Hogan vs CliftonStrengths: What’s the Difference?

Hogan and CliftonStrengths assess different aspects of how people work. Hogan’s HPI, HDS and MVPI examine everyday personality tendencies, potential derailment risks, and motives and values. CliftonStrengths identifies natural talent patterns that people can develop and apply as strengths. Both have leadership development applications. Hogan’s assessment and reporting framework, Gallup’s assessment definition.

At Image Revamp, we often hear, “We’ve already done Hogan,” when discussing CliftonStrengths with clients. Both appear in conversations about leadership assessments for corporate teams, so clients associate them.

The assessments provide different information, even when organisations use them for similar development goals. This comparison covers three Hogan instruments, HPI, HDS and MVPI, alongside CliftonStrengths and its Top 5 and 34 reports.

What does Hogan assess?

Hogan’s HPI, HDS and MVPI assess everyday personality, potential derailment risks, and the motives and values that influence a person’s preferences.

Each instrument has its own scales and focus. Hogan’s Summary Report combines findings about strengths, challenges and values across the three instruments. A person’s Hogan feedback depends on the instruments they completed and the report they received. Hogan Summary Report.

Hogan Personality Inventory: everyday personality

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) describes how people relate to others when functioning at their best. Hogan calls this the “bright side” of personality.

HPI has 7 primary scales, including Adjustment, Sociability and Prudence. These cover tendencies related to responding to pressure, interacting with others, and approaching work with organisation and dependability.

In a development conversation, HPI findings provide a basis for exploring a person’s usual working behaviour. Questions might concern how they engage with colleagues, respond to feedback or approach responsibilities. Hogan describes applications for both hiring and leadership development. Hogan Personality Inventory.

Hogan Development Survey: potential derailers

The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) identifies personality tendencies that can become counterproductive during increased strain.

Its 11 primary scales address potential derailers: patterns that could disrupt relationships, damage a person’s reputation or interfere with effective performance. Hogan uses the term “dark side” to describe this aspect of personality.

Attention to detail, for example, can become micromanagement under pressure. HDS gives development conversations a framework for examining such risks and discussing how to manage them. A potential derailer describes a risk to explore in context, rather than an inevitable outcome. Hogan Development Survey.

Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory: values and drivers

The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) identifies the goals, values and interests that shape what people seek from work.

MVPI has 10 primary scales. Examples include Recognition, Affiliation and Security, which cover preferences related to acknowledgement, social interaction and predictability.

Its findings support discussions about motivation and preferred work environments. For a leader, those discussions might explore what they value in an organisation and the priorities they bring to their team. This adds information about values alongside HPI’s everyday personality findings and HDS’s potential risks. Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory.

What does CliftonStrengths assess?

CliftonStrengths measures natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving, which Gallup organises into 34 talent themes. The results describe a person’s distinctive combination of talents and provide a starting point for development. What CliftonStrengths measures.

Gallup distinguishes talent from a developed strength. People develop talents through knowledge, skills and practice. Receiving a theme in a report identifies development potential; it does not certify mastery of a particular workplace skill. Gallup’s explanation of talent and strengths.

The 34 talent themes and 4 domains

Gallup groups the 34 CliftonStrengths themes into Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking.

• Executing covers themes associated with putting ideas into action. Achiever is one example.
• Influencing covers themes associated with expressing ideas and influencing others. Communication is one example.
• Relationship Building covers themes associated with developing relationships and partnerships. Relator is one example.
• Strategic Thinking covers themes associated with considering information and possibilities. Strategic is one example.

The domains organise the themes by how people contribute to shared work. They do not assign everyone to one of four personality types. A person’s leading themes can span several domains. Gallup’s four CliftonStrengths domains.

CliftonStrengths Top 5 and CliftonStrengths 34

CliftonStrengths Top 5 reveals a person’s five leading talent themes, while CliftonStrengths 34 provides the complete ranked order of all 34 themes.

The Top 5 report includes personalised insights, theme definitions and action items for applying those leading themes. CliftonStrengths Top 5 report.

The 34 report adds the full ranking, development guidance for the top 10 themes, and information about blind spots and managing potential weaknesses. Its additional content gives readers a broader view of their theme profile. CliftonStrengths 34 report.

Image Revamp’s current CliftonStrengths assessment for leadership teams includes the Top 5 report. The full 34 report is a separate reporting option from Gallup.

Hogan vs CliftonStrengths: 6 key differences

Hogan and CliftonStrengths differ in their assessment focus, framework, report outputs and intended applications, although both support development.

On narrow screens, scroll sideways to view both assessments.

The development questions in the table are examples of coaching prompts.

For hiring, Hogan describes selection applications for HPI and MVPI. Gallup states that CliftonStrengths has not been validated for selection and should not be used to compare candidates or make employment decisions. It is designed for development rather than predicting job performance or determining suitability for a particular role. Gallup’s hiring and selection guidance.

Consider a hypothetical manager who leads a weekly planning meeting.

A Hogan-informed discussion could explore how the manager usually engages with colleagues, which tendencies might get in the way under pressure, and which values influence their priorities. For example, the discussion might ask how their approach changes when deadlines tighten.

A CliftonStrengths-informed discussion could explore how the manager applies their dominant talents when organising the meeting, explaining decisions or working with colleagues. The discussion might ask how those talents could help them plan the agenda or communicate the next steps.

Why does completing Hogan not mean you have completed CliftonStrengths?

Completing Hogan does not produce CliftonStrengths results because the assessments use different frameworks and reporting systems.

A report containing HPI, HDS and MVPI findings does not reveal whether a person’s leading CliftonStrengths themes are Achiever, Relator or Strategic. Those theme results come from completing the CliftonStrengths assessment.

Shared terminology can also cause confusion. Hogan’s Summary Report discusses strengths, challenges and values. A reference to “strengths” in Hogan feedback does not identify one of Gallup’s 34 talent themes. Each report uses the term within its own framework. Hogan Summary Report, Gallup’s talent theme framework.

Both assessments have leadership development applications. An organisation might use either to support self-awareness or coaching, but the reports supply different information for those conversations.

“We’ve done Hogan” establishes the assessment someone has completed. It does not establish that they already have CliftonStrengths results.

Frequently asked questions