This article is dedicated to Jean Haldane who passed away last month and to her husband Bernard Haldane (deceased) for their lasting legacy of the Dependable Strengths® Articulation Process (DSAP). Today DSAP is in use worldwide in schools, colleges, churches, businesses, correctional facilities, human services agencies, and more.  The Bernards left behind two organizations that continue to carry out their work: Center for Dependable Strengths (CDS) in Seattle, WA; and Dependable Strengths Foundation in South Africa that fosters job creation, worker motivation, and enhancement of skills.

Bernard created the DSAP in 1945 to assist WW II Veterans transition to civilian life. Dependable Strengths® (DS) represent people’s special talents for excellence and are discovered through a peer-assisted group process. Participants identify good memories of what they did well and which gave them a sense of pride and/or accomplishment. In dyads and/or quads, they share their stories of what they did as they were making it happen. Then, their peers give them feedback. Through a process of prioritization, participants walk away with clarity and ownership of their DS—“a skill or talent that shows itself three or more times in the person’s top seven Good Experiences”—and know how to demonstrate their value to employers.

I interviewed Carmen Croonquist, a Dependable Strengths® facilitator and career coach. She said, “The main difference between DS and StrengthsFinder 2.0 is that DS are generated based on people’s memories of life experiences and to which they’re emotionally connected. Whereas, the StrengthsFinder 2.0 provides test takers with data on their top natural talents and provides them with further information to confirm them.” Carmen has applied her knowledge of DS with college students, career clients, and career workshops/classes. She feels it equips them to demonstrate their value to current and future employers.

CDS offers DSAP 5-Day Facilitator Training and public workshops. Through CDS you can purchase resources to learn more about DS. I have found the following three books authored by Haldane/s to be valuable:

1. Gifts: Dependable Strengths for Your Future is a great resource on DS and contains activities to discover one’s DS;
2. Job Finding Power is for lay leaders and has useful information for them to assist the unemployed; and
3. Ministry Explorations: A Total Ministry Support System is a total ministry support system.

CDS, along with Center for Learning Connections and WOIS/The Career Information System, just launched the initiative “Coming Home: Dependable Strengths for Veterans.” You can donate to this cause online.

Wishing you success as you assist your clients in discovering their Dependable Strengths®!

Copyright 2010. Nancy Branton.

How did you select a college (or university) major? How many different majors did you declare? How many different colleges did you attend? Did you complete your college degree? Choosing a college major can be a very difficult and time-consuming process. Given the large investment for a college degree, it’s smart for prospective and current students to take career assessments and meet with a career coach or counselor as early as possible, in order to select a college major that fits them best.

The Career Liftoff^® Interest Inventory (CLII) is designed specifically to assist students in making wise choices for their college major. As career coach, I have found the CLII to be an extremely helpful tool for my clients, along with coaching, to identify their college major.

Jim Lewis and Gary Anderson formed Career Liftoff^® to create an assessment that helps people to select a college major. Gary Anderson, Vice President of Career Liftoff^®, was a former high school career adviser and college career center director, and saw the need for an assessment that would specifically focus on determining a college major. Jim and Gary, along with expert assessment developer Ronald Page of Assessment Associates International, developed the CLII.

The CLII report shows scores for the six Holland Occupational Themes (OT)—realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. And it gives scores for five occupational interest scales (OIS) that relate to each of the six Holland themes, for a total of thirty occupational interests. The report shows the test takers’ top OIS in rank order, and lists a sampling of careers for each of them. Because the OIS link closely to college majors, it’s great information to use when coaching people to select a college major.

The careers listed in the client’s CLII report, under the top six OIS, tie directly to occupations in O*NET™. It’s easy for students to use this web-based system to read more about occupations and compare their top OT with the rank order of the OT for the various occupations in O*NET™ Online.

As career coach (or counselor), ask students clarifying questions and actively listen to them to help them process the information in their CLII report and from their O*NET™ research. Encourage them to gain knowledge of occupations through volunteer work, informational interviews, and job shadowing. Also, ask them to read course descriptions for potential college majors to confirm how interested they are (or are not) in taking these courses.

The OIS link to both vocations and avocations. This information can be referred to as you coach people to determine which of them they wish to invest the most time in for their work and which are best suited for their hobbies.

Choosing the right college major allows people to move into occupations that are fulfilling to them. And, fulfilling work leads to overall happiness in life. Serve your clients well by offering them an interest inventory such as the CLII. Further information on the CLII can be found at Career Liftoff^®.