Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day at work? What if you and your team focused on what you do well instead of the areas where you struggle? Strengths-based development focuses on exactly this topic.
What is Strengths-Based Development?
“What would happen if we studied what’s right with people versus what’s wrong with people?” Don Clifton, former chairman of Gallup, set out to answer exactly this question. After decades of research, he created the CliftonStrengthsⓇ assessment (initially named StrengthsFinder) to help people uncover what was right about them.
While there are many ways to uncover your strengths, the CliftonStrengthsⓇ assessment is one tool I frequently use with clients who are looking to better understand their strengths and the strengths of their team and how to leverage them for success.
Although a strengths-based approach focuses on the positive FIRST, it does not focus ONLY on the positive. A strengths-based approach starts with strengths, while still identifying weaknesses at a certain point in the process and learning how to use your strengths to manage weaknesses.
Who Can Benefit From a Strengths-Based Approach at Work?
Anyone can benefit from a strengths-based approach and it always starts at the individual level. Teams that want to understand and use their strengths more effectively, first need to focus on each team member knowing and understanding their own strengths.
For Individuals, a strengths-based approach focuses on discovering personal talents in order to improve:
- Job performance
- Work relationships
- Overall effectiveness by maximizing their own potential
For Teams, a strengths-based approach leverages an individual understanding to boost collective team productivity. Teams focus on:
- Valuing unique contributions
- Understanding how different strengths work together
- How strengths compliment each other for shared goals
Identifying Your Strengths
As you think about your own top strengths, what comes to mind for you? If you had to name your top 2-3 strengths quickly, what would those be?
Even if you have never taken a strengths assessment, you can reflect on your own strengths using these questions:
- What areas come naturally to you or where you excel?
- What are you complimented about most often?
- What energizes you during your workday?
To dive deeper, you can always take the CliftonStrengthsⓇ (StrengthsFinder) assessment to learn more.
How to Use Your Strengths
Once you have identified your strengths, what do you do with this knowledge? While understanding your strengths is the first step, it’s what you do after that matters. How are you using your strengths every day at work?
Some questions to consider include:
- Which of your top strengths did you use in the past week at work?
- How did this strength help you with a specific project or team member?
- Which of your top strengths would you like to use more?
Applying Your Strengths
Once you have reflected on where you have seen your strengths at work recently, the last step is to apply your strengths at work. When you think about your performance at work or your team engagements, there may be areas where you can tap into your strengths more. What actionable steps will you and your team take to become more successful at work?
Some questions to consider include:
- How are you looking to grow?
- What are your goals or your teams’ goals over the next year?
- How can you use your strengths to help accomplish those goals?
What’s Next?
Congratulations! You’ve identified your top strengths and thought about ways to use them further. Research shows that people that focus on their strengths are 3 times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life and 6 times as likely to report being engaged in their jobs.1 Now, how will you embed your strengths into your every day work or within your organization?
Interested in bringing a strengths-based approach to your team or organization? Reach out to learn more about working together.