Four Strengths-Based Strategies to Support Your Team

What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths – and can call on the right strength at the right time.

— Tom Rath

Ever feel like your team is just going through the motions? If so, you are not alone. A recent Gallup study found a staggering 85% of employees are not engaged at work. This state of disengagement can present differently, but employees are often lacking motivation and feeling a general sense of apathy. The spark of enthusiasm for work is gone, replaced by a flatness that makes even simple things feel like a chore. This lack of engagement often translates to lower productivity, higher turnover, and a stifled work environment.

So, how can you tap into your team's motivation and create a more fulfilling, productive work experience for everyone? Gallup research shows that intentionally focusing on strengths is a game-changer: in fact, teams that leverage their strengths experience a range of benefits including higher sales, profit, and lower turnover.

The rewards of a strengths-based team are undeniable, but building this positive team culture takes time and dedication. While it requires an upfront investment, the payoffs are compelling. By prioritizing strengths development, you're fostering a more engaged workforce, which leads to many bottom-line increases, including a thriving and fulfilling work environment.

The first vital step to a strengths-based team culture is to make sure that each team member has had the opportunity to learn and understand their strengths through taking the Clifton StrengthsFinder. Next, it’s essential to ensure that you have intentional strengths-building strategies in place.

In this blog post, I will cover four ways to support your team members with a strengths-based approach: job crafting strategies, individual development plans, team building, and giving feedback.

1. Strengths-Based Job Crafting

Job crafting is the process of proactively redesigning your current job to better suit your strengths, interests, and goals. With some intentional revisions, molding your tasks and expectations can create a more fulfilling work life by providing increased motivation and a greater sense of control and decision-making power.

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Here are a few ways you can leverage your strengths in the job-crafting process:

1. Identify Your Strengths: Start by reflecting on your skills, knowledge, and experiences. What are you naturally good at? What activities energize you? Consider taking a strengths assessment tool such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder to gain a deeper understanding.

2. Align Tasks with Strengths: Analyze your current tasks and responsibilities. Can you delegate or swap tasks that don't utilize your strengths? Look for opportunities to take on projects that align with your strengths or propose modifications to your role that allow you to leverage them better.

3. Seek Development Opportunities: If there are gaps between your strengths and desired job tasks, identify training or development opportunities to bridge the gap. This could involve internal programs, online courses, or certifications.

4. Communication is Key: Discuss your job crafting goals with your manager. A supportive manager can help identify opportunities within your role or the organization that align with your strengths.

Job crafting is an ongoing process. As your strengths evolve and your interests change, you can continuously refine your approach to keep your work life more enriching and engaging.

2. Strengths-Based Development Plans

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a roadmap designed to guide an employee's professional growth. While the core elements remain consistent, IDPs can vary widely in their use and application depending on several factors, including industry, organization size and culture, and employee level.  Some IDPs may prioritize performance gaps, while others focus on proactive growth and advancement strategies. The level of employee ownership over the IDP can also vary. Some organizations might encourage a bottom-up approach where employees take the lead in crafting their plan, while others might have a more top-down approach with managers setting expectations.

Traditional IDPs often emphasize areas needing improvement, which can be discouraging or even demoralizing. By incorporating strengths, employees feel valued for their unique skills and empowered to take charge of their professional growth. Employees are also more likely to excel because they are focused on areas of natural energy, which will increase confidence and motivation and likely accelerate growth and progress. 

Here's how to incorporate your strengths into your individual development plan:

1. Identify Your Strengths: The first step is to understand your strengths. Take a self-assessment like CliftonStrengths. Reflect on past successes and what made them rewarding.

2. Align Strengths with Goals: Once you understand your strengths, revisit your career goals. How can you leverage your strengths to achieve those goals? For example, if your strength is communication and your goal is to become a project manager, you could focus on developing leadership and team-building skills.

3. Set SMART Goals with Strengths: When creating SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), ensure they utilize your strengths. For instance, a goal for a strong problem-solver might be to "lead the implementation of a new process improvement initiative within the next quarter, resulting in a 15% increase in efficiency."

4. Seek Opportunities to Leverage Strengths: Look for opportunities to use your strengths at work. Volunteer for projects that align with your skills, or suggest ways to modify your current role to utilize them better.

5. Continuous Learning and Development: While focusing on strengths, don't neglect areas for improvement. Identify complementary skills needed to achieve your goals that might lie outside your current strengths.

By building your development plan around your strengths, you'll create a roadmap for success that allows you to excel, stay motivated, and make a lasting impact in your career.

3. Strengths-Based Team Building

Focusing on strengths within a team fosters a culture of appreciation and respect for individual differences, leading to a more positive and supportive team environment. By utilizing diverse strengths, teams can approach problems from different angles, leading to more creative solutions and innovative ideas. Building upon existing strengths also allows teams to learn and adapt more quickly, achieving goals and objectives faster.

StrengthsFinder, based on CliftonStrengths, can be a powerful tool to support effective team building in several ways:

• Increased Self-Awareness: By understanding their strengths through the StrengthsFinder assessment, team members gain valuable self-awareness. They learn what energizes them, their natural talents, and how they prefer to work. This self-knowledge creates a foundation for appreciating and valuing others' unique strengths as well.

• Appreciation for Diversity: StrengthsFinder helps team members recognize that strengths come in all shapes and sizes. There's no single "best" set of strengths, and a successful team needs a variety of strengths to function well. This appreciation for diversity fosters a more inclusive and collaborative team environment. Use a tool such as the Team Strengths Grid to visualize the diversity of your team strengths.

• Enhanced Communication: Understanding your own and others' strengths can lead to better communication within the team. People can tailor their communication style to resonate with others' strengths and preferences. For example, someone with the "Learner" strength might appreciate detailed explanations, while someone with the "Activator" strength might prefer a more concise approach.

• Strategic Role Allocation: By identifying each member's strengths, teams can strategically assign tasks and projects. Someone with the "Strategic" strength might excel at planning, while someone with the "Ideation" strength might be a great brainstorming partner. Matching tasks to strengths leads to higher quality work and greater efficiency.

• Reduced Conflict: When team members understand each other's strengths and motivations, it can help them to prevent misunderstandings and navigate conflicts more smoothly. They can anticipate potential roadblocks and find solutions that leverage everyone's strengths.

Leveraging individual strengths can be a powerful asset in creating a high-performing and successful team.

4. Strengths-Based Feedback

Strengths-based feedback focuses on highlighting and building upon an employee's strengths, rather than solely pointing out weaknesses. Traditional feedback often focuses on areas of weaknesses and performance gaps, which can be demotivating and disempowering. Strengths-based feedback, on the other hand, emphasizes positive performance and seeks to maximize the strengths-based patterns that lead to success.

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Steps to Prepare Strengths-Based Feedback:

1. Identify Strengths: Start by understanding your employee's strengths through assessments, performance reviews, or past achievements.

2. Focus on Specific Examples: Avoid being generic; instead, point out what is unique and particularly valuable about the individual’s skills as well as specific instances where they excelled and the positive impact it had.

3. Connect Strengths to Goals: Show how an employee’s strengths contribute to achieving personal and team goals, which helps them see the value of their strengths.

4. Frame Development as Growth: When discussing areas for improvement, frame it as an opportunity to further develop their existing strengths.

5. Encourage Self-Reflection: Ask questions to encourage the employee to reflect on their strengths and how they can utilize them even more effectively.

Strengths-based feedback is not about ignoring weaknesses. It's about creating a positive and motivating environment where employees feel empowered to leverage their strengths and continuously improve.

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