33 Million people have completed the CliftonStrengths® assessment!!

In celebration of that, let's take a look at how CliftonStrengths came about.

The origin story:

Don Clifton, Father of Strengths-Based Psychology, was born in 1924 in Nebraska. After returning from WWII, he felt he had seen enough of war and wanted to spend the rest of his life doing good for humankind.

He started a company doing customer research and personnel selection, which later merged with the polling company Gallup.

At Gallup, Don made two research advancements:

• For organizations, Don Clifton developed ways to identify top performers for specific jobs.

• For individuals, he developed an assessment to identify specific traits, and ways to develop those traits to benefit the individual. These specific traits are the beginning of "strengths".

1999: 18,763 people completed the initial version of Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment to measure personal talent.

2001: Don Clifton and Marcus Buckingham published "Now, Discover Your Strengths" book that included a code to the StrengthsFinder assessment online.

2003: Don Clifton passed away. Shortly before his death, the American Psychological Association honored him as the Father of Strengths-Based Psychology.

2007: Gallup revised the StrengthsFinder assessment after conducting a comprehensive review of assessments psychometrics. This was the birth of StrengthsFinder 2.0

2012: With millions of taking the assessment, Gallup introduced Certified Strengths Coaches.

2015: The assessment name was updated from Clifton StrengthsFinder to CliftonStrengths assessment.

2018: The most extensive guide - the CliftonStrengths 34 report - was released.

2024 Jul : 33,009,084 people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment (and the number keeps going up as I write this!)