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The most successful people and companies concentrate on strengths – not weaknesses

15 Jan 2014

The most successful people and companies concentrate on strengths – not weaknesses

Mervyn Davies: Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank

“If you concentrate on people’s weaknesses, they lose confidence…We try to be a company that focuses on strengths and not their weaknesses so they can specialise and develop…I want people to look back on their careers and realise how much fun they has working at the bank.”

The most successful people are rarely well-rounded. They find other people to help them, develop teams and delegate. Indeed, a strengths-based approach to personal development, performance management and recruitment not only accommodates the fact each employee is different but capitalise on these differences.

 

If you focus on strengths, not weaknesses, people gain self-confidence.

A 25 year Longitudinal study by Judge & Hurst found a direct link between success and self-confidence:

  • In 1979 they studied self-evulation of 7600 men and women aged between 14 and 22.  The self-evaluation were repeated in 2004.
  • People with higher self confidence in 1979 ended up with higher income levels and greater career satisfaction in 2004.

 

Most organisations reward the wrong things

Most organisations are built around two assumptions about people:

  1. Each employee must be competent at almost everything as the best performers are the most well-rounded; and
  2. Each employee’s greatest potential for growth is his/her areas of greatest weaknesses 

And an organisation with this approach has four characteristics:

  1. An organisation spends more money training people once they are hired than selecting them properly in the first place
  2. And organisation focuses employee performance by standarising work style and implementing policies, procedures, work rules and behavioural competencies
  3. The most-well rounded people get promoted
  4. When it comes to finding leaders, the organisation recruits externally because the best leaders are specialists not generalists!

 

However…

In a 2007 Gallup Organisation research survey, 198,000 employees in 36 companies were asked:

"At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?"

Employees who said ‘strongly agree’ 50% more likely to work in business units with lower employee turnover and 44% more likely to work in business units with higher customer satisfaction score.

 

A company would benefit from seeing that:

  1. Each employee’s talents are unique
  2. Each person’s greatest strength is their area for most productive growth

The difference between mediocre and excellent is often very slight.

  • In professional golf, the top players average 27 putts per round and average 32.
  • The difference between an excellent and average mentor might simply be a few more questions and few more minutes listening.

 

At Lequin we use Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool in our coaching and training to help people and organisations revisit the traditional ways of reviewing success and where they spend time on training and personal development. To find out what we do, contact 01225 338893. 

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