Building a Culture on Strengths

We’ve been focusing on being a great leader of change. Through my work with clients, I’ve found that those leaders who integrate a Strengths Culture along with the process of change have more engagement and sustainable success.

When people are asked to do what they do best throughout the change process they buy in, are engaged, and stay committed to the success of the change. Creating a Culture on Strengths can be your greatest assurance in building a team of agile people invested in long-term sustainable success.

This is part 1 of the 3-part series on Building a Culture on Strengths by Diana Gabriel, Certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

The strength of the organization depends on the applied strength of its employees. Click To Tweet

Much has been documented on the advantages leaders have when they strive to discover their employee’s strengths and make the best use of them. According to Gallup surveys, 67% of employees who feel that their strengths are used and appreciated by their leaders are engaged in their work. This compares to a general engagement rate of 15% in the workplace as a whole.

As a leader, have you noticed how employees who are encouraged and supported to use their strengths are more interested in what they’re doing and apply themselves more fully? They’re more productive, inspired, engaged, and loyal. It’s been long shown that when organizations lead people through their strengths, they benefit in many ways: higher sales and profits, lower turnover and absenteeism, and significantly improved internal and external customer reviews.

Clearly, it’s an advantage to you and your organization to maximize the use of your people’s strengths. The strength of the organization depends on the applied strength of its employees. But this is more than just assessing the skills of your people. Leaders who establish a culture of strength-mindedness instill a collective focus on and value in the strengths of individual people. It’s a focus that must be instilled into everything and everyone in order to create a culture of strengths.

Discovering People’s Strengths
For you to know the strengths of your people, you first need to be open-minded, curious and provide the professional development tools, such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment, to explore their strengths. Focusing on strengths is inherently a focus on your people: their abilities, interests, knowledge, and aspirations. Technical strengths are only a portion of the picture. Strengths are also measured in the softer skills: character, courage, confidence, and communication. Leaders who spend time with their people, getting to know them along with knowing their assessment results have the greatest knowledge base to see how they can be applied in the workplace.

Armed with people’s individual strength assessment results you can begin to notice and see their strengths revealed through one-on-one conversations. Another way to understand their strengths is by observing how character strengths show up in how your people handle themselves, how they behave, respond, and make decisions. Continuing to be curious and getting insights from coworkers or other leaders adds to the collection of information on a person’s strengths.

Technical strengths can appear more straightforward to judge when reviewing a person’s work—its thoroughness, accuracy, and inventiveness. You can see their strengths by how well they tackle challenges and find solutions to problems. Their values are revealed by how they take on their responsibilities. Making note of these things gives you a better understanding of the strengths of your people.

What are you focusing on with your people? Are you building a culture on strengths? Do you know the strengths of your people? I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me here and on LinkedIn.