Working with strengths to make your business stronger

Your people are top-notch, but you can see they can be even better, even though they don’t necessarily know it. 

Finding and developing those talents to make your people even better can be done through a strengths-based approach.

Strengths-based coaching might sound like another bit of jargon, but to be honest, it’s pretty simple. It’s about helping individuals and teams identify, understand, and then intentionally use their innate talents – the things they are naturally good at (or can be good at) and, crucially, that energise them.

It's the energising bit that really matters with strengths. When you think about it, whenever you’re doing something you’re good at and enjoy, it doesn’t feel like hard work.  It feels good, and time can disappear.

The benefits of a strengths-based approach

In practical terms, a strengths-based approach to developing your people can result in a pretty transformative impact.

•            Engagement improves: When people use their strengths regularly, they’re more likely to be engaged, motivated, and enthusiastic about their work.

•            Performance is raised: When you’re leveraging what you’re good at and enjoy, you’re likely to perform better, be more innovative, and solve problems more effectively. It’s like giving Popeye his spinach, but for skills!

•            Stronger teams: Understanding each other’s strengths fosters more and better collaboration. Team members can learn to lean on each other's natural talents, appreciate diverse contributions, and work together much more cohesively.

•            Increased resilience & wellbeing: Playing to strengths is confidence-boosting. In high-pressure work like the law, this helps build resilience and support overall wellbeing.

We often have a good sense of what we are good at, and what we enjoy, but not always. Often, we have talents that we haven’t had an opportunity to use yet in the workplace.

What about weaknesses?

To be clear, strengths-based coaching isn't about pretending weaknesses don't exist or that everyone is perfect.

Clearly, everyone has things they aren’t good at and/or don’t get energised by. They are realistically what most people think of as weaknesses.  But, instead of thinking of them as weaknesses, try thinking of them as energy drainers instead.

This allows a shift of focus. It’s about saying:

"Ok, these are the areas where this individual or team members get energy and already excels (or can do in the future). How can we maximise that? How can we design roles, delegate tasks, and build development plans that use these strengths and provide an energy (and therefore engagement) boost?"

With this thought-process, the energy-drainers, or so-called weaknesses and development areas, can then be managed or mitigated, for example, by bringing in complementary strengths from others, rather than being the sole focus of all developmental effort for an individual.

When weaknesses become the only focus for development, the individual is continually reminded that they aren’t good at something and forced to do things that don’t energise them.  Being made to continually try to improve

Clearly, there are some skills that are essential to a role, and have to be developed, irrespective of whether they are a strength or an energy drainer but this isn’t the case for every skill.

So, when formulating development plans for your team or even yourself, don’t focus solely on weaknesses, find strengths and maximise them.

I found my strengths through taking a Strengthscope® assessment.  Understanding my strengths better helped me use them more frequently and effectively. Knowing my strengths contributed to my work and leadership in the patent profession, and tbh, my strengths are fundamental to the work I am doing now.

I found it so helpful that I studied more about strengths and am now accredited to use Strengthscope® with my clients.  If you're curious to learn more about strengths-based approaches for yourself or your firm, please don't hesitate to get in touch.