Hi and welcome to episode number 45 all around strengths based leadership. And why should we focus on developing our strengths and not our weaknesses? Now I'm going to start off with what is strengths based leadership, and strengths are really the backbone of positive psychology. And you may have heard that term, not really thought much about it, and I may use my own poetic license here, but the way that I describe it is that traditional psychology says, Well, you have a problem. I'm going to help you to diagnose that problem, and then we're going to work through it, whereas positive psychology says, well, actually, we're going to have a look at what your underlying strengths and values and beliefs are, and we're going to develop those strengths because we know that that will increase your happiness and your well being. So it's quite a shift from also development in a workplace sense, because traditionally, we've been told when we develop in a workplace that we list out what we're good at, we list out the things that we're not so good at, and then we develop the things that we're not so good at. But if you take a moment to reflect on that, if you've ever had to do it, you may have really struggled, because there are things that really we just don't enjoy. There are things that just aren't natural to us, that are not, you know, our cup of tea, so to speak, and sort of force us into a situation where we need to develop it. You know, it's not fun, and something's not fun, then we don't want to do it. We're going to procrastinate about it. We're going to put it off. So that's why we look at developing our strengths, which has a lot of grounding in different research studies. There are also things that we like to do and that energize us. So of course, we're more likely to want to develop them. Now I will put a bit of a caveat on this, which is that if you have a weakness or something that you're not so good at that is actually holding you back, that it's hurting yourself or it's hurting others. Then, of course, that's something that we need to look at in the workplace in terms of how do we develop that? So when I talk about strengths with leaders and in workshops with employees, when people have a look at those weaknesses or the strengths that aren't as high up on the scale, then that's my question. Is there any reason why that particular thing is holding you back right now? Is it stopping you from getting that promotion? Is it stopping you from being happy in your personal life? Has someone else said that you are really holding them back by not having that. And if the answer is no to all of those things, then we just move on, really, and we focus on our strengths. Now, how do you find out your strengths? Well, there are obviously, you know, paid options out there, but there's also a website, which is the via Institute on character. So if you go to via V i a character.org that's all one word, then it's actually a free survey there, developed by psychologists, including Martin Seligman, who is seen as a bit of the father of strengths based work and positive psychology. And you can have a look at what your strengths are by doing a quick survey. There. There are also other options. You know, I've heard the Clifton strength finder. It's also the strengths profile, which is what we use with amplify HR. We either use via strengths or strengths profile, whichever one you choose. Then it's just a matter of doing that short survey, you'll get your report, and then you can have a look at that. Now, whether that's with a facilitator, if it's one of the paid assessments, or of using the VR report, then that'll also give you some tips and tricks to use, as well as to how you can use that report. Now I'm not going to go through the different types of strengths profiles, but I did want to talk a little bit about the research and then how you can use your strengths. So there was a research study which has since been replicated around the world, and it started with an original study in 2005 with several 100 people placed in one of six groups, and this was what they call a double blind placebo controlled study with randomization to groups. Now if you're not a psychologist or a scientist, all you need to understand about that sentence is that it's basically the gold standard of research studies, and from that study, they found that those who were put into the group where they had to have what they call three good things in life, they had to write down three things that went well each day and why every night for a week, and they were also asked to provide a causal explanation for each good thing and the other group, they. Were asked to use their signature strengths in a new way. So their signature strengths are the strengths that energize them, that feel really true to them, that other people would say, yes, that's definitely a strength of yours. And participants were asked to take, in this instance, the character strengths online and then to get feedback about their top five strengths, and asked to use those in a new and different way every day for one week. And what they found was that those who did those things had higher happiness and less depression lasting for six months. And we think about those two things, the three good things in life or using your strengths in a new way. They only had to do that for a week, and yet it gave them impacts for six months of higher happiness and less depression. Now you may be wondering, well, how does this relate to the workplace? How does it relate to leadership? And there's some other strength research done by Gallup, where they said that the two most important predictors of employee retention and satisfaction were reporting that you use your top strengths at work and your immediate supervisor recognizes your top strengths, which sounds great, however, they also said that early about 20% of employees think their supervisor knows their strengths. So that's why, in a workplace context, if we can start to talk about strengths, and people can start to assess their strengths, and then we all know what our strengths are, and our supervisors know what our strengths are, then not only can that help us with our overall happiness and well being, but it can also help us to actually stay with the business longer, because we're more satisfied with our work. And you know, the reason why this may be is because our strengths are natural to us, so they can be energizing, and maybe they don't actually de Energizer. So they don't take energy to use either. You know, they're uplifting. They can be exciting to use. Make us happy. They're things that other people would say, yes, you're you're really good at that, and you use it across a lot of things. And the other thing we say, particularly when we're talking about those signature strengths, which is the terminology mostly used with the be a character strengths is that if you took it away, what would life be like for you? So for me, one of my higher character strengths is the love of learning. So if for a month I was unable to learn anything new, in terms of, I couldn't listen to a podcast, I couldn't watch any TV shows, I couldn't read a newspaper or a journal article or talk to new people. How would that make me feel well for me, that makes me feel pretty miserable thinking about a month like that. So, so that would indicate that, you know what? That's probably one of my higher strengths. So how do we use this in a workplace, particularly in a leadership setting? Is to start to understand our own strengths, but also those of our team members. So I'll give you an example. I had a team where it was just a team of two, and the employee, we were using the strengths profile. In this case, had a weakness of spotlight, which is a strength all about people that like to stand up in front of others that don't mind the spotlight being on them, whereas the manager had that as an unrealized strength, which means that for the manager, it is something that energized them, that they perform well, but they weren't using as often. So you don't often get quite a perfect match like that, but it's a good example where you can say, Okay, well, if that is something that actually de energizes you, and you don't like doing it, but it energizes me, and I like doing it. Then whenever we have those opportunities, you know, how do we use Spotlight in the workplace? Or maybe it's running workshops or training courses or going out and meeting new stakeholders, we know the person that should be doing that. So, so it can be really powerful when you actually do these as a group, to have a look at that, but also as a leader. If I'm identifying Well, these are the things that are my weaknesses within this report. These are the things that de energize me that I don't do so well. Then that's really important, because if they're things that I do need in the workplace, then what do I do about that? You know, do I let other people know? You know what this spotlight is really not my cup of tea. Yeah. And does that help me to then delegate that to someone else? Can we change my role? Or is it something that I just need to develop until just good enough? So I did read a quote in a book once. So back to my love of learning, where they said that, you know, you don't become a better synchronized swimmer through weightlifting. And this is the idea of strengths development. Is that if I want to be a better synchronized swimmer, then I need to do more swimming. I don't need to do weight lifting. So So that's the idea in the workplace, is to firstly identify our strengths, ideally share them with others within our team, and then start to develop them. And you may be wondering, well, how do I develop strengths? Because they sound like things. They're innate, and they can be and there's plenty of documents and research out there that show how to use strengths in different ways. So for example, something like curiosity. If that is a strength to you than it might be for that week that you say, Okay, I'm going to go out every day and I am going to do some research, I'm going to do some teaching, I'm going to meet some new people, and I'm going to be curious. I'm going to ask curious questions. I'm going to consider each day what I've learnt that was new, and does that actually take me down another road of things that I'm curious about as a leader? Legacy may be something that's a strength of mine, so I find it energizing. I perform it well, but I'm just not using it as often. So perhaps I need to start thinking about, Okay, well, what are my passions and inspirations, and how am I going to share that with my team? You know, how do I express with the team how we're making a difference? Are there other tasks or roles that we should be taking on within our team to make sure that we leave a positive impact for the future? You know, resilience is another one that often comes up in a workplace context. So, you know, thinking about, you know, what was the last time that I needed to use resilience? I need to pick myself up when something didn't go well. How do I support others when it's really tough? How do I get them to enable some more resilience as well. So if we do this as leaders, then we're not only going to increase our own happiness and well being, but those of others as well, to help them to feel fulfilled and to feel engaged and retain them longer in the workplace. Now I'm also very curious. So I'm curious to know, have you ever done a Strengths report, whether it's a via character strengths or Clifton Strengths, or strengths profile or another, why don't you send me a message through LinkedIn? I'd love to know how you found it, and if you've received value from this episode, if you'd also leave a rating or review of Apple podcasts so someone else can find the episode to help with their business. Links to further information on this topic and others are over at our website. Amplify hr.com.au or you can follow us on Instagram for bite sized inspiration on how to create a great place to work. Amplify hr.au staying with the theme of happiness and well being, perhaps coming up in the next episode is the four day work week. It's starting to get a lot more media attention. So what are the pros, cons pitfalls? Is it something we should consider in our business? Episodes are released every second Monday. Click the subscribe button and you'll be notified of when it's available. Thank you so much for joining me. If you have any feedback, questions or ideas for future episodes, head on over to amplify hr.com.au, or connect with me on LinkedIn and we can start a conversation