Top 3 Outcomes from Using StrengthsFinder Training with your Team

My job is split into three main areas.

1. I am a practicing consultant doing StrengthsFinder training with individuals, teams and organizations.
2. I am charged with developing more business for our company, Leadership Vision Consulting.
3. I am helping develop our internal systems and processes to sustain and help expand our growth.

This means a lot of my day I am talking with people about why they should invest in StrengthsFinder training with their organizations. The question I often get is,

Why should we invest our resources in StrengthsFinder training?

It is a fair question. Budgets are not unlimited, and leaders want to get the most bang for their buck. With the economy roaring back into action, companies want to keep the talented employees they have engaged at a high level – and not leaving to go to a rival company.

Here are three outcomes you will get from investing in StrengthsFinder training with your team.

#1 You Get Strong People

If you invest in knowing more about who you are as a person, you have a better chance of being a strong person.  Why should you care about being a strong person? If you are more self-aware you have a better chance of knowing what you should say no to, and what you should say yes to.

When I went through StrengthsFinder training to become a strengths coach, one of my trainers said for everything you say ‘yes’ to, there should be 1,000 things you say ‘no’ to.

What?

1 yes for 1,000 no’s?  That could not be right. During the 14 years since I was trained as a StrengthsFinder practitioner that truth has become more and more clear to me.

Lots of people get offered things to do, be involved with, causes to support, teams to coach, etc.  But, we all have a limited amount of time to which we can be involved.  Now, are all of those 999 things you say no to the worst choices of your life?  No!  Some are above average choices but not the best choice. The best choice, the 1 in 1,000, allows you to use your strengths, in a great fit, every single day for the overwhelming majority of the day.

People who are in the 1 in 1,000 fit usually stand out in a big way. Companies and organizations who have lots of these people running around are more profitable and heading in the right direction. Companies who do not have these people are not on a good path. I recently read an article on how Facebook does their hiring and they are on the right track.  I would imagine you would find lots of talented people running around their offices based on their hiring philosophy and culture.

Invest in helping people know more about who they are based on strengths and you will have more people who can figure out how to say yes to the 1 in 1,000 opportunity in your organization.

#2. You Build Strong Teams

If you invest in knowing more about the people in your organization, there is a much greater chance of having strong teams helping move things forward. Strong teams can’t exist without strong people. For a long time in my life I did not fully understand that everyone can go farther together then by themselves.

Too much of my life was spent worrying about my individual performance. I would tolerate being on teams, but did not always embrace playing my part for the greater good.  I was not really aware enough of myself to understand how to leverage the ‘me’ into the team environment.

StrengthsFinder training has helped me, and lots of groups that we have worked with understand how strong people can become strong teams. There are no shortcuts in this process – with work, everyone on your team can play the role they are best fit for.

Our own team at Leadership Vision Consulting is a group of highly talented professionals who know who they are, and what role they play on our team. We all step up if things just need to get done, but the majority of our roles are designed for what we are best at.  In some ways this is not complicated at all, but it takes work.

#3. You Create a Strong Culture

Strong people, who work in strong teams can create strengths based cultures. Strengths based cultures have multiple teams and people who know how they are wired and how they can work together.

In my experience as a recruiter, I always knew if you did not do anything different you would probably attract more of the same. This has proven to be very true. If you have a terrible culture in your organization, you can expect to attract more people who will add more dysfunction to your culture. If you have a fantastic strengths based culture, you can also expect to attract more self aware people who want to work in their greatest areas of strength.

It is amazing to watch organizations make this transition into a strengths based culture. These cultures produce more, retain their best employees, and ultimately deliver on whatever their brand promise is, in a way that other companies cannot.

Beyond StrengthsFinder Training and Team Building

There are a myriad of options out in the world for people who want to do ‘team building’ with their team.  You can go have trust falls, games, ropes courses, etc.  But if you really do not know the people who you are running through those exercises – what difference will it make?

What if you knew everyone on your team so well that as they were doing those exercises you could see and understand their individual and team motivations of what makes them tick.  It really can take team building to a whole new level.

You are probably going to invest in something for your team or organization at some point. Think about investing in your people by leveraging their strengths to build the entire culture?

This is what I get paid to make happen.  I do not see it as work.

What is your greatest challenge to team development?