Do you have the opportunity to do what you’re best at every day? The better aligned your strengths are with your daily activities, the better the results will be. I feel allowing people to play to their strengths is what separates high-performing organizations from the rest.
A guiding principle of my leadership always has been that you have to know yourself first to understand others better. We’re all familiar with the traditional personality profiles that categorize individuals in one quadrant or another. While this can be effective, often times too much emphasis can be placed on weaknesses. I’ve found that we can be more productive and achieve better results if we focus on our strengths.
At our company’s recent strategic planning retreat, we assessed the strengths of our leadership team, using Tom Rath’s book Strengths Finder 2.0 as a guide. Rath identifies the 34 most common talents, based on Gallup’s 40-year study of human strengths. Reggie Adams, personal coach from Reggie’s Coaching Academy, facilitated the strength finder exercise with our team.
The assessment identified my top strengths (in no particular order) as:
- Competition - I play to win.
For those with the competition profile, it’s not enough to try hard or reach their own goals; they do actually have to win. They also want to outperform their peers. If they can compare, they can compete and if they can compete, they can win.
- Individualization - I believe in developing personal relationships.
Those with the attributes of individualization are intrigued by the unique qualities of each person and are keen at drawing out people’s strengths and building productive teams.
- Activator - My first thought almost always is ‘When can we start?’
Activators are impatient for action. While they will concede to analysis, debate and discussion, it only lasts so long because action leads to performance.
- Arranger - I think on my feet and focus on the best way to get things done.
Arrangers serve as conductors who enjoy managing and aligning the variables of a complex situation to achieve the desired results.
- Command - I take charge and know the importance of aligning others with me.
Commanders feel compelled to present the facts or the truth no matter how unpleasant they may be. They keep things clear and open between people and encourage risk-taking.
As the results were shared, I was pleased (but not surprised) to see the diversity in our leadership team’s strengths. Fromstrategic and analytical to activator and futuristic, our matrix included all the key talents needed to foster success.
It also was apparent that we had the right people in the right seats on the proverbial bus. Futuristic identified our chief information officer who directs our technology roadmap. Achiever was a common strength for our sales leadership, harmonyfor our head of operations and maximizer for our vice president of sales and marketing.
Putting it to Use
It’s not enough to know your strengths – and the strengths of others; you have to be able to apply them. High-performing organizations leverage their team members’ individual strengths to effectively execute key initiatives and plans.
I encourage you to evaluate your team’s strengths to better understand what they do best. Once this is accomplished, you’ll have the foundation for strength-based results.
