Do you work with anyone who enjoys asking questions when you present them with any situation? They love asking “Why?” “How did you get that information?” “Can you verify that data?” If you know this person, they may have the strength of Analytical®.
People with the Analytical strength love to challenge ideas. They deal largely with facts, not emotions, which can be quite disconcerting for individuals with emotionally sensitive strengths. When trying to communicate with someone who’s Analytical, emotional words and body language will be ineffective. People with a dominant Analytical strength see patterns—in the universe, in their work, in their family. They enjoy asking questions in order to identify patterns and find solutions.
Analytical people love to look through a microscope metaphorically, and often thrive in the medical research or database management fields. One risk with Analytical people is paralysis by analysis—overanalyzing something until they’re stuck. If an Analytical individual partners with someone with the Activator strength, the Activator can help the Analytical person to get going. To empower an Analytical person, show them data that supports what you’re telling them.
Is the Analytical theme one of your top talents? Are you are someone who searches for reasons and causes? Do you look at the big picture that others might miss and think about all of the issues that could affect a situation?
Monetize your Analytical theme by looking for jobs where you are paid to analyze data, find patterns, or organize ideas. For example, you might excel at research, database management, editing, or risk management.
Sandy Evans has been my accountant for over 25 years. Whenever I ask her about retirement, she says that she will never retire and she doesn’t consider what she does work. One day I asked her, “What is it about being an accountant that you love so much you don’t consider it work?” Even without knowing her CliftonStrengths, I suspected Analytical had to be in her top five.
Sandy said she always wanted to do something with numbers and data. She developed a love of data because “data always tells you the truth.” The Analytical style thrives on “prove it.” Being the numbers and data person sometimes made her feel a bit alone. It was not the cool thing to want to be a part of, but it was where her heart was.
After college, she went to work for a small CPA firm, and that was an eye-opening experience for her. By watching the people that worked there, she discovered that she help them by using her Analytical® talent. She could use her love of numbers and data to assess, analyze and assist her clients with managing risk in their business. Her skepticism about what people said was going on in their company made her dig into their data and research what was happening, not just what the business owner thought was going on. Sandy’s ability to ask questions, to understand how the patterns in the data fit together and affect one another, gave her small business owners the confidence to move forward in their decisions in their business. With this ability to present the data about their business to the owners, she has become a trusted adviser for them. Her Analytical® talent no longer makes her feel alone but a valued part of each business.
When the owner of the small CPA firm decided it was time for him to retire, the first person he thought of to purchase, the firm was Sandy. He saw how the refinement of her Analytical strength allowed her to take her love of data and analysis not just to give the clients the basics of accounting but to build a relationship with each one of them.
Sandy jumped at the chance to be one of the small business owners and is now monetizing on a greater scale for all these years of refining her Analytical® strength.
Like Sandy knowing your strength well will allow you the freedom that Sandy found to move and work in your strength. The crucial use of the strength of Analytical is the quality of problem-solving, the precision of questions, and the excellence of decision-making.
Do you have the CliftonStrengths® theme of Analytical? If you do, what ideas do you have to make money with your Analytical strength and how will you implement them? Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts’.
Not sure where you are and need some conversation around your unique strengths or building your business? Remember you can schedule your Ask Brent Anything call. Let’s talk about strengths.
