The premise of the article is that there is tremendous upside (individually and organizationally) in focusing on leveraging strengths as opposed to correcting weaknesses. Much of the fodder for this article comes from the book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Buckingham and Clifton as well as research from the Gallup Organization on how much more productive organizations are if they adopt a strengths-based human resources perspective. I also cite the Gallup StrengthsFinder Profile as a helpful tool for identifying strengths.

As always, I'm interested in your feedback. I'm collecting stories on how organizations have improved sales effectiveness by leveraging strengths. If you've taken the StrengthsFinder Profile, drop me a line and let me know the results. If you haven't taken it yet but you plan to because of this article, let me know how you anticipate it helping you and your team. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

J. Mark Davis
Managing Principal
Valitus Group, Inc.

However, if we're only externally-focused, we're likely missing the opportunity for meaningful change that lies within. I'm not talking about the self-critical navel gazing with which most of us are familiar. Consider for a moment the human species' historic fixation on correcting weaknesses. This is reflected in the fact that psychological study and thought has long been focused on what's wrong with people and how to fix them. It is only with the recent, ground-breaking research and study in the field of Positive Psychology that researchers are starting to look more at what is going right and how to use it to enhance flourishing both on an individual and organizational level. Unfortunately, most organizations today haven't caught on to this Positive Psychology wave and, instead, maintain an innate focus on identifying and correcting weaknesses. In this way, many organizations miss the real opportunities for transformative growth that lie in understanding and building around the inherent strengths of its employees, including the sales force.

Flawed Assumptions

The book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D. of Gallup, Inc. asserts that most organizations make two fundamentally-flawed assumptions about its human resources:

1. Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything
2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in his/her areas of greatest weakness.

The book goes on to identify some of the common characteristics of organizations that hold to these assumptions:

• The organization spends more money on training people once they're hired than on selecting the right people in the first place
• The organization focuses on the performance of its employees by legislating and emphasizing work style (i.e., rules, policies, procedures, and behavioral competencies) over results
• The organization spends most of its training time and budget on trying to plug gaps in employees' skills or competencies
• Individual development plans are built around "areas of opportunity" (i.e., one's weaknesses)
• People are promoted largely on the basis of acquired skills and experiences.

Following these assumptions, employees' strengths are taken for granted and emphasis is placed on weaknesses or, as many put it, closing "skill gaps." Sound familiar?

Strengths-Based Assumptions

The alternative is to focus on your team's natural talents and develop each employee so those inherent talents are transformed into strengths. This requires changing your assumptions about people. According to Gallup research, the two assumptions that guide the world's best managers are:

1. Each person's talents are enduring and unique
2. Each person's greatest opportunity for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength¹

Certainly these assumptions are counter to conventional wisdom today. These two assumptions explain why the best managers look for talent in each employee and focus on performance outcomes or results as opposed to the process or method of achieving the results. This is why I've said for years that sales compensation plans should focus on results as opposed to activities.

The Upside

In Gallup's research on the engagement of employee strengths they have asked the question, "At work do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?" to over 1.7 million people in 101 companies from 63 countries. Alarmingly, only 20% of surveyed employees answer affirmatively that their strengths are in play every day. The real opportunity here is that when employees answer "strongly agree" to this question, they are significantly more likely to work in organizations with lower turnover, higher productivity, and higher customer satisfaction scores¹. Bottom line: the organization whose employees feel their strengths are engaged every day is more successful.

Do you know the strengths of the people on your team? Do you really understand your own strengths? I've recently gone through the Gallup StrengthsFinder Profile to better understand my own strengths. The StrengthsFinder Profile measures 34 themes of talent to help find where one has the greatest potential for strength. If you're a manager, I strongly suggest taking the StrengthsFinder Profile yourself first and then have your direct reports take it. It will help sharpen your understanding of where your team's strengths lie that can be leveraged into promoting the improved productivity and customer loyalty we're all looking for.

¹Now, Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham and Clifton - Free Press 2001

Laurie A. Geoffroy, SPHR
Vice President, Human Resources
CUDL

Coming soon, Mark will offer a webinar series entitled, "Guiding Principles for the Design and Implementation of Effective Sales Compensation Plans." The series will be packed full of valuable information and best practice insights. Stay tuned for more information...

Mark also is a contributing author to The Sales Compensation Handbook - Second Edition. Order this seminal text on Amazon.com.