A Talent Based Approach to Learning and Teaching in Marketing Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

Abstract

My teaching philosophy and approach revolves around three core concepts: caring, student engagement in their learning process and students’ career and personal development. While I use a portfolio of techniques and methods to animate my philosophy, I focus here on one tool which has proven to be highly effective for me and my students, namely Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder. Strengths Finder is a web-based tool which provides an individual with their Top 5 innate talents from an inventory of 34 talents. The following is an assignment which has been especially helpful to my marketing students in the process of crafting a personal branding statement. Personal Branding Statement (PBS). The Personal Branding Statement is an assignment which combines the results of StrengthsFinders with another web-based tool entitled 360Reach. The 360Reach enables a student to receive feedback on their strengths and weaknesses from key stakeholders (classmates, family, coaches, employers, and mentors) in their lives. Below is the process which students go through in creating a personal branding statement. This process begins with self-reflection, which is guided by thoughtfully writing their answers to the following questions: What is it that I love to do? What is it that I’m good at doing? What do I value most, or what is important to me? What is it that needs doing in the world? By answering these questions, students have the opportunity to reflect upon what types of activities excite them, what they are good at and their values. The next step in the process is to take the StrengthsFinder assessment online. This piece of the process serves as an internal self-assessment that determines their strengths based upon how they answer questions about themselves. Next in the process is the 360Reach Feedback assignment. By gathering feedback from people in every sphere of their lives, students are able to take an external assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. This feedback provides solid insight into the perceptions created based upon the student’s everyday interactions and relations. As marketers, we can all agree that managing perceptions of a brand is an important part of maintaining a healthy brand for a good or service. Just as it is important for goods and services, it is vitally important to make sure that external perceptions match internal understanding of one’s personal brand. Once the two assessment processes have been completed, it is time for students to analyze all these inputs in order to draw conclusions. Ideally, the information gathered through the 360Reach process affirms the results from the StrengthsFinder assessment. If this is the case, we know that the individual’s internal and external perceptions match. If this is not the case, the individual may need to reflect on which parts don’t match up and how to create a congruent brand internally and externally. Once a singular brand personality is established (based upon strengths, weaknesses, brand skills, and brand attributes), the personal branding statement can be crafted. The purpose of the personal branding statement, the last step in this process, is to convey an individual’s personal brand in a concise, yet detailed manner. While the PBS is an important output, the most significant student benefit is the process of taking the Strengths self-assessment, gathering feedback from others, and reflecting upon those inputs to enhance self-awareness and to plan for their future personal and professional lives based on that self-knowledge. The feedback from students who have gone through the process of crafting a PBS has been extremely positive. Some of the most often expressed benefits are: feeling well prepared for job interviews, enhancing self-confidence, identifying areas in need of improvement and a better understanding of job choices and career paths on which they are most likely to succeed.