FAQ

What is StandOut?

StandOut is the next-generation online strengths assessment from Marcus Buckingham. Its results offer you targeted, prescriptive advice on how to win at work based on your unique Strength Roles.

What does StandOut measure?

The StandOut assessment measures you on 9 Strength Roles and reveals your top 2. Your top 2 Roles are the focal point of all your talents, themes, and skills. They describe your instinctive way of making a difference in the world. Know them well and you will know how to win at work.

Why does StandOut focus on only my top 2 Roles?

These top 2 Roles are your competitive edge. Focusing on these 2 will give you the greatest return on your investment and enable you to contribute your best. You will also have the opportunity to combine your top 2 Roles to get even more detailed feedback on how you can leverage your strengths as a leader, as a manager, in service and in sales. Although StandOut does not provide extensive information on how the other Roles affect you, it will reveal where each of the 9 Roles fits in your rank order.

What happens if I think another Role should have been in my Top 2?

Whichever Role you think should have been higher in your results, know that you do play that Role, at least sometimes. You can see where it ranks for you in your full ranking order. It's not unusual for people's Top 2 not to reflect what they think they should have gotten. But it's important to keep in mind a few things. First, none of the Roles is better or more right than any of the others. StandOut is an assessment that measures not how you perceive yourself, but how you come across to other people. We suggest that you keep an open mind about what StandOut is telling you regarding how you may be perceived by others.

If I took StandOut a second time, would my results change?

We do not recommend taking StandOut more than once. As with any assessment, the first time you take it will always be the most reliable indicator, because you have never encountered the scenarios before. If you take it again in quick succession, it is possible, indeed maybe even probable, that your results will change, because you will be taking it with a "prepared mind." You are a changed person precisely because you have already seen your results and reacted to them.

We have performed standard test/retest reliability studies on StandOut, in which someone takes the assessment a second time six months after the first. In our most recent reliability study, involving 260 people retaking StandOut after six months, we found that 90% had 2 of their top 3 Roles repeated.

How will knowing my Strength Roles help me win at work?

Understanding your unique advantage is a vital first step in making your greatest possible contribution. Knowing your Roles and following the advice and suggestions revealed in your results will help you intentionally invest your time where you can make the greatest difference and get the greatest recognition.

Can StandOut reveal whether I am in the right career?

In the "ideal career" section of your assessment results you will be provided with insights into the type of career / role that is best suited to your unique Role combination.

Can I retake The StandOut assessment? Will taking the assessment again affect my results?

Your first completion of the StandOut assessment will yield the most accurate results. Taking StandOut more than once may actually decrease its accuracy. StandOut measures the presence of talent clusters by presenting you with a series of questions, and challenging you to make a top-of-mind choice between four responses. The 35-second time limit and your unfamiliarity with the questions and responses make it difficult for you to over-analyze your choices, thus ensuring the assessment's accuracy.

What should I do if I am interrupted while taking StandOut?

If you are interrupted while taking the StandOut assessment, you do not need to start over. If necessary, sign in again, and the assessment will automatically resume where you left off. If you are still signed in, click the Continue button to return to the questions/answers you were considering before you were interrupted.

Keep in mind that the best results are obtained when the entire survey is taken in one sitting, which requires approximately 20 minutes for the average user. For this reason, we recommend you set aside enough time to take the entire survey without interruption.

Why is there a timer for each statement? What if I didn't have time to choose a response?

The time limit prevents you from over-analyzing your responses. Your top-of-mind reactions are the most accurate reflection of the true you.

If the time limit prevented you from making a choice, the StandOut assessment will still measure your results accurately.

What is the research behind the StandOut assessment?

When measuring people's themes of talent, it soon becomes apparent that, no matter how thinly you slice each aspect of each theme, these themes cluster into certain frequently occurring patterns.

To create the StandOut assessment, we first identified the most common and powerful theme clusters. We have called these "Strength Roles." We then designed a series of question/response combinations to measure each Role.

This alpha version of the assessment was made available online in October of 2009. By January 2010, over 257,000 people had completed the alpha version of the assessment. After analyzing the responses, we removed unreliable question/response combinations, changed some responses, and added a select number of new question/response combinations that we will use in future research. This research will be ongoing as we collect more data on each question/response combination.

What is the difference between the StandOut and StrengthsFinder Assessments?

StrengthsFinder - The first strengths assessment
StrengthsFinder measures you on thirty-four themes of talent and reveals your top five. A slightly shorter version of the assessment, StrengthsFinder 2.0 was released in 2007. The purpose of StrengthsFinder is to describe your style. Its results are broad and affirming.

StandOut - A sharper focus
StandOut measures you on nine Strength Roles and reveals your top two Roles. These Roles are your edge, your comparative advantage. The purpose of StandOut is to pinpoint the few actions you can take to capitalize on your edge. Its results are deep and focusing.

Do I need to take all the different strengths assessments to really understand what my strengths are?

You don't need to take previous assessments to get the most out of StandOut. Each assessment performs a different function. StandOut helps you find your edge and tells you what you can do to capitalize on your edge. StrengthsFinder describes your style and helps you feel more positively about yourself.

What is a strength?

How do you identify your strengths?

Since a strength is an activity that makes you feel strong, you are the very best judge of your true strengths. Only you can say when you are looking forward to an activity, or when you're doing something that so absorbs your attention that you lose track of time, or when you finish a task and feel invigorated and ready for more. Pay attention to these key indicators and you will discover which activities are strengths of yours.

The purpose of StandOut is to narrow the focus of your attention. Its results will help you pinpoint in which areas of your life you will discover the activities that "make you feel strong."

What is the data/research on the value of leveraging your strengths?

The data on the benefits of leveraging strengths is decisive. Workplace surveys involving hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide over several decades allowed the Gallup Organization to identify 12 key questions that most strongly correlated to high performance, as measured by numerous standard business metrics, including productivity, customer satisfaction scores, and employee retention. The one question that showed the highest correlation to the highest number of positive business outcomes was:
At work, do you have the chance to play to your strengths every day?

The full meta-analysis of this research can be found in The Journal of Applied Psychology, vol 87, pp 267-278.