Do you take the time to reinforce your team’s strengths, or do you simply take their strengths and talents for granted? In this episode, Shannon Waller explains the benefits of reinforcing team strengths rather than fixing weaknesses. Learn why this counterintuitive approach can boost morale, productivity, and even your bottom line.

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Show Notes:

Growing Strengths

• People often take their natural abilities for granted.
• When people realize their capabilities are valuable to others, they will invest more time and effort into developing them further.

Gallup’s Framework For Understanding Strengths

• Talent: A natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving.
• Investment: Time spent practicing, developing skills, and building knowledge.
• Strength: The ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific task.
• Raw talent alone is not enough; it must be combined with investment to become a true strength.

Mindset For Talent Development

• To recognize individuality and uniqueness in others, leaders must first acknowledge and develop their own Unique Ability^®.
• This mindset may be challenging for leaders who believe:
  1. They need to be all things to all people, or
  2. People are basically all the same
• Dan Sullivan has said a key aspect of running a Self-Managing Company^® is the willingness to be ignorant:
  • Leaders don’t need to know every detail of their operation if they trust their team members to use their unique strengths to excel in their respective roles.

The Difference This Can Make

• Benefits of reinforcing your team’s strengths:
  • Builds habits
  • Improves team dynamics and collaboration
  • Increases productivity
  • Increases creativity
  • Supports more fulfilling careers
  • Reduces workplace problems
  • Supports self-managing team members

Recognizing And Nurturing Unique Talents

• Give people feedback: “Hey I really appreciate it when you do this; it really makes a difference. You do this faster than anyone else on the team does.”
• Ask the question: “Is this something you really enjoy doing too?”
• Unique Ability combines excellent skills with passion, joy, endless energy, fascination, and a constant desire for improvement.

How To Take Action

• Pay attention and take action when someone volunteers to do something no one asked them to do, and they are exceptional and energized by it.
• Speak out about what’s working to reinforce the things you want to see more of.
• Use The Impact Filter^™ tool from Strategic Coach^® to clearly communicate expectations for specific tasks and projects.
• Read the upcoming book in the Ambition Series coming in Fall 2024, Casting Not Hiring, and download the 4 x 4 tool. The 4 x 4 is used to communicate to team members the overall expectations for their role and teamwork.
• The 4 x 4 tells team members how they can excel in their performance by:
  1. Being alert, curious, responsive, and resourceful
  2. Focusing on results that are faster, easier, cheaper, and bigger
  3. Being a hero to you
  4. Avoiding the things that drive you crazy
• Use The Communication Builder with your team members to understand each other’s work preferences, communication styles, and stress responses.

Resources:

CliftonStrengths^®

Unique Ability

The Communication Builder

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

The Impact Filter

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff (coming Fall 2024)