.

Bill Dippel (35:33.966)
past that ability to hold on to it and feel it there. How about you?

Sarah Collins (35:37.87)
Yeah, I totally agree with you. do the same thing. I also like to explain to people that the words you see there are 34 strengths and they have one word that represents a whole bucket full of talents within that. And so you will identify the strengths. They show up differently for everyone. And so there are certain things when you read your report, you'll read something for communication and you'll be like, bam, that's so me. And then you'll read another part of communication. You'll be like, that one's not me.

And that's okay, that's what we want. You are unique in that respect. That's why this assessment does not put you in a box. And so I think there's one of like understanding the nuance to the themes and what it means for you. And I think it's, so if you think about communication as a strength, this one comes up for me all the time with people, whether it's high or low. And people assume if you have high communication, you're a good communicator. And if you have low communication, you're a bad communicator.

And that's not what it is because the theme communication is not necessarily the outcome of communicating in the world. Typically people with high communication, it's an influencing theme. They're trying to get what's in their head out. So I have high communication. I'm a verbal processor. I need to get everything in my head out for it to make sense. I love talking. I didn't start out as like a good communicator, you know?

Bill Dippel (36:54.766)
Boy, is that true for you? my, it all comes out. I mean, it just goes. Yes, go on.

Sarah Collins (37:01.922)
Well, I tell people this story. can remember in fifth grade, we had this modern Woodman of America speech contest, the first sort of speech context that I was ever introduced to. And I picked like Henry Ford as my topic. And you know, I'm just in fifth grade and I remember doing it and I did terrible. just, was, I think it was a contest. I didn't have any place, it did terrible. But there was something about it that I loved. Like I liked.

and it scared me and I didn't want to do it again, but I did want to do it again. And in sixth grade, we had the opportunity to do the modern Woodman of America speech competition again. And I think I got like second place or something that year. And it was just like, it was like there was this little flame inside of me that even as a little girl, there was just something exciting about it, but it doesn't mean I was good at it. I did speech in high school. I only went to state one time.

I, know, but I went to a small school so we didn't have like an amazing speech coach. And so it's like, you have to invest in your strengths to get them good. like with communication, if you want to be a good communicator in the world, it takes investing, practicing speaking, practicing talking to people, practicing how you use those words that are coming out of you, like word vomit, to make them good communication. And it can often be not good communication. It's just a lot of communication.

So on the inverse, say you have low communication, you can still be an incredible communicator in the world. It's how you use your strengths. So say you have strategic and significance and responsibility and you're a VP and you could be phenomenal at giving your team, here are the updates. You send them weekly emails, you're talking to them in your one-on-ones because you know that like it's your responsibility and you wanna make a difference to them.

Bill Dippel (38:47.022)
Thank you.

Sarah Collins (38:53.942)
and you're really strategic about the things they need to know and the things they don't need to know. So to the outside world, phenomenal communicator, but you're not word vomiting about every little thing that's happened to you in the day like I would be. And so I think it's like that nuance for people to know too of like the strengths, the way they read on the page and what is happening in the world. We could be totally two different things here.

Bill Dippel (39:08.11)
Right.

Sarah Collins (39:20.908)
And so again, I love to approach the assessment with an abundance mindset and not a limiting mindset. So think about what we can do with our top 10 or that top 15 or wherever you claim. Don't think about what you can't do. And if there is something in that bottom five that you are like, but I need to do this, what in the world, like in the actual world, what does it look like to do that in the world? Do not tell me the strengths, theme or definition. Tell me,

Bill Dippel (39:21.379)
No.

Bill Dippel (39:26.526)
so good.

Sarah Collins (39:50.208)
what action do you want to see in the world? And then we'll work backwards to connect that action to your top 10 to make it possible.

Bill Dippel (39:56.824)
Perfect. Perfect. So good. Wow. Look at her. here. I'm going to there you go. We'll just drop. So that's really good. You know, we we made this comment frequently. I know we do it in our own coaching practices. I always point out this is an excellent tool to make tough discussions much easier and more effective. And you your term is strengths turn.

Sarah Collins (40:02.958)
I love this shit, this is so good!

Sarah Collins (40:25.582)
turning criticism into recognition.

Bill Dippel (40:28.066)
Right. And when I heard you talk about your young girl, high communication, failing at the speech contest and thinking about employees now that we talk about, it's so if you were to extrapolate that to a group that you're working with now, it's much easier. Let's say that communication was in the job and that was something they had to do and they had it high. And usually it works and it didn't.

It's so easy to have that discussion, hey your communication is high, I know it's on your assessment, we've talked about where it works. How do you think, how can I make your communication a little better in this instance? Because this fell down and that didn't happen. So for your young girl, hey, you have high communication but you feel like you dropped the ball here so that wasn't a success, that might be more of a weakness for you. How can we make that better for you? How can I help you understand and let's work on that together to make that?

Sarah Collins (41:04.696)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (41:20.962)
That's such a much better conversation than what just happened? How did that, right? Why are we in this position? How did you fail on this? And hearing you talk about that, we coach so many managers around how to start with just here. If you know and have these, let's base it in a framework and a language that both of you share. And if you do that,

Sarah Collins (41:26.637)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (41:38.849)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (41:45.42)
Yeah, and the language that is based on positivity too, which I think is so important.

Bill Dippel (41:49.122)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I, you know, I have a I have a CEO with a pretty large company I work with hundreds of people. And she's hard. You know, she is she's high, high influencing super, you know, super driven, super go go. And I think one of the things her employees don't understand about her is she expects input from everybody.

But they think because she's so influencing and driven and go go, she doesn't want any input. She wants to go do what she wants to do. And we've worked on this a bit with her and her teams to understand when you don't communicate with her or step in and do things, she looks at that and says, why are you here? What, you know what? mean, my, job is to all talk about this. And when we have sessions where they open up.

And we're in a safe room, let's say, and we're like, we're all, hey, you we're in a safe space. can. And then she learned so much and she exemplifies that. But I would say that some of it, some of her employees are scared of her, you know, of that of that influencey big theme. So again, is it letting her employees pushing them towards not communicating in some instances? Yes.

Sarah Collins (42:59.659)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (43:12.032)
Should she be softening her approach sometimes in certain meetings or asking things in certain ways? Yes, we've worked on that. But also it's incumbent that once they can see each other's themes and strengths and understand why you're doing what you're doing, that's when, OK, maybe I shouldn't be letting you off the hook so much. I should be talking more about this. I should be stepping into the moment and not and not shying away from it. So I think

Sarah Collins (43:40.056)
Yeah, does she have high command? Yeah, that's one of those ones. Yes, command and self-assurance, especially that combo. I see exactly what you're saying. It's a really tricky one. Often is in a leadership position. It begs for leadership even if the person doesn't even want to be the leader. They just have the natural poise and tendencies to step in. And it can say, this is the way it's gonna be. And the person is thinking,

Bill Dippel (43:42.286)
She does. Yeah. Yeah. And she has self-assurance as well. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (44:02.926)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (44:09.014)
And also what are your ideas? But they are just the way they speak can just be so like definitive, like that's what it is that it doesn't invite. And so exactly like you're saying, like, it's, it's coaching our folks to say, well, what are some key phrases that you can learn that do invite? You know, this is how I think it should be. What are your thoughts? It can be little tiny changes like that. And like you said, even getting the team to know that this is

Bill Dippel (44:16.078)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (44:38.144)
the strengths that she is leading from, but here's like what the intent is. Here's what she's interested in. And so I love looking at a partnership and saying, here are your strengths and why you're coming off this way. And here are your strengths and why you are coming off this way. How do we then have empathy and understanding for each other? And then how do we work together better? I mean, these are dynamic, important.

imperative conversations that teams need to be having with each other if they want to reach that high success, high performance status.

Bill Dippel (45:15.362)
Yeah, brilliantly put, really well done. I met my mentor yesterday who has command in his top five and I was explaining to somebody else that was with us the reason we get along so well and talk is because we are absolutely different. He co-coaches with his brother in a practice and his brother's just like me, just like me. Our themes are very similar and we tend to be more, you know,

Sarah Collins (45:30.158)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (45:42.254)
fly off the cuff, you know, let's let's be mushy. Let's let's move and pivot and do things. And the mentor that I meet with is definitely the driver. I'm trying to remember he he he helped helped us with his analogy of it is in sports when there's two commentators, one's the play by play and one's the color guy. Right. He's like, I'm the I'm the play by play. I'm the one that makes every play.

Sarah Collins (46:06.016)
huh. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (46:11.054)
And then my brother's filling in the stuff that's not really important, but it makes the game more interesting. And now they coach separately. So now they've had to learn he's had to become more color and play by play. And his brothers had to pick up more play by play. And we were talking to them about why that works for us and what why he and I get along so well and how often we communicate because coaching with him has been a joy. It's softened him up with his employees.

Sarah Collins (46:15.863)
Right.

Bill Dippel (46:39.49)
helped him get there. It lets him not be so hard. So again, we're not letting him off the hook that he's pushing people aside when they need a personal moment and he has done that in the past. So we don't let him off the hook anymore in relation to our question about if you're going to be a modern manager that runs 60 people in this practice, he is a doctor, if you're going to run 60 people in this practice, you've got to be open to having those moments.

Sarah Collins (46:53.304)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (47:07.598)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (47:07.756)
You've got to soften up and be a bit more like your brother or like me. And the way to do that is surround yourself with people like us so that you understand what that looks like and how it feels. what, most importantly, regarding what you had brought up, what other themes do you have? What are those words where you can lean into those that isn't command? Right. At that moment, we might need to park that command. So, yeah.

Sarah Collins (47:32.098)
Yeah. And command I think is a strong strength. mean, I think if you really sit down, you look at the 34 strengths, there are certain ones who get into the driver's seat, like you like to say, Bill, and there are certain ones who are like, I'm cool in the back seat. And command likes to take the wheel. She does. I mean, by essence of being command, she's like, you know what? I'll drive. I'll drive the car. No one else is gonna drive. I'll drive. And everyone's like, well, I mean, we didn't even have a chance to say, but okay, she's driving.

Bill Dippel (47:41.709)
Mm-hmm.

I'm done. I'm back. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (47:52.974)
I got it.

You do it. Yeah, you got it. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (47:57.804)
Yeah, and so it is one that you have to be very strategic about, like where are we putting you in the car and maybe someone else should drive this because of the goals we're trying to reach today, ma'am.

Bill Dippel (48:06.198)
Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of second season, I think don't we, I think we have a question coming up with a guest around good managers. What themes? And I think command, I think command was in that question sequence. So again, we're going to keep discovering these themes and talking about more as they come. But, yeah, I, I, I feel guilty of letting myself off the hook because of certain times in this debate.

Sarah Collins (48:18.253)
Mm-hmm. I think we do. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (48:36.32)
I also feel very strongly that there are very positive and coachable ways to not do that. And in not doing that, I step into some very powerful themes. You helped me do it with, for instance, this podcast with pushing some of the other things we do. I had no idea. Strengths on Fire had a LinkedIn page until you sent me the link after you built it. Right. And I'm, I was like, cause my activator should have said, let's go do that.

Sarah Collins (48:42.606)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (49:04.84)
would be really good. And suddenly there's a link and we're taking some polls and we're getting some data so.

Sarah Collins (49:07.458)
Well...

Sarah Collins (49:11.266)
Yes. And we're going to move to that right now because my activator did make that so we could take these polls. And so we asked on LinkedIn, do you think it's fair to say that's not my strength when it comes to your work responsibilities? So we had 69 % of people say sometimes 19 % of you said, no, you must deliver. 13 % said, yes, stay in your lane. So Bill, what is your reaction to the question and to our pollers?

Bill Dippel (49:17.164)
Vimmy!

Bill Dippel (49:40.92)
So 69 % said sometime, sometimes interesting because I think, well, I mean, based on the way I've covered this question, I feel like I'm a sometimes I would absolutely be in that. I think to make ourselves better, we need to limit the sometimes we need. We need to park it down to know I need to I need to be able to pivot and move to it to make us better. That's the goal. The goal of coaching, right? How do we step into our strengths?

Sarah Collins (49:43.576)
Sometimes.

Sarah Collins (49:54.36)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (49:58.03)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (50:08.067)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (50:10.67)
How do we show up and be better for the people ourselves and around us? And that is limiting the amount of time I I cherish our arsonists knowing themselves well enough to say, nope, 69 % of the time, I'm not good enough to do that. That just that just gives us clients right there that we can we can help move into. Right.

Sarah Collins (50:30.36)
Yeah, think one of the hard things is when you make a LinkedIn poll, you have to stick to like 30 characters for those answers. So, know, I'm real limited on what I can offer people because I think it's a real nuanced question just like we've said here. I mean, I wouldn't actually never want someone, if you are at work and your boss, your supervisor, your colleague asks you to do something, do not say the words, no, that's not my strength. I'm going to just say a hard up no. You do not get to say that. OK, like.

Bill Dippel (50:37.39)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (50:54.286)
you

Sarah Collins (50:59.106)
Those words do not get to come from your mouth. What you can say is, that's so interesting. Like, tell me more. Or, you know, I'm just a little apprehensive because I really get a lot of energy and feel myself working really fast and getting into flow when I do X. I'm not sure how I'm going to do Y. Maybe I need to think strategically about that. Or can you be my thought partner about how you see me doing that? If it's something that feels like it is not your strength.

Bill Dippel (51:29.198)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (51:29.228)
I just don't think that you get to, think saying, that's not my strength is like bad behavior. I have worked in a workplace where someone did this and I just want to say it was really, really torturous for me. Okay. PTSD in the workplace for that.

Bill Dippel (51:36.142)
I'm

Bill Dippel (51:43.01)
Yeah, I I have a I have I have a client with a sticky employee and by that what I mean is they they are called out by other members on on staff frequently as well. You know, if we're going to set a strengths correction and they're a pretty good strengths group, this would be the person we might need to set that correction with. And initially this employee

hated the coaching was like I will not take part of this. I don't want to do anything about this now This employee is 120 % in It's it's a success story for us on conversion But and by sticky what I mean by that is now periodically I would say this person is using the themes of co-workers and herself to say nope, nope or

Sarah Collins (52:27.395)
Hmm?

Bill Dippel (52:42.678)
I need to push off on that, right? Has kind of migrated from, won't do this at all to, I love this. Maybe I have found an alley to defend some of what I'm doing.

Sarah Collins (52:57.044)
it's like when strengths go dark.

Bill Dippel (52:59.594)
It is. like you said, this person like it's it's difficult for me. It's hard for me to come in because I don't want to puncture the balloon completely and say, but I do I do want to be effective. And that that's hard.

Sarah Collins (53:04.245)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (53:11.299)
Right?

Sarah Collins (53:15.992)
Well, and we both have high harmony and I think that probably, I don't know for you, it comes out in my coaching because I want everybody on the ship going the same way and I don't want anyone to not like what we're doing or to do it wrong and I don't want to call anybody out for doing it wrong. I will if I have to, but it takes a lot of gumption. It does not come naturally to me. And so those situations are difficult. And if I'm being totally honest, I get in trouble. actually am in some cases I am so happy I do not work in a

Bill Dippel (53:20.962)
All the time. All the time.

Bill Dippel (53:34.007)
It does.

Sarah Collins (53:45.64)
normal work environment anymore because if I'm being honest now with hindsight I can see that with high communication and high harmony when people would make me mad what I would do is I would go talk to other people and tell them all about it because I had to process verbally which is a form of gossip and is not a real healthy thing to do in the workplace and now I'm lucky that I'm a business of one so I don't have anyone to talk to.

Bill Dippel (53:47.914)
Thank

Bill Dippel (54:05.077)
Exactly.

Bill Dippel (54:09.006)
no... no... no...

Sarah Collins (54:11.448)
person to really make me mad is myself. But I, you know, these are the things that are real life. Like this is the real truth of it all. And I love season two because we get to uncover sort of these harder, more challenging things. But I just think that like anything working with people is hard and there's going to be so much nuance. You know, if we know one in every 33 million people have the same top five strengths in the same order.

Bill Dippel (54:20.066)
Right. Right.

Bill Dippel (54:25.07)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (54:40.59)
That means we are also unique, which is amazing and allows us to have so much opportunity. But it also means we have to look at each person as an individual. So if you're a manager or a leader, that's a lot of work. You know, and Gallup tells us that we should be having one meaningful conversation a week with the people that we're managing. So you need to like really be on your game and recognize that you've got these unique people that you have got to figure out how to make them the most productive.

Bill Dippel (54:54.328)
That is.

Sarah Collins (55:09.998)
and efficient in their jobs because you know that's sort of why they have those jobs and so I think strengths is a great tool to do that but it can get slippery if we try if we have people who are trying to twist it to say oh yeah yeah no like this is how I'm gonna get out of it we gotta be really careful about how we manage and coach those folks

Bill Dippel (55:12.15)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Bill Dippel (55:21.976)
Yeah, yeah.

Bill Dippel (55:26.189)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (55:30.082)
Got it. Absolutely perfect. Well, you you had said you're a business of one and how you know, you're thank thank God I don't have anyone to talk to to do that. But, you know, I know you as being somebody when we get together, you're always pretty dynamic and forward thinking. I have a quick question for you before we kind of start thinking of rolling out of this. And that is I've talked about how it's tripped me up and done some things with me. How about you and Corey? You ever find that?

You have a moment where.

Sarah Collins (56:00.25)
marriage counseling in here? Yeah, no way. It's a disaster zone over here.

Bill Dippel (56:05.866)
Well, I mean, is there are there a certain is that what have you ever noticed a theme either yourself or in him that it kind of gone off the hook a little I'm letting it go or just curious.

Sarah Collins (56:17.304)
Well, what happens to Cory and I, and I talk about this in coaching all the time, it's honestly what we talked about a little bit ago where Cory has, my husband, if you don't know, he has high command and self-assurance in top five. I obviously have all of this harmony and woo and everything. And I think that is the hardest thing for us. Specifically for me, it's been hard because he can be just so decisive and so just like, this is the way it is.

And there are times where I obviously disagree and I've really had to struggle and I'm in a lot of therapy folks of, you know, being able to be comfortable to say, well, I don't think so. And sometimes he'll push back and sometimes he won't. And like a lot of times I can get him to see my side, but it might not be immediate, you know, because he will just be like, this is the way it is. This is what we're doing. And then I'm having this like,

Bill Dippel (56:56.098)
Ha ha.

Bill Dippel (57:07.694)
Right.

Sarah Collins (57:14.03)
I don't agree with that. Do I say it? Do I not say it? I don't want to make him mad. Like, is it going to make him mad? It's a me thing because of that harmony bumping up against that. You know, do I do it? And so I have our strengths on the refrigerator. You know, I'm here. We got them both. I'm trying. He's also very analytical and strategic, which I am not. So if there is something I'm like, I think we should do this. What is appealing to me is the people part of it.

Bill Dippel (57:21.358)
Sure it is. Yeah. Do I do it? Yeah.

Bill Dippel (57:36.6)
Hmm.

Sarah Collins (57:43.638)
What is appealing to him is more of like the data, the logistics, the plan. So I, if I really want something I know like what I want to use as my approach is going to be different than what is going to be persuasive to him. So I have to change my approach because of how he thinks versus how I think. We share none in our top 10. No, no commonalities at all in the top 10.

Bill Dippel (58:06.098)
Wow. Wow. Talk about opposites attracting in your case, right? I get it. I coach that frequently where I say, you you're attracted to something that you just don't know early on. And eventually that's the thing that might drive you crazy. That old axiom is true. How often, man, I'm fascinated by that because I don't possess that.

Sarah Collins (58:13.184)
Yeah, indeed.

Sarah Collins (58:23.598)
Yeah, so true.

Bill Dippel (58:31.084)
I see the power in it and I love it. And then five years in you're like, OK, that drives me nuts. Right. I I get I know why you're doing it, but I don't know that I love it. Right. And and I know I I get where you're at with that. get why you why why you're there. And, Corey, I you know, I don't want to drag. I'm not dragging your marriage through the mud on an open podcast. I just I know I'm curious how it looks. You know, if we're going to get out there. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (58:36.899)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Collins (58:41.239)
Right.

Sarah Collins (58:54.754)
Just really starting season one off with a bang. Or season two.

Bill Dippel (59:00.098)
We're gonna get out there. Let's get out there. So, all right. Well, Sarah. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (59:04.066)
Well, Bill, tell me when have your strengths given you a fireworks moment? Do you have a recent fireworks moment to share with us?

Bill Dippel (59:09.358)
Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. One thing we didn't, I didn't highlight before we started this, another absolute difference in today's podcast, something we're kicking season two off with that we've had at no other time is a live studio audience. So I have an intern in the studio with me today and she is from a school that I recently

worked with the graduate actually the whole school I found out but all the women in the school and she wanted to do an intern she's actually an ex-guest you can see Rhea on season one and part of my part of my firework moment that I would highlight on that is when Rhea came to me and said can I intern with you? Well, you want to talk about developer standing up and saying can I help right? Let me step into it

Sarah Collins (59:47.022)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (01:00:08.472)
how can we do that? And knowing that it meant enough to somebody of Ray's age at 18 to say, really want to, you meant enough to me that I want to explore this and see how this builds. So that firework moment for me was all about stepping in and then

Ray had joined me yesterday for the mentor group talk when I was talking about his command and how we get together. So being able to just shine and knowing that we're not only coaching and we're helping people subtly but there's some obvious times where it clicks and the firework goes off and we're allowing people to see what we do and it really means something to them. That's my firework moment for right now because

Right now I've never had a studio audience for the podcast. So yeah, it's great.

Sarah Collins (01:01:04.438)
I love it and we love Rhea and she is all in on strengths and so that's really cool. It's really cool.

Bill Dippel (01:01:09.706)
And she's on her way to Tufts University. She's leaving me in a month. So just saying she's going all in and she's doing and she is rocking it. She's and how great is it to just go intern at that age? I know I didn't do it right. I wasn't something I ran out and tried and to be able to see it. We're showing her the back end business, the front end business, the coaching side, the trying to show her everything about a small business and.

Sarah Collins (01:01:12.292)
my gosh, that's so exciting. I love young people.

Sarah Collins (01:01:25.175)
Yeah.

Bill Dippel (01:01:36.162)
letting her decide, I don't want to do that. I'm going to work somewhere that pays me a lot of money and does more things. So I think that's perfect.

Sarah Collins (01:01:40.396)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:01:44.78)
I love that. What about your dumpster fire? Where's your dumpster fire come lately?

Bill Dippel (01:01:48.622)
Oh, my dumpster fires always all over the board. I you know, I miss on I miss on just so many different spots so many times. So I would say I've definitely had some moments of inaction lately. Maybe that connectedness thing. That's probably why that was top of mind for me. Some things maybe I should step into certain certain discussions or certain areas that I think, no, it'll work out. You know, whatever it is, it'll it'll it'll move that way. So

Sarah Collins (01:02:04.568)
Mm-hmm.

Bill Dippel (01:02:18.67)
I've probably had a couple of those both from a coaching point of view where maybe I didn't push the client enough and maybe I should have versus maybe some personal times too where I talked to my dad frequently and other times in my marriage where maybe I should have just stepped on something and really tried to make a point. And I do suffer from that harmony

Harmony developer, you know that that connectedness side I think frequently and I'm I'm experiencing it a bit now So I think it's I think it's great that Ray is with me because then I can't do it in front of her I've got a step keep going. So Yeah, how about you? Where's your where's your firework lately?

Sarah Collins (01:03:02.593)
Yeah, excellent.

I just on a whim my activator used to be my dumpster fire and I've reigned her in pretty good and I've I've got it to where I'm trusting when I work in the last minute and on a whim a couple weeks ago I said I'm gonna do office hours at a coffee shop where I could all just like invite people to come if they want and he didn't know if anyone would show up so I feel like it's really engaging my woo which I my woo is so

helpful in my business, but I have been busy enough lately, like hallelujah, praise the Lord, send me help, that I haven't been going to the normal networking things that I normally do. And that's a lot of how I generate business is being out and talking to people. And so I was like, I got to get back out there, but a lot of the things that exist are not fitting in my schedule. So I'm like, okay, let's do these office hours. Found a local coffee shop that I love and.

Bill Dippel (01:03:45.934)
Sure. Sure.

Sarah Collins (01:03:59.062)
Invited people just I'm going to be there for an hour and a half. If you want to come come we can talk about work We can talk about personal stuff. We can work together. Whatever it is first time I ever tried it and I had three people there and one gal It was actually Liz who was on our podcast recently. She brought her two kids who I got to meet which was so fun and Yes, and then there was two other gals and it was just honestly so fun so great It just totally tapped into my woo. It's a great way to connect

Bill Dippel (01:04:13.47)
How am I not? Liz showed up to an event for you. think.

Sarah Collins (01:04:28.524)
and I had a bunch of other people say, I can't come because I did it. Of course, I announced it like the day before. Hashtag activator. And so this time I have listed it a couple of weeks out. I'm doing it next week. This will this podcast will be out far after this is happening. But I'm excited about it again. I don't know if anyone's going to show up, but it feels like a strategic way to be networking with people who want to talk to me. I'm like.

Bill Dippel (01:04:34.412)
Yeah, naturally.

Sarah Collins (01:04:55.852)
I have a dream that someone who wants to work with me who I don't know yet is going to show up and be like, let's have an impromptu consultation call sort of thing. who knows what it's going to be, but it just seems like a creative way that I get to use my strengths. get to go do what I would do anyways. If no one shows up, I'll just like work in the beautiful coffee shop with coffee and chocolate, like amazing. But also be able to like connect with people out there and network, which I need to do. So I feel like that's my firework moment.

Bill Dippel (01:05:03.214)
Let's talk.

Bill Dippel (01:05:14.112)
Love it. Love it.

Bill Dippel (01:05:21.134)
I do do a lot of coaching in a tea shop in town just because it gets me out among the people and Ali has asked me to do You know drop in day for two hour and again, I don't I've never tried it But I love the idea that you're jumping into it So put pushing it up there and you're actually right some guys gonna walk in some ladies gonna walk in and say I've got a you 150 person company. I need you for all of it. So come do it

Sarah Collins (01:05:34.039)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:05:40.11)
Just jumping in.

Bill Dippel (01:05:51.014)
and if you keep putting them out there one day, I'm going to walk in and you're going to be like, right. I'm going to be like, I need some real help.

Sarah Collins (01:05:54.765)
my God.

we would need that video because I will literally scream.

Bill Dippel (01:06:00.206)
Fear not. I will be walking in with video rolling saying, can we talk about your dumpster moments? Right? So let's talk about one of your dumpster moments right now. Hit me.

Sarah Collins (01:06:06.082)
Yeah

Sarah Collins (01:06:11.694)
I think my harmony has been a big dumpster moment when it comes to the business because I go out, know, and I do, whether it's a one-off workshop or coaching with people ongoing or coaching a team over and over again, I feel like the experience I'm having in there having is great. And I think I need to follow up with some sort of, you know, feedback. Like, how was that for you? Was that good for you?

Bill Dippel (01:06:40.994)
Yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:06:41.07)
You know, can I have a testimonial if it was great or if it wasn't great, why? And I just dragged my feet on it because I'm so afraid someone's gonna say something I don't like. Even though I really like that almost never happens. But like there's a few times there was once I met with a group a couple years ago. It was a banking group and I really brought the energy and only a handful. That's the other thing. A lot of people don't fill out those feedback surveys. And so only a couple of people did.

Bill Dippel (01:06:49.47)
hahahaha

Yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:07:10.892)
And one of the guys, even though he had great feedback saying like, this was good, I learned a lot, he had one response that was like, you came in a little hot and I think I would have had more buy-in if you would have come in a little slower. And like, I can never forget it. I can never forget it. I can never forget it. Like, I have nightmares about that comment, even though that is true. You know what? That is true.

Bill Dippel (01:07:25.718)
Eric came in and caught...

Bill Dippel (01:07:37.454)
Sarah, hot? No, I can't imagine. I pay.

Sarah Collins (01:07:40.504)
So, like that's my harmony though. My harmony is so afraid someone is going to say something that will haunt me for the rest of my life that I'm like, you know what? Feedback, schmeedback.

Bill Dippel (01:07:51.448)
Yeah, I love it. I pay and my my coach slash assistant to send my post rally surveys and to ask for testimonials. We've automated that process through click up and a couple other things. So but like you said, I have every now and then. And you're right. It doesn't get 100 percent response. Sometimes it doesn't even get 50 percent response, but it always gets responses.

Sarah Collins (01:08:07.596)
Yeah, so smart.

Bill Dippel (01:08:21.166)
And I have received a couple of times, hey, this would have been more helpful or I didn't appreciate this or and like you, I think of them and but I've incorporated them at some level. And I would say a couple of them I've just flat out ignored. Right. Because that wasn't that wasn't what I was trying to accomplish. You have to get to a point where you can. So I I completely and utterly understand.

Sarah Collins (01:08:34.955)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Sarah Collins (01:08:41.006)
Good for you.

Bill Dippel (01:08:49.868)
your point in thinking I need to be there but I also don't know that I want the feedback all the time. I get it.

Sarah Collins (01:08:58.05)
I will say though, I am excited because I met with a marketing specialist yesterday, I ran through a workshop with her where she actually helps align people, small businesses who have to kind of just do their marketing on their own with their strengths. And we're talking about doing a collaboration with CliftonStrengths, but at this point, hers is just based on what you're good at. Obviously, I'm a business one, so we broke down all my marketing things and I was talking about this and she gave me this hot tip.

Bill Dippel (01:09:13.166)
Thank

Sarah Collins (01:09:24.268)
because I'm such an in-person communicator, she said, just follow up with the leader, send an invite for a 10 minute Zoom call, ask if you can record it, and then just ask, how did it go? What was good? What could have been better? Can I use any of the good stuff you're saying? And she said, then you have the video of it and you can use the written testimonial. And then I could also follow up and be like, do you wanna do more work? Because what happens,

When I am not following up for feedback, I'm also not following up to say, hey, can we keep working together? So dropping balls over here, but have a plan. I have a plan. So if you are a client listening to this and we have done something together, expect a calendar request for 10 minutes of your time to talk about how it went and know that that is scaring me. And I also think if I put that ball in your court and you don't do it, then like that's fine too.

Bill Dippel (01:10:12.834)
Right?

Bill Dippel (01:10:21.646)
That's okay. Actually, I wrote it down. I love it. I love the idea because I don't always follow up completely. We do send out the surveys. also actually the way I do it is I tend to co-locate the surveys because there we tell everybody that they are that they are anonymous, which they are, but we co-locate them and then send them to management so that they can see good and the bad.

Sarah Collins (01:10:25.867)
Right? Yes!

Sarah Collins (01:10:42.658)
Yes.

Sarah Collins (01:10:47.052)
Mmm.

Bill Dippel (01:10:49.526)
And then I do schedule a call with management to talk about the results of those surveys, which is usually where I'm saying, here's the next step we would do. But I would say, to get on and video it and to do that, that is a really good way to do it. I'd love that. yeah. All right.

Sarah Collins (01:10:56.11)
See, you're so together. You're so put together.

Sarah Collins (01:11:08.546)
Yeah. Okay, Bill. mean, I think we just knocked out episode one, season two. Is there anything else that you have to add?

Bill Dippel (01:11:16.512)
And I don't know if our listeners can handle this much honesty between you and I. This is spooky. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, and when we start bringing our guests back in in an episode or two and start having some of this with them, I'm seeing a lot of firework and dumpster fire moments. I see this being pretty...

Sarah Collins (01:11:22.538)
Woo, we're getting into it. We're getting into it. Listen, I need something to clip and post on LinkedIn. Okay.

Sarah Collins (01:11:42.178)
I can't wait.

Bill Dippel (01:11:43.926)
So if you like this format, let us know. Send us a note or don't. Yeah, or don't. Don't send us feedback.

Sarah Collins (01:11:47.489)
Or don't.

Sarah Collins (01:11:51.342)
Based on everything I just said, I don't want to hear the things you're going to say that are negative. I'm kidding, of course.

Bill Dippel (01:11:56.238)
I'll co-locate it and send it to you so you can get up.

Sarah Collins (01:11:59.448)
There you go. I am here for, when I say I would like feedback, what I mean is I would like compliments.

Bill Dippel (01:12:04.846)
she would. Sarah loves the compliment. So alright, well let's.

Sarah Collins (01:12:09.538)
You know, at least I know what I like. Okay, at least I'm honest.

Bill Dippel (01:12:12.494)
And I know what you like too. So I just say still still the best podcast co-host I've ever worked with. Thanks Love it. So, someone's gonna be mad at that comment from you

Sarah Collins (01:12:18.232)
yes, ditto, right back at ya.

Sarah Collins (01:12:26.782)
yeah, Jordan will not be listening. My previous podcos, I did have a podcast once, please don't go Google it friends. But Jordan, he won't be mad. He's my best friend. Sorry, you won't steal that title from him.

Bill Dippel (01:12:28.17)
Nah, Jordan. Jordan won't. No, hire her.

All right. All right. Love it. Love to know. All right. Wait, I'll never be a best friend. This doesn't feel right. OK, well, that's fair. It's good to know. I'm I'm flying to Lincoln and I'm doing a coffee day, but I'm third, third or fourth best friend. like it. So all right. Well, let's get out of here. Sarah, again, love it. Thank you so much for the kickoff on season two. Love that we're doing it again and have have totally enjoyed.

Sarah Collins (01:12:45.292)
Not like my Jordan.

Sarah Collins (01:12:51.406)
Okay.

Bill Dippel (01:13:06.702)
Season one, so let's see where it goes.

Sarah Collins (01:13:09.612)
Alright, bye!

Bill Dippel (01:13:11.202)
Sound good. All right. And we'll talk to our arsonists soon.