Decoding Natalie Imbruglia, and the switch from Empathy to Strategic

When you're a CliftonStrengths® coach, analysing people and reverse engineering things they say and do to try to figure out their top 10 Talent Themes is an occupational hazard.

Getting it right every time is difficult. More than 4,500 CliftonStrengths® reports have passed through my hands over the past seven years, and it's still not possible to predict a stranger's Talents with 100% accuracy. For example, there are certain traits which could be ascribed equally to the Talent Themes Input, Learner, Analytical or Intellection.

But with that disclaimer firmly in place, it is an interesting exercise not only to figure somebody out but to try to help them with their problems - even at a distance.

Of course, no amount of educated guesses on my part is going to replace the actual CliftonStrengths® assessment. But here goes:

I have never met Natalie Imbruglia, I don't really know much about her, and not for a moment would I take away from her lived experience.

But when I read passages in this interview with the BBC it seems fairly clear she is a Strategic-Empathy-Individualization-Learner talent. It's an interesting exercise to extrapolate these into why she is feeling the way she is, and how she could use her Talents to address the issues while harnessing them for her continued success.

First, to Strategic. The article starts:

When it comes to writing music, Natalie Imbruglia needs constant motion. "I walk around in circles to get the melodies, to catch them," the Australian singer says.

Imbruglia is not alone. That's what most people who have a Strategic Talent do. They do their best thinking on an evening walk, while doing housework, taking showers or, yes, walking around in circles (other Talents such as Arranger might do this, too, but I'm going to go with Strategic).

She is then quoted as saying she can't be creative when sitting still:

"If I'm sat in a chair, I get nothing. So if I go and work with someone new and they have a shoebox-sized studio, I'm like, 'How am I going to do my circles?'"

This implies she does not have a strong Ideation Talent, because those out-of-the-box thinkers usually come up with dozens of ideas a day, starting when they wake up in the morning, lying still in bed. Her creativity is more likely based on carefully refined options, not spontaneous linkages of disparate tangental thoughts.

There is other evidence of Strategic dotted throughout the BBC article. There is a link to a photo taken of a 15-year-old Imbruglia at an INXS concert.

In the photo, "everyone else is screaming but I'm looking at (Michael Hutchence) with this determination in my eyes. "I'm studying him, like, 'How can I be up there too?'"

Well, there's Individualization, always reading people. But finding ways is typical of people with a Strategic Talent. Always searching for another route to take, another option to select from.

This also comes through in her many career changes, one leading to another. This repeated and ongoing reinvention is typical of people with Strategic.

Shifting country to achieve her goals? Again, Strategic.

Next, I picked Learner because the report says:

"...the title track talks about her flirtation with internet conspiracy theories. She won't say which ones ("I think it's irresponsible") but stresses the danger is omnipresent. "There's a voice in my head that says, 'You don't want to click on that', and I'll click on it. It's like this compulsion."

That's Learner through and through. An insatiable natural curiosity. I've seen this manifest as an interest in horror movies. The person with Learner can't bear to look at the TV, but they can't bear to look away either, because they are just so curious to know what happens next.

Next, I would be surprised if Imbruglia wasn't an Empathy Talent. In the article she describes snapping at people on set.

She says her behaviour became a "nightmare" for her team. Pressed for an example, she explains: "If you asked me whether I wanted still or sparkling water, I'd say, 'That's a question, and I can't answer questions right now'.

And continues with a dollop of Individualization:

"You start seeing an expression on other people of, like, 'What's happening to you?'"

Feeling flooded and feeling the reactions of people around you are symptoms of an Empathy Talent. So are mood swings.

Well, it's not exactly Mariah Carey demanding baskets of puppies and forbidding eye contact, but Imbruglia was shaken up [ML: Sounds like Mariah Carey is also an Empathy Talent].

The day after one concert, she told her co-writers David Sneddon and Anu Pillai, "Guys, I think I'm going to have to quit my job because I can't cope with how I'm treating people before the show."

They helped to talk her down, putting her fight-or-flight instincts into context.

"What they helped me realise is that I was trying to stop the behaviour with willpower, and if I just relaxed into it and said to myself, 'You know, you're about to perform in front of a lot of people, it's natural that you're nervous', maybe I wouldn't be resisting it as much."

What's going on there is she was probably not "relaxing" per se, but switching out of the Empathy mindset and into Strategic and Individualization. She was unconsciously self-regulating, like changing gears in a car. She found another way to approach the situation (Strategic), and when she saw her cheering fans she got her energy back (Individualization). It could be there was a bad vibe backstage, or something had happened to her that made Empathy feel bad the whole day.

By the way, it's not a given that you are nervous on stage. There are 12 forms of stage fright, each vastly different from the other. Some people have many forms of stage fright, others few. They are all curable, but you need the correct diagnosis first. More on that in another column.

But Empathy isn't all about hypersensitivity and mood swings. It is also a superpower in terms of the intuition that comes with being in touch with your emotions. Imbruglia says as much:

"I might not be the best songwriter, even now, but there's only one me, and when I go inside myself and feel the emotion of what I'm writing about and deliver it, that's what my fans resonate with, and that's enough."

While on the one hand bemoaning the ups and downs, she goes on to defend her emotional rollercoaster in typical Empathy style:

"I like the pendulum to swing. Whether it's extreme joy or extreme pain, I like to feel the experience of life."

To conclude, I return to my disclaimer at the top. From my remote perch, my unsolicited coaching comment would be: stay in Strategic, Natalie. Take the best of Empathy, but don't own the emotions of everyone around you. When the emotional currents of Empathy throw you around, read up on something that's piqued your curiosity or go and do some people-watching, and take time out to explore your options.

There's always a way out.