Learn to Capitalize On Employee Strengths

by Ray Williams

Managers and executives have been schooled to assess the performance of their employees based on identifying weaknesses and seeing the gap between what's expected and what's actually performed. We may be looking at a glass half empty. Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, authors of the book, "Now Discover Your Strengths," suggest that we build our lives around strengths and they show us ways to minimize the impact of our weaknesses. At Success IQ University, we have taken these principles and expanded them into practical and pragmatic ways to improve productivity and performance. Here are some specific tips you can use to build your strengths:

Tip 1: Understand how to distinguish your natural talents from the skills you can learn. While it's true that you can improve at things for which you are not naturally gifted, the question is whether you can reach consistent near-perfect performance repeatedly. There is a distinct difference among talents, knowledge and skills. Natural talents are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feelings or behavior. Knowledge consists of facts and lessons learned. Skills are the learned steps of an activity. With skills and knowledge, you can perfect and a talent you may be born with. On the other hand, you can acquire skills and knowledge to a point to adequately get by, but you'll never be able to attain the consistent near-perfect performance that comes with innate talent.

Tip 2: Develop a system to identify your dominant talents. Try an activity to see how quickly you pick it up, skip the steps in the learning and add twists and things you haven't been taught yet and finally see whether you get so absorbed in the activity that you lose track of time.

Tip 3: Learn a common language to describe your talents and the talents of others. Our language of human weaknesses is rich and varied, whereas, in contrast, the language of human strengths is sparse.

While a person with people skills has strength for relating well to people, he or she may not have the particular strength to succeed in a specific area. For example, one person with people skills might excel at building trust, while another person with people skills might be brilliant at networking.

Organizations are merely a reflection of the individuals in them. Most organizations are like a puzzle put together in a dark room. Each piece is squeezed into place, and then the edges are ground down so they feel well positioned. But, pull up the shades, let a little light into the room and we see the truth:

* 8 out of 10 pieces are in the wrong place
* 8 out of 10 employees feel they are miscast
* 8 out of 10 employees never have a chance to reveal the best ofthemselves.

It doesn't have to be this way. A knowledge economy in an increasingly competitive global economy means that the right employees are becoming more precious with each passing year.

Those of us who lead organizations must become more sophisticated and more efficient when it comes to capitalizing on our people. We must find the best possible fit for people's strengths and the roles we are asking them to play. Ethical, effective leaders focus on the importance of people. They seek out talent and concentrate performance on outcomes, rather than forcing people into stylistic modes that show their weaknesses.

About Ray Williams
Ray Williams is Co-Founder of Success IQ University a company based in Phoenix, Arizona providing the most innovative products and services to help professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners be more successful in life and work.
Ray is also President of Ray Williams Associates, a company based in Vancouver B.C., providing executive coaching services.
Ray has been an executive, management consultant and coach for over thirty years, working with leaders throughout the world. He is also a Certified Hypnotherapist and Master NLP Coach. Ray has written a number of books on leadership and writes a regular column for the National Post, Canada's leading newspaper.
Ray is in demand as a speaker, coach, consultant and author throughout North America.
www.successiqu.comwww.raywilliamsassociates.com;
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