Let Your Staff Shine

I started my professional career in education where we spent a lot of time discussing and trying to address what we perceived to be our students’ weaknesses. We focused on reading scores and math tests and developed programs and curricula to fix what we determined needed fixing.

When I started to supervise staff, I went about it in the same way. It was what I knew and it was how I had been supervised. But I realized that this method was not very effective. So much time was invested in trying to fix what we determined needed fixing yet in too many cases, it was never quite fixed. I started to realize what a waste of time, energy, and money it was to keep trying to force people to be good at things they had no interest in or natural inclination for. Instead, I invested in further developing people’s strengths and making sure they had every opportunity to use them.

HELP YOUR STAFF SHINE BY FOCUSING ON THEIR STRENGTHS

In a strengths-based approach, the aim is not to fix what we think is wrong with people or focus on improving their weaknesses. Instead, the focus is on leveraging the gifts they already have. This approach is more than a nice concept- it is an evidence-based one. When we focus on strengths, we allow people to provide the most value and feel successful while doing it. This is an effective way to support people whether they are clients or staff members, children or adults. We all respond better when we get the opportunity to demonstrate our value.

Gallup has studied the topic of staff strengths extensively, and they have found that people- in any field- who are given the opportunity to use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work.  Which should not be surprising. Think about what you do well. Don’t you enjoy doing it? Wouldn’t you prefer to spend your time doing something you feel successful at rather than something you don’t enjoy or struggle with? Makes sense, right?

The decision to focus on employee strengths has great and powerful implications in the workplace. By discovering and utilizing opportunities to use their strengths at work, staff are more likely to be engaged, perform better and stick around. Employees who feel successful and supported are more likely to stay; those who do not, won’t. Plus, you are then getting the absolute best out of everyone on your team because they are contributing what they do best.

HOW TO HELP YOUR STAFF SHINE

As a leader, it is your responsibility to provide opportunities for your staff to use their strengths to do what they do best every day. This will require intentionality, adjustment and a willingness to invest time into discovering what each staff’s gifts are and how they can most effectively be leveraged. This begins during your hiring process. It requires a thoughtful hiring strategy focused on the gifts that people bring. Once hired, you must have a willingness to consistently check in with your staff to gauge how they are doing, how they are feeling and where adjustments need to be made to best match staff strengths and organizational needs. It is a time-consuming process, to be sure, but one that is justified in the results it will yield.

Think of everyone you supervise now. Can you easily identify their strengths? Can you confidently say that they have the opportunity to use those strengths everyday in their work? How much time are you investing in helping your staff deepen those strengths versus trying to improve what you perceive to be their weaknesses? How much energy are you giving to bolstering these strengths and the opportunity to use them for the betterment of your organization?

What about yourself? Are you given the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Where do you shine? Where can you create opportunities for yourself to do your best work and enjoy yourself while doing it?

HELP YOUR STAFF SHINE BY GIVING THEM THE SPOTLIGHT

In addition to creating opportunities for staff to utilize their strengths every day, you can help your staff shine by 1) recognizing them and 2) sharing their strengths publicly.

Currently, where is there opportunity for your staff to train others on their strengths? Where can others observe your staff doing what they do best so they can learn through example and modeling? How can you use staff strengths to help the rest of your team grow?

Further, how are you currently recognizing and appreciating your staff’s strengths? How do you acknowledge and thank them? How do you let others know about them? What opportunities do you create for staff to share their accomplishments and gifts with others?

HOW TO MEASURE IF YOU ARE LETTING YOUR STAFF SHINE

To begin improving your strengths-based culture, you need to start by understanding where you are. Luckily, Gallup has created a simple, research-based way to do this through their Strengths Orientation Index. This Index will help you gauge how well you are currently doing in creating space for your staff to shine. The index is comprised of four statements for staff to respond to:

1. Every week, I set goals and expectations based on my strengths.
2. I can name the strengths of five people I work with.
3. In the last three months, my supervisor and I have had a meaningful discussion about my strengths.
4. My organization is committed to building the strengths of each associate.

Ask each team member to respond to each of these statements and look for patterns. Where are you currently doing well as a leader to maximize your staff’s strengths and where do you need to grow?

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Giving your staff the opportunity to shine is not just a feel-good trick. It is a research-based strategy that results in higher staff engagement, performance and retention. Everybody wants the chance to feel that what they are doing is both valuable and valued. Creating and providing opportunities for your staff to shine by doing what they do best and then acknowledging them for it will create a team culture where performance is enhanced, and staff retention is increased.

If you already implement a strengths-based approach in your team leadership, examine ways to do so on a deeper and more impactful level. If you have not yet started to lead from a strengths-based approach, decide when you will start. Today seems like a good day to start.