StrengthsFinder 2.0 was based on Gallup's 40-year study of human strengths, with 34 of the most common talents developed to help people discover and describe these talents. The concept is easy. You gain more by focusing on your strengths than on overcoming your weaknesses. StrengthsFinder
describes Strength as this equation: Talent (a natural way of thinking, feeling or behaving) multiplied by Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) equals Strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance).
I was introduced to StrengthsFinder when I began to serve on a national advisory board for a global pharmaceutical company. Our initiative was to advise how to best support and educate healthcare advocates at local, state, national and global levels. The board is comprised of leaders from different generations, geographic areas and chronic disease categories. The board decided we should take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment to better know each other, identify strength gaps in the board's composition and use individual strengths as a guide when forming smaller working committees.
My assessment was right on! WOO (Winning Others Over) was my number one strength, followed by Positivity, Communication, Arranger and Strategic. It was intriguing to see everyone's strengths. All different -- though we are all leaders in our field. As my fellow board members shared theirs, they also indicated how, at their individual organizations, they had surrounded themselves with individuals having complementary skills. Even though their teams were not built intentionally using strengths, they instinctively understood the value for their organizations in having a balanced staff with different strengths. StrengthFinders gave them proof.
It was also clear that our inventory of the board's strengths indicated that we had some gaps which could be addressed as we recruited new members. These gaps made sense. Bringing on someone with the Empathy strength could move our discussion from process to a greater understanding of the impact on those we serve. The Discipline strength could bring focus to the board when it gets lost in philosophical conversations and help move it to more actionable steps. The Arranger strength could move the discussion of the board into action steps. It was clear that our board could be more effective in forming working committees with a mix of strengths for better outcomes.
If you have not done a StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, this Gen X highly recommends it. Whether for your staff, for the cross functional team you are building or for evaluating the potential effectiveness of a volunteer board or committee that you are apart of. Talent x Investment = Strength.
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