Topic 1.2: Strengths – Appreciating what you do well

One of the things that may well have emerged from your reflection above is that there are a few activities or contexts that you not only enjoy but excel at.

The Gallup organisation has been researching and reporting on strengths-based development for more than 20 years. People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. That’s just one big finding from decades of Gallup research into human behaviors and strengths. That research has established a compelling connection between strengths and employee engagement in the workplace — a connection that has the power to accelerate performance when companies work on enhancing both simultaneously.

The best way for people to grow and develop is to identify how they most naturally think, feel, and behave — their talents — then build on those talents to create strengths, or the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance … In our extensive research, Gallup has found that building employees’ strengths is a far more effective approach to improving performance than trying to improve weaknesses. When employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged, perform better, and are less likely to leave their company.

Marcus Buckingham is a former Gallup organisational researcher who studied what it was that high achievers shared in common. Perhaps not surprisingly, he identified that they had all learned to play to their strengths. From that research he has written a series of books that emphasise the often neglected benefits of developing our strengths rather than trying to ‘damage control’ our weaknesses. It’s a shift, if you like, from ‘what is wrong to what is strong’.

While at one level it just seems like common sense to play to our own strengths and to enable others to do the same, it turns out that that is not the experience most of us have. Gallup has asked more than a million people in more than 100 companies across more than 60 countries if they have the opportunity at work to do what they do best every day. Only 20% say ‘yes’. “The potential gains of a strengths-based management approach are worth it, however. Gallup analysis reveals that people who use their strengths every day are three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life, six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs”^[2].

“Whichever way you care to slice the data, the organization whose employees feel that their strengths are used every day is more powerful and more robust,” says Buckingham (2005, p3-4).

First

Get to know your own strengths. Identify, respect and develop what you are good at but what if you don’t know what that is? (Or are too modest to acknowledge it?) Ask people who know you and who you respect. 

Second

Do more with your strengths. “From my research,” Buckingham says, “the difference between the twenty percenters [those who use their strengths every day] and the rest of us can be found less in what they choose to do and more in what they choose not to do … Either subliminally or consciously, they remembered the One Thing we all need to know to sustain our success: Discover What You Don’t Like Doing and Stop Doing It” (Buckingham, 2006:216-7).

Our time is finite so we need to prioritise. To make the most of our strengths and to use them for the greatest contribution we need to devote time to them – which means saying no to something else.

It also means investing in developing our strengths.  Of course, at times, there may be some aspects of our roles that are less appealing, but Buckingham’s point is that to flourish, we need to be primarily engaged in things that leverage our strengths.

Third

If you are a manager, colleague, parent, partner, friend, teacher, or leader, discover the strengths in others and help them develop. To paraphrase Buckingham’s observation about the

flawed assumptions organisations often make, don’t take people’s strengths for granted – highlight them, celebrate them and encourage them to develop themselves in those areas.

“A supervisor’s approach to strengths has such a profound effect on engagement because managers play a crucial role in maximizing employees’ opportunities to use their strengths every day. Managers can empower employees to discover and develop their strengths and position them in roles where they can do what they do best every day. When managers succeed in these endeavours, their teams become more engaged. And Gallup has found that employees who feel engaged at work and who can use their strengths in their jobs are more productive and profitable and have higher quality work. Based on findings like these, Gallup concluded that a strengths-based management approach is the best way to improve the employee-manager relationship” (Sorenson, 2021).

The VIA Institute on Character suggests, “You have many different types of strengths. These can be skills, talents, interests or resources; however these strengths do not reflect the ‘real’ you – who you are at your core. Only by understanding your character strengths can you know how special and capable you really are. Character strengths are personality characteristics that make you authentic, unique and feel engaged.

“The VIA Survey is a simple test that takes just a few minutes of your time and provides a wealth of information to help you understand these core characteristics. The survey was created under the direction of Dr. Martin Seligman, the ‘father of Positive Psychology’, and author of Authentic Happiness and Flourish, and Dr. Christopher Peterson, distinguished scientist at the University of Michigan and author of A Primer in Positive Psychology.

This self-assessment survey is regarded as a central tool of positive psychology and has been used in hundreds of research studies and taken by over 2.6 million people in over 190 countries.  It is the only free, scientifically validated online character strengths tool available.”^[3]