What is a Strengths Based Approach?

Strengths are the unique combination of talents, knowledge, and skills that every person possesses. Weaknesses are considered as ‘lesser strengths’. Most people do not know what their strengths are or have the opportunity to use them to their advantage. In understanding their own strengths one also becomes aware of other people’s strengths and what they can contribute.

Benefits of a Strengths Approach?

Focusing on employees’ strengths does more than engage workers and enrich their lives, it also makes good business sense. When people’s strengths are identified and developed, they are more productive and perform better. Gallup’s research proved that people only succeed when they focus on what they do best.

Knowing their strengths contributes to the emotional intelligence of people. They do not only understand more about themselves, but also more about other people. By adopting a strengths-based culture, the StrengthsFinder™ results provide people with a common language of describing themselves and what their personal drivers are. At the same time the assessment makes strengths more quantifiable.

According to the Gallup organisation, people who do focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs. They are more productive both individually and in teams and they are more than three times as likely to say they have an excellent quality of life. https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253943/guides-reports.aspx

What is a Strengths-Based Team?

On the surface it seems simple. It’s a group of individuals who all use their talents and strengths to accomplish a common goal. This is, however, wrong. Not only is this incorrect, but trying to operate like this can actually hurt a true team. A strengths-based team requires more than everyone simply working on their strong points, it requires a deep knowledge of each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and, importantly, the orchestration of those strengths and weaknesses to fit the goals of the team. Without that orchestration, teams flounder, fail, and fight. In understanding the strengths of individual members and the team as a whole, the strength-based approach can facilitate the diversity in the team.