Assessing Strengths or Weaknesses?

0:09 when you think about 0:09 assessing your team your individual team 0:12 members 0:12 the second important question that you 0:16 must 0:16 be able to answer the first one was why 0:19 am i assessing 0:20 and what am i assessing the second 0:23 important question that you must be able 0:25 to answer 0:26 is am i going to focus on weaknesses or 0:28 strengths or both 0:31 so for example quotes from famous people 0:33 that you may or 0:34 may not have heard of newt rockne famous 0:36 notre dame football coach 0:37 said build up your weaknesses until they 0:39 become strengths 0:41 this is a particular perspective which 0:43 is pretty common in organizations today 0:46 let's identify the weaknesses that this 0:49 person has 0:51 and now let's create a development plan 0:54 to work on those weaknesses 0:56 put those put that person in experiences 0:58 where we'll stretch them 1:00 along these weaknesses until those 1:02 weaknesses become strengths 1:04 the gap analysis or what we often call 1:06 the deficit approach 1:08 but the focus here is on weaknesses gaps 1:12 and doing whatever it takes to fill or 1:15 address those gaps 1:17 but there's a different perspective 1:19 which is captured in the strengths 1:21 based perspective and a quote here 1:24 success is achieved by developing our 1:26 strengths not by eliminating 1:29 our weaknesses very different 1:31 perspective 1:33 and so what i want to encourage you to 1:36 think about 1:37 when you are entertaining the idea of 1:40 what assessments to use how to use those 1:42 assessments when coaching and developing 1:44 your talent 1:45 is am i going to focus on weaknesses 1:48 which is pretty typical or standard in 1:50 organizations today 1:52 or am i going to use assessments to 1:54 identify 1:55 their strengths and then figure out ways 1:58 to leverage and develop those strengths 2:00 even 2:01 further or is it going to be some 2:03 combination of the two 2:05 so again the weaknesses approach or the 2:07 gap approach 2:08 is i'm going to use an assessment to 2:10 identify the weakness 2:11 and then create developmental 2:13 experiences to address the weakness 2:15 the strengths-based approach is i'm 2:16 going to use the assessment to identify 2:19 where and how is this person really 2:21 strong 2:22 as an individual or as a team member and 2:25 then figure out ways to use experiences 2:27 to 2:28 leverage and further develop those 2:30 strengths 2:32 so let's talk about that strengths-based 2:35 approach 2:36 there was a book written strengths-based 2:38 leadership 2:39 in that book i found a quote by one of 2:41 the authors who 2:42 said if you spend your life trying to be 2:44 good at everything you will never be 2:45 great at anything 2:48 while our society encourages us to be 2:50 well-rounded this approach 2:52 inadvertently breeds mediocrity 2:55 the great leaders that they studied in 2:57 this book 2:58 are not well-rounded individuals they've 3:00 become world-class 3:02 in a relatively limited number of areas 3:05 of leadership they argue the concept of 3:08 well-roundedness is an illusion 3:11 really all that happens when people try 3:13 to fix their weaknesses is that they 3:14 spend inordinate amounts of time trying 3:16 to become 3:17 marginally better in an area that they 3:20 will never be particularly strong 3:22 that is the essence of the 3:24 strengths-based perspective 3:28 i'll give you a data-driven example from 3:30 the world of sports 3:32 that really illustrates the 3:35 essence the power of this 3:37 strengths-based approach 3:39 tiger woods arguably one of the most 3:42 famous golfers 3:44 in history i went and i 3:47 analyzed his most dominant or successful 3:51 golf season in his career it was in the 3:54 year 2000 3:56 in 2000 he competed in 20 total 3:58 tournaments 4:00 in 13 of those 20 tournaments he 4:03 finished either first or second 4:04 and he finished top 10 in 17 of the 20. 4:08 in terms of the statistics that are used 4:11 to 4:12 measure or assess golfers and their 4:14 performance 4:15 he was number one in greens and 4:17 regulation he was number two in driving 4:20 distance how far he hit it off of the 4:22 t he was number three in a statistic 4:26 called scrambling 4:28 that statistic captures the degree to 4:30 which when golfers hit it 4:32 off course their ability to get it back 4:35 on course and and get it to the whole 4:37 and he earned a significant amount of 4:39 money over 9 million dollars 4:41 in winnings that year when we look at 4:44 his 4:45 dominant performance across that season 4:47 it's really 4:48 easy to conclude that he was perfect he 4:51 was great at everything 4:53 but that's simply not the case if you 4:55 look at other statistics 4:57 he was middle of the road he was 4:59 mediocre 5:01 at things like his ability to get out of 5:03 sand traps 5:04 even putting he was a mediocre 5:07 at his ability to avoid three putting on 5:10 the green 5:12 and so whether it was sand saves or 5:14 putting 5:15 those were not his strengths his 5:17 strengths largely had to do with 5:20 driving the ball getting it to the green 5:23 the long uh the long game the long 5:25 distance 5:25 uh aspects of his golf game and less so 5:29 in the short game aspects of golf 5:32 putting and sand traps and so this is 5:35 someone who 5:37 obviously performed really well at his 5:40 task but he wasn't great at everything 5:43 he was great at a few things 5:45 and then really found ways to leverage 5:47 those few things 5:49 to create success for himself that is 5:51 the essence 5:52 of the strengths-based approach is let's 5:55 identify what are the few areas that 5:57 we're really strong at 5:58 and then put ourselves in positions to 6:00 leverage those strengths 6:02 to in order to enable us to be 6:05 successful gallup did a very 6:09 interesting study of employees around 6:12 the world 6:14 looking at the degree to which employees 6:17 felt that they were able to use their 6:19 strengths every day at work 6:21 the question at work do you have the 6:23 opportunity to do what you do 6:24 best every day almost 200 000 6:27 employees across the globe completed 6:30 this 6:31 survey interestingly eighty percent 6:35 of the employees who completed this 6:37 survey did not feel 6:38 that their strengths were used every day 6:41 but in the organizations where their 6:43 strengths were used 6:45 you saw less employed turnover or 6:48 attrition 6:49 you saw more productive business units 6:51 financially 6:52 better results and then you saw higher 6:55 customer satisfaction scores so it 6:56 wasn't just that the business was 6:58 performing better 6:59 but the customers were actually more 7:01 satisfied 7:03 what we're finding in our research today 7:06 is that 7:07 the traditional weakness approach to 7:09 assessment 7:10 and development is insufficient 7:13 it's not that we want to ignore the 7:15 weaknesses if there are certain 7:17 weaknesses 7:18 that we must improve 7:21 in order to even be viable team members 7:24 and be able to work on 7:26 a specific task we have to meet a 7:28 certain threshold 7:30 but in order to achieve excellence in 7:33 order to achieve 7:34 exceptional results what we're finding 7:37 is that 7:38 leaders and teams are discovering 7:42 through assessment 7:43 what are what are our strengths 7:46 and then finding ways to develop and 7:49 leverage those strengths 7:50 even further nelson mandela 7:55 in his 1995 speech 7:58 at his inauguration quoted the words of 8:02 marianne williamson 8:04 in ways that i think really captures the 8:06 essence 8:07 of this strengths-based approach to 8:10 coaching and developing your talent 8:12 he said again quoting marianne 8:15 williamson 8:16 our deepest fear is not that we are 8:17 inadequate 8:19 our deepest fear is that we are powerful 8:21 beyond measure 8:22 it is our light not our darkness that 8:25 frightens us 8:27 we ask ourselves who am i to be 8:29 brilliant 8:30 gorgeous talented fabulous 8:33 nelson mandela said actually who are we 8:36 not to be those things 8:37 your playing small does not serve the 8:39 world there is nothing enlightened about 8:41 shrinking so that other people won't 8:43 feel insecure around you 8:46 he said we are all meant to shine just 8:49 as children do 8:50 it is not just in some of us it is in 8:52 every one of us 8:54 so again as you think about assessment 8:56 think about not only assessing 8:58 what are people weak at but also what 9:02 are they 9:03 exceptional at and then think about not 9:07 only how can you address the weaknesses 9:09 but also how do you further develop and 9:12 leverage those strengths 9:14 so that your team and the individuals 9:17 working in that team 9:19 can be exceptional and achieve the goals 9:23 and the aspirations that you are setting 9:25 for them 9:25 as their leader