You know, our coaches make a significant investment, both in time and in money, to get certified and many ask – what’s the value in the
certification? Jeremy, if I were to ask you that, what would you say to that question? What’s the value of a Gallup certification?
Yeah. And actually I love the question, Jim, because I think there’s a lot of courses out there and our Learners, people with Learner in their
Top Five, they go there’s something to learn, something great. And although there’s a lot of content, and I’ll kind of hit on this, there’s a lot
of content that Gallup gives, but it’s more than that. And I think when people think about the financial investment, if you’re going to do the
accelerated program, which is, you know, four and a half days of your time, plus travel, it’s an investment. And so that value question comes
up and I think even when people are just saying what’s the value and the benefits? And I was thinking about this, and just even responses that
we’ve written up, things we’ve talked to people about, and even responses we’ve heard from coaches, if you’re new to this whole coaching
world or even maybe you are an existing coach, a professional coach, but new to the Gallup tools and CliftonStrengths and wanting to know
more about that, one of the things that you’ll find and you hear from other coaches is their own testimonies, their reasons to why it’s impactful.
And a couple things that I want to kind of share, I think there’s really kind of three things that you can summarize this in regards to what’s the
benefit – I’d say it’s about impact, education, and certification. And those three things, and purposefully in that order, I think the impact
piece is huge. One of the things, if you’ve been around Gallup any point of time, you hear us talking about, you know, that we exist, the
mission of our organization is really to help solve the world’s biggest problems. And when you think about seven billion, over seven billion
people on the planet and the desire that people have today to live a life that’s full of purpose and mission, there’s tremendous opportunity to help
people to live their best lives. And it’s one of the things that Dr. Clifton, the inventor of the CliftonStrengths assessment, one of the things
that he simply said is, “How do we help people to be the best version of themselves?” And I know for many of you as coaches, or many of
you that are even interested in becoming a certified coach, or giving your life to that, a big part of it is your own personal mission to want to
help people to be a better version of themselves. And the interesting thing with that is it’s not just about, you know, kind of hey, Jim, let’s just talk
about you and let you feel a little better, it really is about impact and business impact. For many of you out there, you’re working with senior
executives or individual managers or people that are held accountable to performance goals within their organization. Even their own
personal goals. And so connecting who a person is, kind of at their core, to what they do and having the ability to actually sit with them;
you know, we use the analogy a lot in coaching of sort of like jumping into somebody’s car, not grabbing the wheel and driving them there like
an Uber driver, but it’s actually sitting in the passenger seat. And so by becoming a Gallup Certified Coach, you have the ability to help
people navigate their way through life. Navigate their way, and again sometimes they’re coming to you because they have a challenge.
Sometimes they’re coming to you because things are good and they just want it to be better. Sometimes they’ve got a big decision to
make. Maybe they’re super successful where they’re at, but there’s new opportunities in front of them. And so that ability to sit with them and
navigate, or we will sometimes use the analogy, too, of helping them hold up the mirror. Or to just be a thought partner to them. Often times
I’m coaching people, I go okay, I was thinking about that, but I just wasn’t sure. Thank you for the validation or thanks for helping me dig into
that. And so I think that impact piece-changing people’s lives-it’s why, at Gallup, when we’ve said, “We want to reach seven billion people”
and if we started with even a billion people knowing their Strengths, how do we get to a point that we have a million coaches that are
part of this network with us to help us do that? So that impact piece is really critical. The second thing is really around education.
And kind of when you think about education, there are a lot of you out there that, again, are already coaches or some of you are new in your
coaching journey; I know you maybe are even interested because you’re saying I want to become educated, I want to learn more. And
although Gallup has a lot of great books, resources, online tools, kits that you could purchase that can help you on that journey,
there’s something powerful about sitting with a group of experts, and I say this because in my own journey to Gallup, I knew the
CliftonStrengths assessment, I knew as much as I could gain from a book or some online webinars, but there’s something about going
through an intensive course with, in this case, you know, Gallup experts that have, you know, are very close to the research and the
development of it. But it’s taking in as, Gallup talks about kind of that journey toward becoming strong at something, the journey toward
becoming great. It’s not just about your talent to be a great coach or great advisor, but what are the knowledge and skills that you add to
that? So what do you need to learn? What are the tools that you can learn? And so with the Gallup certification, I hear coaches all the time
that just are saying things like I thought I knew how to do this, but I had no idea the complexity and the depth of all 34 Themes. Or what it
looks like when you combine those Themes together. And I know, even my colleagues on the call today, Maika, I know you’ve experienced
this a lot in the course – it’s day three and people are like okay, too much and my brain’s about to explode. There’s so much depth that I
think people don't realize until they get into it. And so by becoming certified, we’re really kind of unveiling the curtain and giving you Gallup’s
best thinking around this. When you begin to think about it, too, there’s a different approach that Gallup has taken and, again, Dr. Clifton was
named, you know, the Father of Strengths- Based Psychology and the Grandfather of Positive Psychology. So when you begin to
help people using this tool of focusing on what’s right instead of what’s wrong. Focusing on what they do best and using their own Strength to the
Strengths of their team members, it’s a different approach. So know many coaches out there, you’ve got a lot of tools in your toolbox and this
is one more tool to approach people and helping them impact their lives and impact their businesses and impact individual performance in
a new way. Actually, one of our coaches, and Jim, I know you know her well, she’s been on Call to Coach before, but Maureen Monte,
she, one of the quotes that she gave, and it’s out on our website, but she just says the certification helped me gain confidence in my
craft. I mean she was already a coach. She was already certified in a lot of other tools and resources. She loved Strengths. But by going
through the certification, by getting trained and educated, and having access to some of those new tools and ideas, it helped her gain
confidence, which, again, that serves you as an individual tenfold when you not only are passionate about it and want to help impact
people, but you’re educated on it. You’ve received the education to get there. And then the last piece, like I said, very simply,
certification. So impact, education, and certification. And certification, it’s interesting as I travel the world, too, if you tell somebody
they’re certified or certifiable, kind of sounds like you’re entering them into a mental institution. They’re like no thank you and I don’t want to pay
money for that. But what’s interesting is I hear this from people all the time is I don’t, I might be passionate about being a coach or I’ve done
some other education, but how do I become kind of an official part of this movement? How do I gain, just like a doctor, how do I get the
right credentials on my wall that do two things – I think, one, it gives me that confidence that I’ve officially been trained by this organization or
around utilizing this tool; the second thing is I think it instantly gives you some credibility. If you went into a doctor’s office and they said,
“Oh, I never went to med school, but I’ve gotten pretty good at this.” There’s a lot of coaches out there that you’re having impact, but I’ve had
several coaches that I have interacted with over the years and people that own their own independent consulting practices that are very
successful, but have said, “Hey, I’m working with this client and they want somebody that is certified by Gallup. That has kind of that stamp
of approval.” And so in going through the certification course and the process, you know, that we’ll talk you through in regards to kind of
what does that look like, you’re becoming an actual certified coach. We’re going to give you a digital, you know, logo. You can bear that title
of, you know, a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach. It lets you expand your brand. You’re now part of that Gallup network and Strengths
Coach’s community. And, again, there’s a lot of people out there that use the CliftonStrengths tool, that it’s something they’re familiar with, but
you’re now becoming part of this small, but quickly growing, you know, group of thousands of coaches that are part of that Gallup brand and
our mission of reaching a million coaches that will help us, you know, impact a billion people. So that certification, again, not only does it give
you that stamp of approval, it allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself. You’re part of that network of coaches and that, an
extension, as our CEO always says, of the Gallup Tribe. That together, we’re changing the world and, again, our coaches, our certified
coaches get to be a part of that. The piece that’s interesting, too, and some of you out there, maybe you’re, as you’re still
thinking about certification, you’ve maybe jumped on to some of these online, you know, kind of learnings that we offer or conversations
that we have, some of you, too, have maybe had a chance to come to our CliftonStrengths Summit that we do every summer. And what’s
really interesting, and you figure this out pretty quickly, whether you’re on a chatroom, whether you’re in person with people, there’s something
different about this network of coaches. Some people have asked me like aren’t they super competitive? You know, aren’t you worried
about somebody trying to steal a client from you? And, although there can be that competitive nature of wanting to grow your own
independent coaching practice, when you’re talking about seven billion people on the planet, it’s less of a competition and it’s more about
collaboration. And actually one of our other coaches, Beverly Griffeth-Bryant said this, and I love the way she said it – she said, “We don’t
compete, but we actually complete each other.” And it was really interesting where she was actually saying these other coaches make me
better. They push me to be better. Now, there might be clients where another Gallup certified coach or somebody who’s certified in a different
assessment might win the business. But the reality is, with, again, with eight billion people on the planet, there's opportunity for us to come
alongside countless numbers of people. And so being part of something bigger than yourself, especially if you are an independent consultant,
coach, even somebody that’s within a large corporation, to have this network of people that are likeminded. And so that certification gives
you access to not only saying I’m a part of that and that official brand, but there’s online learning, other components, that we continue to
offer from a Gallup standpoint that enable you to support the people that are around you. So that piece of it, again, kind of from when you think
impact, wanting to change the lives of people, education, just learning more to become an expert on the tool, and then that certification
that gives you some of that credibility and allows you to be part of something bigger than yourself is key. And one last thing I’ll say and then if you
guys have questions or, Jim, if there’s any questions from chat, too, we can chime in on this. But one last thing I’ll say, and I hear this a
lot from people, you know, the cost of the program to become certified, to get the education, it’s an investment. Especially if
you’re an independent coach, even within an organization, it’s a big investment. But think about anybody you go to for advice. If you went
to a doctor and said, “Hey, I’d like for you to give me some advice on this.” Or you went to a financial advisor or you went to… You would
hope that they, again, were not just educated or good at it, but they had invested in themselves and in their practices to do what they do. Now
the reality is, for many of them, if you use a doctor, as an example, or a financial advisor, you know, the cost of business school, or all
these other components is, when you think about that compared to, you know, what Gallup’s charging for our courses, it’s, you
know, we’re charging a fraction of that. But it’s still a big investment. But when you think about the investment in yourself, the investment in
your clients, I hear people say all the time it’s totally worth it. Even people that have gone through other certification programs, it’s, I’ve yet
to hear somebody say give me my money back, this wasn’t worth it. I hear people say I don’t necessarily want to pay double, but it was even
worth more than what I paid. And so the impact piece into themselves, into their clients, is a huge component, from what I’ve seen. So
Maika, Angela, anything else you guys would add? Or Jim, any other questions from chat on that?
Jeremy, I have a question about readiness. I think sometimes when coaches are thinking about, they’re just sort of on that bubble of do I
or don’t I, you’ve taught a lot of these courses and coached a lot of the coaches that come through the certification, how would you
describe what coaches could do to prepare for certification? Or maybe where they need to be even in, I mean this might be a content place or
like a personal discovery place, but how do you enter certification at sort of a readiness aspect? Where do you need to be?
Yeah. What I like about thinking that way, and even, again, like anything you’re going to attend, what do I need to do before I get there? Even if
you’re taking a trip for vacation, what do I need? What’s the weather? How do I need to pack for this? And so the readiness piece, I think it’s, I
think even doing what Maika just said of asking yourself what can I do to prepare is going to help you to hit the ground running. The other thing I’ll
say on this, though, in regards to what to do, I think there is a very wide variance. For some individuals, I know they’re in the course, very
new to even CliftonStrengths, they may even be working somewhere else, but thinking and kind of really processing through becoming a coach.
And then there's other people that have been coaching and, again, owning their own coaching business or consulting business and have been
doing it for decades. So there is a variance of who might be in the course with you. But what I would say is hold up the mirror to yourself before
you get there. What is it that I need to know about me? And I think even just that simple piece of you’re brand new to Strengths or
you’ve, you know, been using the CliftonStrengths assessment for decades, hold up the mirror to yourself. Dig into your
Strengths. Be refreshed by what are my Strengths? How am I going to coach? Who are the types of people that I want to impact? And I
think even asking that, answering that question of why is this important to me? Fast forward a little bit, I often say, because I have Futuristic in
my Top Five, if you don’t have Futuristic, you can borrow mine, but think about what do you want to accomplish after the course? Who is it
that you want to impact? And I think if you can do that, if you can think about your own Strengths and you can begin to think about who
you want to impact, part of that preparation then will help you come in with a readiness. I know for many of you, you’re going to say I wasn’t,
again, by day three you’re going to go I wasn’t ready, there's so much information. But I think that can help you to prepare a little bit.
Anything else you would add? Yeah. Jeremy, you mentioned earlier the ongoing education. I think, talk a little bit about, you
know, after you get through the initial coursework and certification and you’re a Gallup Certified Coach. The benefit of that ongoing
education that we provide, say, for example, through the Learning Series, what do you hear about the value that provides to coaches who
are certified?
Yeah. And, Jim, you could chime in with this too, it’s just kind of almost connecting the dots on the library of resources that we have. But
back to the value piece, Angela, I think, again, people don’t just want the one and done. It’s even where, again, in a lot of professions that I
mentioned with people that are advising around health, around finance, they weren’t just educated a decade ago and now they’ve been
doing it, they’re constantly sharpening the saw. And, again, I like that hospitals have doctors, you know, and nurses and others continue to
get ongoing coursework and things that keep them sharp. And I hear from our coaches often about the importance of that. Not only being
exposed to what Gallup’s learning, but being exposed to best practices of others. So that whole idea of it wasn’t just we trained you, good
luck, go do it. But being part of that learning community, I think you used that word, too, Angela, being part of not just a community of
coaches or a network, but a learning community where we’re constantly learning from each other. And I’m, it’s interesting the number of people
that when they go through the course, these are almost kind of new family and friends. You’ll see them when they get together, you know, at
the Coaches Summit, they’ll go, they’ll go out, you know, for dinner or cocktails or, but they’ll connect with people because of that sense of
learning from each other is just as important as learning from Gallup. So I think by providing that, we’re giving them that continuous piece for
both of those.
And let me jump in and say, for those of you who have been out, maybe you haven’t been keeping track and you’re in this community –
5,000 certified coaches now in our community – some 10,000 that have been through the training, we’d love to see more of those that
have been through that haven’t certified, Maika’s going to talk about that here in just a few minutes, get that certification for these reasons.
Those resources, actually Maika helps me make a lot of those, we make them available to you through programs like Theme Thursday.
We interview dozens of coaches every single year on their best practices and what they’re doing, so you don’t have to go out and if you
can’t make contact with them, we make them available virtual. In three or four different countries by the way. Not just U.S. centric, but
we think about India, Australia, what’s going on in Asia, and Europe is going to be coming online this year, so we’re super, we’re really, really
excited about that. So, Angela, you mentioned the Learning Series-every single year, seven or eight sessions-we go hardcore into your
professional development. So lots of benefits to being certified when we think about them.