A “Push” Conversation about How Your Strengths Help You Communicate (podcast)
Welcome to the next installment of the Leadership Vision Podcast where we share our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder.
On this episode of the podcast, I’m having a Strengths conversation with my colleague Steph. More specifically, we’re having a “push” conversation. A “push” conversation is any conversation where you intentionally push strengths to the center. You can talk about everyday things but reference your Strengths and the Strengths of the other person intentionally. The idea is to practice the language of Strengths, see them from another perspective, and to help articulate your viewpoint around Strengths.
Steph is a Senior Project Manager at Leadership Vision and over the past several years, she and I have worked on countless projects together. Large and small, we’ve done it all. Hey, that rhymes! She helps me edit our podcast every week and we’re currently working on a new version of our online Strengths Course. As you can imagine, communication is critical when you’re working together on a project with someone else.
In this episode, you’ll get to hear Steph and I have a push conversation about how our Strengths show up to help us communicate. I have the StrengthsFinder Theme of Communication, but as you’ll hear, that doesn’t mean it’s always rainbows and butterflies when it comes to communicating.
We picked the topic of Communication a bit at random, but not really since it’s on a list of eight conversation starters we use when having these push discussions. There are of course many ways to go about this, but to get your push conversation started, find a friend and ask them how they do one of the following things:
- Get work done?
- Make decisions?
- Form relationships?
- Communicate best?
- Collaborate with others?
- Learn new things?
- Adjust to change
- Handle conflict
While you hear Steph and I talking a lot about how we Communicate, pay special attention to how our Strengths help us do that well. Some might say specific Strengths lend themselves better to communicating than others. That might appear to be true, but not really. Regardless of our Strengths, all of us could benefit from understanding how our Strengths are adding to or subtracting from our ability to communicate with others.
A Conversation For Everyone
“Push” conversations aren’t just for Strengths professionals, they can help anyone who wants to understand themselves or those around them better. If you’re having a conversation with someone who is familiar with strengths and you aren’t, answer that question using ordinary language not referencing your Strength specifically. Instead of saying “I think through “Competition,” I could say “When I think about solving a problem, I’m always comparing things.”
These conversations are a way to talk about your Strengths without having to talk about your Strengths regularly. Instead of trying to talk about one of your Strengths at random, think about behaviors. For example, instead of saying, “my Ideation helps me come up with lots of ideas,” you might say, “whenever people are trying to think of new ways to do something, I can generate ideas effortlessly that may help them…”
About The Leadership Vision Podcast
The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of StrengthsFinder. Leadership Vision uses StrengthsFinder to work with People, Teams, and Culture. We believe that knowing your Top 5 Strengths is only the beginning. In fact, our highest potential exists in the ongoing exploration of our talents. Subscribe to the Leadership Vision Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.
Please contact us if you have ANY questions about anything you heard in this episode, or if you’d like to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
