Discovering strengths for yourself and your team enhances performance for everyone All
individuals and organizations seek to improve performance. To get
there, though, far too many follow conventional wisdom: Focus on fixing
weaknesses. Find what's wrong and try to correct it. But a growing
number of organizations have learned that although weaknesses can't be
overlooked -- and must be managed -- fixating on weakness is a mistake.
The
best-led organizations know that the most direct path to individual,
team, and organizational improvement begins with a primary investment
in their employees' greatest talents. The key is to discover what's
naturally right with people, then build on it. And what happens when
people operate from their strengths? They are more fulfilled and more
effective.
Wells Fargo, Intel, and Best Buy are a few companies that have committed to becoming an explicit strengths-based
organization. New Toyota managers must attend a three-day ‘Great
Manager’ training program that shows them how to spot the strengths of
their team; Yahoo managers are required to take an online survey that
measures their talents and pinpoints their strengths. And in our own
industries, Patagonia has adopted this management philosophy into their
corporate culture.
Even small organizations like OIWC can
benefit from strengths-based development. The OIWC Board of Directors
took the online survey in the fall of 2010, creating a matrix of
strengths that provided an excellent way to build teams and committees
strategically. The exercise was so valuable and powerful, now every
OIWC Board or staff meeting includes formal exercises and casual
observations around the team's strengths.
JOIN OIWC for April events focused on ‘StrengthsFinders’
The events will focus on your results of the strengths assessment in Marcus Buckingham’s book Now, Discover your Strengths ($18 on OIWC's Amazon store). OIWC highly recommends that you buy the book and take the assessment prior to the April events.
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