Thirty Essentials by Andrew Laurie

Author:Andrew Laurie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ventura Press

THIRTY ESSENTIALS #17

ARE YOU PLAYING TO YOUR TEAM MEMBERS’ STRENGTHS?

As emphasised by a well-known Gallup study11 and explored at length by Marcus Buckingham,12 any individual or group can improve its performance, or increase what it achieves, by playing to its strengths. This seems like a statement of the obvious. Anyone who has performed at a high level in almost any activity will appreciate the logic – while to perform at a high level in anything requires significant focused effort,13 in the end you are most likely to succeed at the activities in which you excel. In a cricket team, those with a good eye and sense of timing will tend to be batsmen. Those good at bowling will, to state the obvious, tend to be bowlers. Those with no sporting talent will tend not to play cricket at all!

The irony, when it comes to business, is how often this supposedly obvious concept is not actually adhered to. Think of yourself or your team for a moment and ask how much time and focus is given to improving weaknesses and then ask how much time and focus is given to making more and greater use of strengths. Too often, the former is far greater than the latter. Can you think of anyone in a role for which he or she is not naturally suited? Don’t get me wrong – of course, it is often necessary and valuable to improve areas of weakness, but this should be a relatively minor focus of your attention. In the end, a greater return is usually available from simply knowing your strengths or those of your team and finding ways to use those as often and as much as possible.

To make it simple:

• Have you explicitly identified what strengths each member of your team holds?

• Do you have team members in roles, and doing work, that require those strengths?

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