Strengths Engagement

I have written here before about your talents, and how effective it can be to focus on investing in those talents in order to create unique strengths.  Back in February, during my series about the book 12: The Elements of Great Managing, I wrote about data that show that the more your employees are playing to their strengths every day, the better your business results will be.

Last month, Marcus Buckingham released his new book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance (Free Press, New York, 2007, 320 pages).  Buckingham takes the next step, by helping us measure how much we use our strengths at work today, and how much that is likely to change in the future.

The book is built around a new self assessment tool, the Strengths Engagement Track.  Buckingham and his team developed the 16 question assessment based on surveys of 35,000 people earlier this year.  (For more on the tool and the survey data, see http://www.simplystrengths.com - although the link was not working on Sunday April 29 when I wrote this post.)

When you buy the book, you will get an access code for the online assessment.  The picture at the head of this article is a copy of my assessment results.  (Click on it to get a larger picture.)  The upper half of the dial, based on five of the questions, shows my current strengths engagement status (89 percent).  The lower half shows my likely future strengths engagement status, based on my answers to the remaining 11 questions.  The prescription suggests ways to help ensure I can reach that level.

Does a focus on strengths work?  In a study of 65 high performing teams, Buckingham's team found that 55 percent of high performing teams believed a focus on building on strengths was the key to success.  Nationally, only 37 percent believe that.  While these data don't prove a cause-and-effect relationship, they do indicate a different mindset on the part of the most successful teams - a strengths-based mindset.

Here are a few steps you can take to test the power of a strengths-based mindset for your life:

1. Buy the book, take the assessment, and do what the "prescription" section suggests.
2. Work through the book itself to learn more about what really drives you at work.
3. Over time, work to do more of what energizes you and less of what weakens you.
4. Tell others on your team what you are doing, and why.  Point them toward this book, and other strengths-based books, to help build their understanding and support.

For more information:

• "The Elements of Great Managing: 3 - Matching Strengths to Jobs" covers the data that indicate a strong link between people doing what they do best every day and business results.
• "Monthly Coaching Sessions" sets out a format for a monthly meeting that should include strengths development.
• "Now Discover Your Strengths" is a review of Buckingham's 2001 effort that first laid out the strengths-based approach to self development.
• Read more posts like this in my "Leadership Development" category.
• You might also enjoy reading David Zinger's Blog on Strengths-Based Leadership.