Peter Drucker once said that the surest way to succeed is to know what you are good at, and then position yourself into roles where it is your strengths that are in demand. Strength-based development builds on—but goes beyond—this idea.
Step 1
The first step in strength-based development is to help your leaders know what they are good at. There are a number of ways to do this, ranging from informal reflection to psychometric testing and even 360-degree feedback. These can all be useful, but the emerging field of positive psychology offers you a new and unique path: character strengths. The Values In Action Inventory is a research-based measure of 24 virtues that are universally valued across the globe. Furthermore, it is inexpensive and easy to administer. You can read more about the Values In Action Inventory here.
Step 2
Once your leaders know what their strengths are, you can begin the second step, which flies in the face of our traditional ‘deficiency approach’.
‘A problem-centered intervention isn’t the entire answer to a successful developmental experience.’
Robert Kaplan
In fact, research shows that it is easier to develop your strengths than to develop your weaknesses. This suggests that someone who is naturally organized will get more out of a book on time management than someone who is not, or that someone who is good at public speaking will take more away from a course on how to present well than someone who goes weak in the knees just thinking about stepping up to the podium. Your aim in this step is to help people move from being good at something to being great at it by honing their natural talents until they truly shine.
Step 3
Of course, there are times at work when we all need to do things that require skills beyond our natural strengths. We all need to round out our skills, which can necessitate shoring up our weaknesses. The third step of strength-based development offers us a new and more motivating way to do this. Once your leaders have identified a weakness to work on, simply ask them how they can use their strengths to achieve their developmental goal. We all like to use our strengths. After all, it is our strengths that have got us where we are today, and they are a wealthy resource that people can tap to help them in any endeavour.
