What if the most important thing you learned about yourself last year is already incomplete?

That’s not a discouraging thought — it’s actually one of the most hopeful things a leader can hear. Because it means you’re growing. You’re changing. Your role has shifted, your team has evolved, new challenges have sharpened some of your strengths and softened others. The person who sat down and completed a Leading From Your Strengths^® profile twelve months ago is not exactly the same person reading these words today.

And that’s the point.

One of the most common misunderstandings about LFYS is the idea that it’s something you do once and then refer back to occasionally — like a certificate you frame and hang on the wall. That’s simply not how it was designed. Leading From Your Strengths is an iterative process, built to grow with you. Think of it less like a personality label and more like a compass — one that’s most useful when you check it regularly, especially after you’ve changed direction.

Why Once Isn’t Enough

This is where LFYS is fundamentally different from — and beautifully complementary to — tools like StrengthsFinder. StrengthsFinder identifies what are called “talent themes” — the natural patterns of thought and feeling that represent your greatest potential for strength. Those themes are relatively stable over a lifetime, measuring something deep and largely fixed. Think of StrengthsFinder as answering the question what — what you naturally bring to the table, what you’re wired to pursue and produce. LFYS answers the question how — how you move through the world, how you communicate, how you respond under pressure, how you approach problems. Used together, they paint a remarkably complete picture of a leader. That’s why we recommend both. StrengthsFinder tells you what you carry; Leading From Your Strengths shows you how you carry it — and because that expression shifts with your roles, relationships, and seasons of life, it’s a picture worth revisiting regularly.

This is why we recommend that every leader retake the LFYS assessment once a year — or six months after a significant role change, whichever comes first.

If you’ve been promoted, transitioned to a new team, taken on new responsibilities, or walked through a difficult season, don’t wait for the annual rhythm. Take it now. What you discover may surprise you.

What to Do With It When You Do

Here’s where it gets practical — and exciting. Because retaking the assessment is only the beginning. What you do with the results is where transformation actually happens.

Late last year we released the Strengths Movement Guide, and if you haven’t had a chance to work through it, now is a great time. This guide helps you understand not just where you land on the LFYS continuum, but how your strengths are expressing themselves in your current season — and how to be intentional about moving them in the direction your role and relationships require. Download your free copy here: Strengths Movement Guide

And now, we’re thrilled to introduce something we’ve been working on for a while: the One-on-One Guide.

This new resource is designed specifically for leaders who want to take the insights from their LFYS results and bring them directly into their most important conversations — the one-on-one meetings with the people they lead. Every leader knows those conversations matter. But knowing they matter and knowing how to have them well are two very different things. The One-on-One Guide walks you through a simple, powerful framework for entering those conversations with your unique strengths in view — and with a clearer understanding of the person sitting across from you.

Download the One-on-One Guide here, free of charge: One-on-One Guide

Here’s our strong recommendation: every time you retake the LFYS assessment, work through both of these guides again. Not because the guides change, but because you do. The Strengths Movement Guide will help you see how your behavioral expression has shifted. The One-on-One Guide will help you apply your current profile to your current relationships. Together, they turn a self-awareness exercise into a leadership practice.

The Team Dimension

Now — what about the people you lead?

This is where it gets even more interesting. Your strengths don’t exist in a vacuum. They exist in relationship to the strengths of your team. And just as you’ve grown and changed, so have the people around you. New hires have joined. Tenured team members have stepped into new responsibilities. The relational dynamics have shifted. The team you assessed eighteen months ago is not the same team you’re leading today.

There’s a reason we built LFYS around the conviction that leaders lead from their strengths and empower others to do the same. That empowerment requires current information. It requires knowing not just who your people were when they first took the assessment, but who they are now — how they’re wired for this season, in this role, with this team.

When your whole team retakes the assessment together and works through these guides as a group, something remarkable happens. The shared language comes alive again. Old assumptions get gently corrected. New connections form between people who thought they already understood each other. And leaders who felt like they were managing personalities start to feel like they’re genuinely building something together.

A Practical Invitation

If you completed Leading From Your Strengths more than a year ago — or if your role or your team has changed significantly since your last assessment — this is your moment to press the refresh button.

Retake the assessment. Download the Strengths Movement Guide. Download the One-on-One Guide. And then bring it to your team.

Not because something went wrong. But because you’re still growing, they’re still growing, and the tools you have in your hands are designed to grow with you.

Your strengths are always moving. The question is whether you’re paying attention.