The Strengths Revolution

“There are not great companies, only great teams.”
What do you think of that statement? Marcus Buckingham, author of First Break All the Rules, Now Discover Your Strengths, and most recently, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, is adamant about this.

His work over the years studying teams within companies shows that there is a “range in performance” where there shouldn’t be. Same company, same resources and tools, products, training, pay, benefits, etc. The difference, he says, revolves around the team members’ answer to this one question:

“At work do you have an opportunity to do what you do best everyday?”

Employees and their teammates who get to play to their strengths outperform those who do not, even when everything in the work environment is exactly the same. Unfortunately, organizations today are inefficient in capitalizing on their peoples’ strengths.

We live in a “remedial” world, he says, where we focus on what needs to be fixed and study the opposite of the good or positive we desire. For instance, over 40,000 studies on Depression have been conducted and only 400 on Joy. Remember those early jobs in your career where no matter how many training sessions or classes you attended, you just couldn’t get it? Or those performance reviews where you were briefly congratulated on your achievements and then spent more time focusing on where you fell down on the job and what you should do to improve?

The change we need to make, according to Buckingham and his research, is First to identify the activities in our jobs that most invigorate us vs. those which do not. Secondly, take charge of our time and build up on those invigorating ones by adjusting our activities and routines; and thirdly, let people know about our strengths and what we’re doing so that they will help and support us in this endeavor. (And maybe the word will spread and they will do this same exercise.)

Mr. Buckingham is at the helm of what he calls “The Strengths Revolution”. His vision is to continue to encourage strengths-based teams and organizations and now add focus to strengths-based education systems. Imagine a child spending more time at and being encouraged to do more of what they do best in school, rather than having to meet requirements that don’t make sense and thus failing miserably at them.

I’m on board with this revolution. How about you? It happens one person at a time. This week, try the 3 steps mentioned above – Identify the activities you are most energized by, Adjust your time so you can do more of them, and Let people know you are now playing to your strengths to gain their support. See what kinds of shifts take place. More on this fascinating topic in weeks to come…

Please post your thoughts about this topic. Visit my website at www.LousbergUnlimited.com for more information on my career development services.