Achieving Excellence – Build a High Performing Team Using StrengthsFinder
Imagine your team’s performance if every member understood their unique strengths and talents and could use them for maximum impact.
StrengthsFinder® provides valuable insights into individual strengths, leading to better communication, collaboration, and team culture. By focusing on strengths, rather than just fixing weaknesses, team members align their work with their natural abilities, resulting in increased engagement, motivation, and productivity.
What is StrengthsFinder?
StrengthsFinder® is an online psychometric tool used by millions of people globally to identify their natural talents and what they do best. Through a series of online questions, the Clifton Strengths Finder® identifies the top strengths of your team members from a list of 34 unique strengths grouped into four domains:
Executing
Influencing
Relationship Building
Strategic Thinking.
Originally developed by Gallup, it is now known as StrengthsFinder or Clifton Strengths.
How can StrengthsFinder help build high performing teams?
By understanding their unique strengths, team members are equipped to use them more effectively in their own roles. By understanding each other’s strengths, the whole team is equipped to leverage the benefits to deliver results.
So what are the benefits of using Strengths Finder with your team?
Using this approach within your team can provide employee benefits in a number of ways, including engagement and productivity.
But StrengthsFinder goes beyond individual insights - it also fosters a positive team culture of empowerment. By understanding each other better, team members feel valued and motivated to contribute their best, creating a supportive environment that nurtures collaboration, innovation, and creativity. This unlocks the full potential of your team and leads to improved team performance and results, greater diversity and reduced conflict.
Explore here for detailed evidence of the benefits of using Clifton Strengths.
How does it work with my team?
Team members start by completing the online Clifton Strengths Assessment. Please contact us for details or visit the Clifton Strengths website.
There’s then an optional 1:1 Coaching Call to discuss their strengths in more detail, including how their top five strengths combine together and the maximising effect of this. During a coaching call we also explore ‘shadow-sides’ ie the drawbacks of some strengths, and how they may show up under pressure and have a detrimental effect either on us or others.
The next stage is the Team Session, the purpose of which is to elevate the team’s performance, by enabling team members to:
Understand themselves and other team members better
Identify how their own and others’ strengths impact team culture and results
Make the most of the different strengths in the team for better collaboration
Identify how different strengths can benefit stakeholder relationships
Discuss the impact of ‘shadow-sides’ of strengths on team relationships and ways to manage these (shadow-sides are the downsides of strengths and often show-up under pressure)
Understand and manage any weaknesses or gaps in your team's strengths
Increase the culture of trust and psychological safety
Use the language of StrengthsFinder to understand people’s similarities and differences and enhance the benefits of this diversity
Create a targeted action plan to put their strengths to work to deliver results and overcome challenges
For more information see here. If you’re interested in exploring how Clifton Strengths can help your team elevate its results please contact me for an initial chat.