The Guru - Different Shades of Green

At first I thought the printer was broken. Two of the participants for my first in-house CoreClarity workshop showed nothing but green talents in their top five. But when I checked their CoreDrill charts I realized the printer was fine and I was about to get an education in brain power by processing Brad and Jason through their CoreClarity profiles!  

We call those with a sea of green talents Gurus, and they can be a combination of unique flavors of “smart” depending on how they have added skills, knowledge and experience to their Reflectors. Whether insightful, introspective, studious, intelligent, deeply read, deep thinking, profoundly creative, or able to “think” around corners they all can display different shades of green brilliance. 

A Guru has a brilliant mind and is naturally intellectual and/or introspective. Jason and Brad were both great thinkers but in very different ways. Ask them what they think, and they will pause to think about your question and how to answer it in the best way. Brad’s Input, Learner, and Intellection loved to read and learn. His Strategic probably led him to be a student of history and leadership. Along with books he also studied people. He had developed good people skills and was great at figuring out wise if not ingenious solutions to complex people problems.

Jason was a creative genius with his Ideation and Futuristic. His initial impression was that of a soft-spoken introvert but when you got him onto topics surrounding his artistic talents he was a spring of information and innovation. As the head of our regional media department he had an outlet for thinking outside the box in ways that could take him to another thought plane. He would get sunk into a project and we would hardly see him for a few days. Just slide a pizza under his closed door once a day and put up a sign outside that said “Genuis at work” and he would be happy producing quality videos and media.

Both were “reflection pools of resources and expertise” - Brad in problem solving and strategies while Jason brought artistic perspective and innovation. They could both deep dive and see subtleties or opportunities others would miss.

Because of their lack of talents in the other three quadrants, Gurus may exhibit the Dr. Spock syndrome, not showing much emotion although they may care deeply. Without the intrinsic drive of Energize they can get stuck in their head, and without Mobilize talents, recruiting others to carry out their brilliance is best left to others.

Having all Top 5 talents in one quadrant is very rare. All Energize (called Dynamos) and all Connect (called Collaborators) show up less than 1/10 of 1 percent.  I personally met the one person in our database with all Mobilize (called a Charismatic). However, Gurus show up 1.4% of the time which is almost as much as Thought Rockets, Super Drivers  and Illuminarios, and 3 times as much as Pace Setters. Considering over a third of the 34 CliftonStrengths talents reside in the Reflect quadrant it makes statistical sense that we see this one color CoreDrill most frequently.  These walking “think tanks” are potential Mensa material and do well when they find roles where they are paid to think.