Making the Most of Your Strengths
The Gallup Organization identified 34 talents different individuals have—or don’t have—that allow them to excel in different roles. Gallup then designed the StrengthsFinder in order to help workers identify their strengths and focus on improving them.
In the book, Work Your Strengths, Chuck Martin and his associates list 12 “executive skills” neuropsychologists have identified. Then they researched which skills high performers had in various industries, departments, and positions. Readers can then take this information and seek job assignments where their skills can shine.
In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton argue workers should focus on strength development instead of trying to marginally improve weaknesses. Sometimes individuals can build support systems—using a schedule to overcome a lack of organization for example.
Sometimes a person has to get a little better and function at a baseline level in one area so that he or she can exploit strengths in other areas.
Sometimes a person might use a talent in planning and scheduling, for example, to overcome a weakness in task initiation. Sometimes a manager connects someone strong in a skill with someone weak in that area.
In his Harvard Business Review article, “Managing Oneself,” Peter Drucker suggests a feedback analysis approach to finding one’s strengths. Make a key decision; write down the expected outcome; and then compare expectations with results nine to twelve months later. As a person gains experience, he or she will begin to see patterns.
Drucker also asks workers to consider how they perform: whether they learn best by writing, listening, or reading; whether they do better in advisory or decision-making roles; whether they work better in a group or individually; and how they perform under stress.
Then Drucker adds another dimension—values. He’s primarily addressing specific beliefs about how business should be run. For example, a buyer who believes in supporting local producers might not flourish in an organization that focuses purchasing efforts overseas.
It’s relatively easy to recognize Steve Jobs’ ability as an entrepreneur, Michael Jordan’s talent as a basketball player, or Celine Dion’s power as a vocalist; it’s often harder to identify our own talents.
But if individuals can answer these questions, Drucker says, they’ll be able to see the needs in their workplaces and communities. And they’ll recognize what they can do, how their talents suit them to approach the challenge, and what results to expect.
