Association boards and staff teams are most effective when people understand what they naturally do well, appreciate what others bring, and apply those strengths toward shared goals.
Tools such as CliftonStrengths®, as well as other individual or team assessments, can help create a practical, positive language for collaboration. Used well, they are not labels or personality boxes. They are starting points for better governance, stronger staff partnership, and more meaningful engagement.
Start with What Is Right
Strengths-based work does not ignore weaknesses or performance issues. It helps people identify where they have the greatest natural potential and how those talents can be applied productively, whether the framework is CliftonStrengths®, another assessment, or a thoughtfully facilitated team conversation.
No One Has Every Strength, Unless They Are on a Team
No individual is meant to be strong at everything. Association boards and staff teams are at their best when members bring different strengths to the work and learn how to rely on one another.
CliftonStrengths®, for example, organizes talent themes into four domains: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. Other assessments may use different language, but the purpose is similar: helping individuals and teams understand how they work, communicate, decide, and contribute.
When an association board understands its collective strengths, it can see where it is naturally strong and where it may have blind spots. For example, a strategically minded board may generate bold ideas but need stronger partners to move ideas into action. A relationship-oriented board may build trust but need to stay intentional about urgency and accountability. These patterns are not good or bad. They help a team work better together.
Why Strengths Matter for Boards
Association boards carry important responsibility for mission, strategy, oversight, stewardship, and long-term impact. In general, board members are already talented leaders. They bring experience, credibility, and proven strengths from their professional lives. The challenge is that those same strengths often need to be leveraged differently in the boardroom than they are in the workplace.
In their day jobs, board members may be rewarded for making quick decisions, directing teams, solving problems, or advocating strongly. In an association governance role, those same strengths may need to be aimed toward listening, asking better questions, engaging committee insights, partnering with staff, supporting the chief staff executive, and keeping the mission above individual preference.
When boards use strengths intentionally, they can better align committee assignments, engage emerging leaders, invite more voices into discussion, and appreciate different styles of contribution. Strengths also support healthier conflict by helping board members see different perspectives as contributions rather than obstacles.
The work becomes even more powerful when the strengths of board members and staff are viewed together. That combined picture reveals natural energy, partnership opportunities, and ways one group’s strengths can complement the others.
When board and staff understand how their talents overlap and differ, collaboration becomes more effective.
Creating a Strengths-Based Culture
A strengths-based culture does not happen because people complete an assessment. It happens when assessment insights become part of how association boards and staff work together in meetings, committee assignments, coaching conversations, onboarding, recognition, succession planning, and leadership development.
For boards, this may mean considering strengths alongside competencies when recruiting and developing leaders. For staff, it may mean helping employees connect their strengths to priorities, goals, and partnerships. For the association, it means treating differences as an advantage and building teams where people are valued for the best of what they bring.
One good practice is to assess strengths before a board development session and use that session to help leaders interpret and apply what they learn. This is especially helpful when onboarding new board members, allowing them to be viewed from the beginning as contributors who bring something new and valued. The conversation can focus on how strengths show up in governance, how the board’s collective profile supports priorities, and how board and staff strengths can be aligned to advance the mission.
Final Thought
Recognizing and leveraging strengths is not a “soft” exercise. It is a practical leadership discipline. Association boards and staff teams that understand, appreciate, and intentionally use individual and collective strengths are better equipped to build trust, communicate clearly, engage fully, and make decisions that advance the mission.
The goal is not for every person to be good at everything. The goal is to create teams where each person’s talents are recognized, developed, and aimed toward shared impact. That is when strengths, whether identified through CliftonStrengths® or another assessment, become a pathway to better governance, stronger staff partnership, and higher-performing associations.
Steve Smith is CEO at AMC and a Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths® coach. He can be reached at [email protected].
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