Don't Fight the Feeling, Make it a Strength

I recently reread two books by Marcus Buckingham, First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths. The books deal with identifying and developing natural talents into Strengths, and effectively managing the process. Buckingham is a leading authority on the subject of a Strengths-based approach to management. For years, he led the research effort on the subject at the Gallup Organization.

A Gallup survey asked employees, “At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” Only 20% responded with “strongly agree”. Gallup research revealed that “employees who strongly agreed that they had a chance to do what they do best every day claimed fewer sick days, filed fewer workers’ compensation claims, and had fewer accidents while on the job.” Matt Ridley, in his book, Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, reported the results of a long-term study involving 17,000 British civil servants. The study came to the startling conclusion that “the status of person’s job was more able to predict their likelihood of a heart attack than obesity, smoking, or high blood pressure”!

The research should prompt employers to ask, “How can we create an organization where the majority of employees are using their strengths every day and have an opportunity to grow in their role in the company?” Two key assumptions are necessary to get responses that are more positive:
1. Each person’s talents are unique and are not going to change
2. The greatest room for growth is in the area of a person’s greatest strength.

This should lead employers to do four things:
1. Select people carefully – matching their talents with the roles that they will be performing
2. Focus performance on measured outcomes – not on how the outcomes are achieved.
3. Focus training on identifying and building on individual strengths - set consistent expectations for everyone, but treat each person as being uniquely different.
4. Create ways for employees to grow their career without promoting them out of their area of strengths - promotion should be designed to reward excellence in every role in the company, including providing prestige, respect, and financial reward to each role.

Would you like to know what your natural talents are? Answer these questions to gain insight:
1. How do you spontaneously react to situations?
2. What yearnings are reoccurring and have a magnetic pull over you?
3. What do you learn very quickly and easily?
4. What gives you satisfaction? – synaptic connections in the brain are designed to make you feel good when you use them.

Talents are very hard to change - they are You. When you understand what your true talents are, you can develop knowledge and skills to turn them into Strengths. Reoccurring feelings are a window into your talents. Don’t fight the feelings - take the path of least resistance to be the best of who you really are.

Live WELL,
Michael