Many agencies have been operating fully remotely or in a hybrid environment for four or more years. But some challenges persist, including:
These and other challenges can lead to miscommunication or make it difficult to build team cohesion.
This can be magnified in matrixed teams, where an account leader may or may not be the person’s direct manager.
However, tools such as CliftonStrengths or the Enneagram can help build and optimize remote agency teams. Identifying the individual strengths of your team helps:
Simply put, helping team members understand each other’s preferences and strengths can give managers and leaders insight into why people behave the way they do. This understanding also helps guide those who are responsible for delegating projects and tasks.
In addition to improving your existing team, tracking CliftonStrengths results over time can help agency leaders identify, understand and hire for the strengths that tend to drive the highest performance.
What is CliftonStrengths?CliftonStrengths, formerly known as Clifton StrengthsFinder, is an assessment developed by the Gallup organization. It helps people discover their natural strengths.
The assessment also identifies how individuals lead, including through:
Those who lead with Influence tend to thrive when working through others, whereas those who lead through Relationship Building may excel at fostering deep connections.
Building a balanced teamWe have individuals take the CliftonStrengths assessment as part of the interview process to:
This information provides an opportunity to learn how an individual’s strengths manifest when working with their team and clients.
There are 34 total possible strengths. The assessment identifies each person’s top 5 strengths. (One version of the assessment ranks all 34 strengths, whereas the default shows only the top 5. We use the version that ranks all 34.)
Each strength is associated with a color (blue for relationship themes, purple for execution themes, green for strategic thinking themes, and orange for influencing themes).
Having a balanced team is important – especially when individuals collaborate with clients. That said, we see notable differences in the makeup of our leadership, SEO and PPC teams.
Our SEO team is a blend of Achiever and Strategic Thinking. Our PPC team is a blend of Arranger, Strategic Thinking and Relationship.
In leadership positions, we look for a blend of colors in the top 5, ideally with at least 3 colors present, with 4 being extremely rare but desirable. Orange tends to present itself in those who come across as natural-born leaders, with the confidence to lead a group.
Command is the rarest of the strengths, yet we have been fortunate enough to find three individuals with that in their top 5.
Our leadership team serves as a good model for diversity. With all colors present, two individuals lead with Influencing themes, one with Execution, and one with Relationship Building.
We balance each other out. The diversity in perspective leads to healthy debates because we all tend to see things through a difference lens.
Although people’s strengths can evolve as they grow in their career, and certain new themes may emerge, I’ve found that 2-3 of mine have stayed in place over the past 15 years. They’ve shifted in position, but remain present.
Building rapport and understandingTo build a more effective agency team with CliftonStrengths, it’s important to share each person’s results openly. Remember, no strength is “better” than others.
By knowing what makes each person tick, a manager can better manage their team – whether it’s a matrixed organization, pods or direct reports.
For example:
No strengths are bad, per se. However, knowing how everyone is oriented helps organize teams for success. (For example, your relationship-oriented members may excel in client-facing roles.)
Practical steps:
Statistics show that 93% of communication happens non-verbally. Interpreting those nonverbal cues through video is often tough.
In addition, with communication through Slack or Teams, vocal tone is left behind. Comments can be interpreted more harshly or more passively than in person, which can occasionally lead to unnecessary and unintended friction.
Lastly, learning through osmosis, like in the old days when we all sat side by side, has gone by the wayside.
This is why Strengthsifinder is excellent for teams. It:
When peers start linking behaviors to traits, they become better at understanding their clients, even without knowing their specific strengths. This helps client-facing individuals pick up on cues to effectively shape conversations and meeting agendas.
This can help deepen relationships and ultimately lead to better service delivery. For example:
While we use CliftonStrengths to identify strengths and tendencies, you can choose from various tools to get similar results.
Two other popular tools can help facilitate a better understanding of your team’s strengths and foster greater collaboration:
Building remote agency teams can be challenging. CliftonStrengths, or an alternative personality strength assessment, can help: