Thought Leaders
Playing to Strengths: Positive Leadership Engages Employees and Boosts Productivity
Executives of a Fortune 100 retail company recognized that certain stores were outperforming others. When managers from headquarters looked more closely at the stores, they found that local managers of top-performing locations had found ways to engage their employees by focusing on their strengths.
"These stores were consistently outperforming others, even when times were tough," says Courtney McCashland, managing partner of the Marcus Buckingham Company and a faculty member of Wharton's Positive Leadership: Leveraging Strengths to Optimize Performance. "They were really hitting the cover off the ball. Some of the best managers like these have discovered in a grassroots way what we are teaching in the classroom."
People are underutilized. We in organizations are so strapped in trying to be more efficient, but we haven’t figured out how to glean the best of our human assets.
–Courtney McCashland, Managing Partner, Marcus Buckingham Company; Faculty member, Positive Leadership
Leaders can improve performance by identifying and utilizing the strengths of the members of their teams. For example, in the top-performing retail locations, managers posted flip chart pages in the break room where members of the team had recorded notes about the strengths of colleagues whom they appreciated. When managers made their weekly schedules, they tried to utilize the strengths and aspirations of individuals. "People are underutilized," McCashland says. "We in organizations are so strapped in trying to be more efficient, but we haven't figured out how to glean the best of our human assets."
Strengths and Performance
In a turbulent environment, where employees may feel less connected, allowing them to do what they do best can significantly increase engagement. Over the past decade, Gallup has surveyed more than 10 million people worldwide on employee engagement. Only a third strongly agreed with the statement: "At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day." Gallup found that among those who "strongly disagreed" or "disagreed" with this statement, not one was emotionally engaged on the job. Based on such research, Gallup created tools to identify and capitalize on individual strengths, which Marcus Buckingham extended and carried to the world in a series of best-selling books.
Research shows that engaged employees are more productive, more profitable, and more innovative. They also achieve nearly double the customer satisfaction scores and experience half the usual turnover rate. Research on high-performing teams also shows that individual engagement is central to their success. "It's important to set clear expectations for the team, but the reality is that even if I do a fabulous job at that but I have people mismatched with the job they should be doing, I still don't get the best outcome," McCashland says.
She notes that according to Gallup's meta-analysis, having the opportunity to do what you do best every day is the most important factor in employee performance — above issues such as clarity of expectations. "Anything I do in the workplace, if I don't start with the uniqueness of the human being, all other things don't have quite the multiplier effect. I can set very clear expectations but if I don't consider the strengths of people, the expectations may not use their strengths or they may be unrealistic."
The fact that using your strengths makes you more engaged is not surprising, but many companies have forgotten this. In our schools and workplaces, we focus on shoring up weaknesses rather than playing to strengths. "We as individuals don't have the training on how to take initiative to use the strengths and talents we have as unique human beings. Our approach in the classroom is on what actions you can take to ensure that you and your team are using strengths in a way that makes you all more engaged and productive."
Finding and Using Strengths
During the Wharton Positive Leadership program, McCashland will use the Strengths Engagement Track (SET), a 16-question survey that tracks how effectively and how consistently each employee plays to his or her strengths, to assess engagement of participants individually and collectively. "How much of the capacity that I bring am I using when I come to work every day?" she asks. Even top leaders, who seem to have more power to use their strengths as they wish, rarely have an opportunity to do so. "When we go to Fortune 500 companies, the leaders typically are so overwhelmed with their workloads that they have become reactive in how they approach each day. Only about 3 percent of leaders among some great companies claim that they spend most of their time in activities that strengthen them. We need a discipline to be intentional about how we bring our best forward to optimize our contribution to the team and company," she says. "But if you take care, you can manage your time much more intentionally."
This sometimes means saying "no" to tasks that are not consistent with your strengths. One executive said, "My CEO asks me to take on this huge initiative, but I know that if I do this I am going to get into things that I loathe and hate doing." The assignment might force the executive to work in areas outside his or her strengths, but most managers would be reluctant to point this out and push back. Instead, they soldier on, doing what they hate rather than using their true strengths. "Most people feel they are not supposed to have that kind of conversation," says McCashland. But when they do, it leads to better results for themselves and their organizations.
This doesn't mean you ignore your weaknesses. Employees may need to learn some core business skills, even if they are not in areas of strengths, but focusing more attention on developing strengths has a higher payoff. "You need to recognize that you get more for your investment if you train a skill that develops someone's strengths. I've measured a tenfold return on the dollar when training to a strength, but returns diminish substantially when you are investing in shoring up a weakness."
Positive Leadership
Allowing employees to focus on their strengths, rather than fixing their weaknesses, creates a positive environment. This positive leadership draws workers in, boosting performance more through the carrot than the stick. "How often do you feel positive anticipation for your work? What is the focus of conversation during a performance review? It is about who you are and how you are using your strengths," she says. "Positive leaders are not just mitigating around what is not working; they are doing those things that define a successful team. It is not about what is missing, but figuring out use the organization's best resources to achieve excellence."
Focusing on strengths creates clarity and enthusiasm. "People resonate, get glimpses of using their talent. They suddenly have that moment where they are on fire. Then, they have to figure out how to do more of that. It makes such a difference."
We all have the opportunity to do more of what we love if we look for it. "At any moment you can move. If you see people who are really good at something, they are in a job that plays to their strengths." Some of them landed there naturally. Others simply started looking for ways each day to do more of what they enjoy most. Little by little, their jobs transformed into an ideal fit. "They created that role because they evolved their career toward their strengths; and there are roadmaps that can help individuals and companies do that more effectively."Your feedback is valuable to us. Please let us know if you consider this article: