Episode #71: How to Maximize Your Strengths at Work

Do you want to know how the CliftonStrengths model from Gallup can help you uncover your natural talents and turn them into strengths?
This podcast will give you an introduction to this model.
Check it out.

Transcript

                    Episode #71: How to Maximize Your Strengths at Work

Welcome to THE CAREER ACCELERATOR, the podcast where corporate managers will find tips and tools to deliver results through others.

Hello. Today I will share tips on how focusing on your strengths can maximize your business results. 

I’m your host, Percy Cannon. 

In our last episode I shared three coaching tips that can help you grow your leadership capabilities. I gave coaching examples on:

1.   The importance of focusing on your strengths.

2.   How to develop your emotional intelligence to improve your interactions at work, and

3.   The need to continually improve your teamwork skills.

Today, I will “double-click” on the first item: the importance of focusing on your strengths. I will build on a series of positive experiences I’ve had this year related to the CliftonStrengths model.

If you are not familiar with this model, it is a strengths-based development methodology created by Gallup that helps individuals and teams identify and build upon their natural talents. Originally introduced as StrengthsFinder, it is based on the premise that people are most productive, engaged, and fulfilled when they focus on their strengths rather than trying to fix their weaknesses.

Let me unpack some of its key concepts for you:

1.   As its name indicates, this model was developed on a Strengths-Based Philosophy. CliftonStrengths focuses on helping people identify their top strengths and using them in their personal and professional lives. The idea is that by focusing on the development of your natural talents and turning them into strengths, you can attain the best return on investment, or ROI, toward achieving better performance, more satisfaction, and higher engagement.

2.   The CliftonStrengths assessment identifies your top five leadership talents out of 34 possible themes, as they are called. Each theme represents a naturally recurring pattern of leadership-related thought, feeling, or behavior.

3.   The 34 CliftonStrengths themes are categorized into four “buckets,” or domains. These are important for understanding how you lead and contribute to team dynamics. These four domains are:

a.   Executing: People in this domain are skilled at turning ideas into reality—at getting things done. Leaders with dominant Executing talents are the type who roll up their sleeves and are not afraid of hard work.

b.   Influencing: These individuals excel at inspiring and motivating others.

c.   Relationship Building: Individuals in this domain operate by connecting with people on a human level. 

d.   Strategic Thinking: These people help teams focus on what could be by analyzing possibilities and creating a vision. If you lead with Strategic Thinking, it means you default to studying, learning, and thinking.

CliftonStrengths is widely used in organizations for leadership development, for team building and to improve workplace culture. This model helps people focus on what they do best to achieve higher levels of engagement and performance.

Ok, enough theory about CliftonStrengths. Let me give you a personal example of how to apply this model to become more self-aware of your natural talents and start turning them into powerful strengths that translate into stronger business results and even personal results. 

My CliftonStrengths assessment informed me that my top five talents are:

1.   Positivity: People with this talent have contagious enthusiasm. They are upbeat and get others excited about what they are going to do.

2.   Learner: These individuals have a great desire to learn and continuously improve.

3.   Maximizer: If you’re a Maximizer, you seek to transform something strong into something superb. You’re always thinking of how to go from good to better to best.  

4.   Achiever: These people work hard and possess a great deal of stamina. They get immense satisfaction from being busy and productive.

5.   Responsibility: Individuals with this talent take ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values, such as honesty and loyalty.  

I was not surprised by my results. All these talents describe the various ways I lead. In fact, people close to me with whom I have shared my top five talents agree that they describe how I lead.

However, when I drilled down into the different insights provided in the report for each of these talents, I realized there was a lot of potential to leverage my top Five Talents in my work and personal life. In other words, these five talents were not yet at the level that I could consider them strengths. It was not easy for me to pinpoint how they connected to my delivering strong business and personal results.

Fortunately, the CliftonStrengths model does not stop at the self-awareness level. It invites you to start by picking one of your top five talents and identifying one or two key projects to leverage it to drive better results.

I chose to grow my Learner talent and apply it to improving the value that I can add to others. Specifically, I realized there was an opportunity to be more disciplined on the number of topics I wish to learn. My appetite for learning new things was leading me to aim at too many different topics at the same time. 

By now, you can probably guess which subject I chose to focus on…. CliftonStrengths. I chose learning about this topic through the variety of content they offer via YouTube and podcasts, as well as a book I recommend reading if you want to learn more about the model: Strengths Based Leadership from Gallup. 

Contact me if you are interested in learning more about the CliftonStrengths model. You can reach me through LinkedIn or by scheduling a free, no-strings-attached, call with me.

I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. In the next one, I will share the applications of the CliftonStrengths model to improve the performance capabilities of your team. 

If you like what you heard today, let me ask you to please rate, subscribe, or follow this podcast and share it with your coworkers and friends. 

 This is Percy Cannon, working to help you make the rest of your life…the best of your life®.