After investing time, energy and cost in you and your team members through understanding their Strengths, you want to get the value from this investment.
Developing a Strengths-based culture is creating a culture where team members feel safe to be themselves, use their strengths and leaders understand and encourage them to use them.
The combination of the little things (that don’t cost much or anything!) embeds strengths into the culture.
It all starts with leadership.
Leaders influence the culture more than any other factor and therefore play an important role in bringing Strengths to life through what they do and say.
The aim is to create a culture where not only the leader is integrating Strengths into the discussions, but all of the team members do as well… however it starts with the leader.
Examples of this include… recognising someone’s Strengths in action, inviting perspective from a team member, coaching a team member to improve in an area through their Strengths or delegating work in consideration of people’s Strengths.
Some real examples of how to do this with CliftonStrengths® references in 1:1 conversations and meetings are:
Aim your Strengths – What Strength do I need to aim for this task / conversation?
“How can my RELATOR help in this project?”
Awareness – What are the potential blind spots of my Strengths?
“What do I need to watch out for with my ANALYTICAL in today’s 1:1?”
Context – How am I providing context on my intent?
“Before we move forward, I want to ensure we DELIBERATE on this some more and make the best decision.”
Discover – What are the Strengths of my team? When are they at their best?
“How does John’s RESPONSIBILITY show up?”
Delegate – Whose Strengths are best suited for this task?
“Who’s ACHIEVER will ensure we get this done?“
Collaborate – Who can I collaborate with to overcome this challenge?
“Who can I partner my STRATEGIC with on this?“
Invite Perspective – What insight does someone else’s Strengths bring to this situation?
“What are we missing that Jane’s RESTORATIVE will identify?“
Seek Advice – Can you help me with this? How would you handle this situation through your Strengths?
“Tell me how your COMMAND would handle this situation?“
“What will happen when we think about what is right with people rather than fixating on what is wrong with them?”
– Don Clifton