Managing Strengths |Leila’s House of Corrections

As a manager, do you spend most of your time telling people how to fix things instead of telling them how to focus on the things they do really well? If so, you may be increasing the likelihood of disengaged employees. Come on managers, it s time to focus on the strengths of your employees.

The vast majority of us were raised with the idea that if you fix what s broken, you ll get ahead in life. Think of bringing your report card home to your parents. If you had a bad grade, you were worried about it. You were ready to hear and your parents most likely said: What the heck happened here? We re really disappointed. And what are you going to do to fix this?

We carry this concept to adulthood as managers. We point out what s wrong and tell someone to fix it. Fixing things gets us the biggest bang for our buck, right? Wrong. Instead and The Gallup Organization has data from millions of people and over 40 years of research to back this up stop focusing on fixing what is wrong with your teams and start spending time, lots of time, on what their innate talents are. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses.

Number 1: Stop using a report card to manage your time. Stop pointing out mostly or only weaknesses.

Number 2: Ask your team members to write down the strengths they feel they have, and those that can help give the business the best ROI.

Number 3: Look at the needs of the business, and the strengths of your team, and start pairing them up. The book Strengths Finder 2.0 is a great resource.

Now, you re not going out of your way to ignore weaknesses. Instead, you re placing less attention on what s wrong. So remember, spend time and training dollars on innate talents and not on what will never be an A+.