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Rooted in Every Role| Your Strengths Don't Clock Out! 🕰️
A Note from the Roots
Some days, we're not sure which version of ourselves is supposed to show up.
Leader by 9 am. Parent by 3:30. Coach, board member, daughter checking in on aging parents, all somewhere in the same 24 hours.
If you've ever felt like you're playing five roles before lunch, you're not imagining it. A lot of us are in the thick of what people are now calling the sandwich generation, caught between raising kids and caring for parents, and still expected to show up sharp for the people counting on us at work. The myth of work-life balance is gone, as full work-life integration has taken center stage.
Here's what we keep coming back to. You don't get a different set of strengths for each role. You're not one person at the office and someone else entirely at your kid's soccer game. Your Maximizer doesn't clock out. Your Empathy doesn't take the weekend off. That's actually the beauty of it all, IF you know how to use your strengths in various roles.
The trunks of the trees may look different depending on where you're standing, but it's the same root system underneath, doing the same work, drawing from the same place.
That's really what this month's newsletter is about. Not adding one more thing to your plate, but noticing that the strengths you already have are already showing up everywhere, whether you've been giving them credit or not. Let us show you how to cultivate them across all of your roles with intention.
Let's get growing!
Amy & Sarah
Aspen Root Collective
Collective Connections | From Strengths to Success
Last Call & Spots are Filling Fast!
Do you know a student heading into a big transition? Thinking about college? Exploring their first job? Figuring out what's next? This workshop is built for exactly this moment!
Is being a student or a parent of a student one of the roles you're currently navigating? Being a student is one of the toughest roles to navigate, even if it's not the one we usually think of when we talk about strengths at work. And it's arguably the role where knowing your strengths matters most, since it's often the first time someone's asked to name what they're actually good at, before a job title tells them.
Our upcoming workshop is a great opportunity to dig a little deeper into this work. Spots are going fast for From Strengths to Success, our workshop for students on July 30th, 6:00–7:30 PM at the DeKalb Chamber Partnership.
If you've got a student in your life standing at one of those crossroads (high schoolers nearing graduation, college students figuring out internships, recent grads asking "okay, now what?") this is built for exactly that moment. We'll dig into their CliftonStrengths for Students report and turn it into something they can actually use: stronger resumes, better interview answers, and networking conversations that sound like them instead of a script.
It's just $59.99, and that includes their unique CliftonStrengths for Students report. And if cost is the only thing standing in the way, reach out. We always hold a spot or two for someone who's genuinely passionate about growing in their strengths.
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This month on the blog, Sarah's picking a fight with your org chart.
Companies keep cutting mid-level manager roles to save money, while somehow also agreeing managers matter more than almost anything else in a workplace. Both things are true, and that's exactly the problem.
When's the last time your best manager was treated like a leader in training, instead of someone who fears being expendable?
Sarah's digging into what Gallup's research actually says about the difference between managing and leading, why the distinction is getting harder to ignore, and what the new CliftonStrengths role-based reports reveal about your own style, whichever seat you're in.
Spoiler alert: managing and leading were never the same job. Treating them like they are might be costing you your best people.
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What We're Loving This Month!
Strengths-Based Parenting by Mary Reckmeyer
If leader, manager, and student have made the roles list this month, parent obviously belongs on it too, and this is the book we keep recommending for it.
Strengths-Based Parenting isn't a "here's the one right way to raise your kid" book, thankfully. It's built on the same idea we lean on in every workshop: figure out what someone's naturally good at, and build from there instead of chasing what's wrong.
Mary Reckmeyer applies that lens to your own parenting style and to your kids, backed by actual Gallup data instead of vibes.
Here's the part that makes it worth the read: it comes with an assessment code for you and one for your kid. We've heard it described as a parenting hack. Honestly, "instruction manual for your kid" might be more accurate, especially once they hit the teenage years and stop explaining themselves to you voluntarily.
Already know your own strengths? Gift your code to a spouse, a friend, whoever's next in your life you'd like to understand a little better. One code, one step closer to knowing the strengths of everyone around you.
And if you've got a student in the "figuring out what's next" stage of life, this pairs naturally with our From Strengths to Success workshop on July 30th. One's for understanding them at home. One's for helping them carry it into what comes next.
Click the link to get your copy➡️ (affiliate link, costs you nothing extra, helps support free resources like this newsletter)
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🌱 Results Taking Root with a Real Return on Investment
This month, we want to introduce you to a client relationship that predates Aspen Root Collective itself.
In May 2023, we sat down with the leadership team at Community State Bank, a community bank with branches in Albion, Auburn, Avilla, Kendallville, and Fort Wayne, to introduce them to CliftonStrengths. At the time, this work was happening as part of the nonprofit leadership development work we were running. Aspen Root Collective didn't exist yet, not as a name and not as a company.
That first workshop turned into something bigger. It led to Q12 employee engagement survey support starting that July. Manager-level Strengths training that October. We've continued to support this team as they commit to their values through their strengths. And this month, we celebrated as we offered our final "Rooted In Strengths: Intro to CliftonStrengths " workshop to their team. This means that every one of CSB's 70+ team members, across every branch, has now gone through the assessment and the workshop.
That connects with the idea of using our strengths to the fullest in every role. Every leader, manager, frontline employee, every seat in every building doing this work in the language that actually fits them. Working towards doing what they do best every day to better serve their clients and their community.
A huge thank you to Tira Bussing, SVP and Director of HR, and the entire leadership team at CSB, who championed this work from day one and ensured it reached every person on the team. As we get ready to launch their fourth Q12 survey window, their commitment to employee engagement, even as the workplace evolves at a faster-than-ever pace, demonstrates their commitment to their team. As we reflect on the survey process, the analysis of the results, and the creation of local, actionable plans, it's easy to see why this strategy delivers high-impact engagement results. We can't wait to see what 2026 brings!
The next time you stop by a Community State Bank branch, ask them about their strengths! That team of relationship builders will be happy to share more!
Deep Roots, Real Talk From the Stage in Indy
Mark your calendars: on October 7th, 8:30 AM to 4:45 PM, we're headed to the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis for the Indiana Chamber's Emerging Leaders Forum, a day built for Indiana's next generation of leaders.
We're leading a session called "Let's Get Real About Resilience: Strength in Authenticity," and it fits squarely into everything we've talked about this month. What separates a manager who's just directing from one who's actually developing people into leaders often comes down to this exact thing: the willingness to be honest about the hard parts, not just polished about the wins.
If you know a rising leader in your organization, someone moving from doing the job well to leading the people doing the job, this is the kind of room that shapes that transition. View the agenda and consider sending your team.
And if you've ever thought it would be great to bring that same energy into your own team, conference, or leadership retreat, that's something we do too. Keynote speaking and workshop facilitation are part of how we work with organizations, alongside individual coaching and longer-term engagements. We have a list of topics we love to discuss and can work with your team to customize a keynote to meet the moment. If that's something you're exploring, reply to this email for more information.
"This workshop was amazing, the attention to detail was great and I can feel the passion Amy and Sarah pour into their work. Great presenters - they kept us engaged, and I felt like my time was well spent."
Intro to Strengths Workshop Feedback · Community State Bank Team Member
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P.S.
You hit the numbers. Got the promotion. Built the team. And somehow, life still doesn't feel the way you thought it would. If that gap sounds familiar, and you're looking for something that isn't networking, isn't a mastermind, and isn't performative anything, email me. We're quietly building something for guys who feel like they've hit every goal on this list, but still feel like something's missing.
If that's landing for you, shoot me an email, and I'll tell you more.
Sarah@aspenrootcollective.com
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