Have You Maximize Your Employee’s Strengths
Maximizing an employee’s strengths is a more effective use of your time than improving their weaknesses. No one person is perfect — how do you gain the most from your employees so they want to perform at their best?
Focus on their strengths
As manager, your role is to provide clear expectations and coach your team so they are successful in their roles. Employees want to contribute and are more focused and engaged when they continue to build on their strengths.
Susan Sorenson, Gallup.com, wrote “How Employees’ Strengths Make Your Company Stronger.”
People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. That’s just one big finding from decades of Gallup research into human behaviors and strengths. That research has established a compelling connection between strengths and employee engagement in the workplace — a connection that has the power to accelerate performance when companies work on enhancing both simultaneously.
Coaching Employees
Most managers want to insure their team members are successful, though may not know exactly how to maximize their performance. How can you support each of your employees? Coaching! What do I mean by coaching?
Coaching for managers is the ability to provide expectations for an employee, evaluate strengths, listen to what motivates them and keep them accountable to meet goals. A coach provides constructive feedback and will set goals and push for higher performance levels. A coach is to keep each person accountable to their success and the company’s success.
Next Steps
Time now to move forward on this different model in managing employees — focusing on strengths. How can your organize yourself so you are aware on how to work with your team members?
- What are the most important functions each position offers to the success of the company?
- Step back and view what strengths each person brings each day to work.
- What strengths do they use each day?
- What strengths do they have and are not using? For example, a person is hired in customer support and has strong verbal communication skills. This person also is a strong writer and is not using this skill. The more you can maximize each person’s skill, the more engaged and committed they will be in their work.
- Check in with each person and see if they feel the company is using their strengths.
The benefits of coaching helps build a stronger working relationship between you, as the manager, and your team members. Employees who feel they are listened to, encouraged and know that their manager will keep them accountable to perform their best, will do just that.
Be well,
Pat
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