To flourish means:

to blossom; to grow vigorously, succeed, thrive, prosper;

to be at the peak of development, activity, influence, production etc;

to be in one’s prime

Three real company case studies were presented at the conference – from a large multinational, a medium-sized family firm and a small highly successful new technology company.  In each case, there has been a deliberate emphasis on recruiting and employing people to use their strengths.  If a workplace is filled with people who know what their strengths are and are using those strengths in their day-to-day work, they and the organisation will almost inevitably flourish.

The smaller company had devoted time to clarifying its direction and purpose – to provide 10/10 customer service, to have a happy workforce and to avoid waste.  That’s it.  Using three ‘pillars’ of freedom, support and feedback, workers are able to play to their strengths.  Stripping away a rules-based approach of control over overtime, expense claims and paper-chasing appraisals, the company has increased in profitability, size and achievement of customer and industry awards.

The multinational has dispensed with a complex competency framework and adopted strengths-based recruitment.  If you can identify applicant’s strengths and place them in a role where they can use those strengths, then they are likely to flourish.

In another workshop, ‘multiple scaling’ was introduced as a simple concept to be used in performance and coaching conversations.  On a scale of 0 to 10, where would you rate your overall competence?  Choose 2 or 3 specific competences required to do your job and rate those on a scale of 0 to 10.  Then discuss a scale of your choice and talk about why you think you perform at that level.  What has helped you perform at that level?  Comparing that to another scale, what’s the difference?  What are you doing differently at the higher level?  What would other people notice about you that was different?  And if you were at 10, how would you and other people know?

Having reflected with Jan after the conference, we realised life situations are not so simple.  It’s obvious that we all have weaknesses.   So just to talk about strengths can be misleading for people and for organisations.  However, can we use our strengths to combat our weaknesses?   If we assume that all required competences for a particular role to be performed well need to be at 5 or above, what about those we rate below 5?

For example, someone rates their IT skills at 3.  But they rate their strength to learn through someone else at 8, especially if that includes hands-on learning.   So they need to use their strength of rapport in identifying someone who is strong in IT skills, learning from a manual, summarising it and coaching them in a hands-on, encouraging way.  Their IT skills soar to 5!

If another person’s strength is high (say, 7) in talking through issues while it’s low (say, 4) in sitting down in a room on their own to write an essay, can they use their strength in vocal discussion to combat their relative weakness in written work through using a digital recorder, for example?

People succeed, thrive and prosper – we flourish – when we use our strengths, apply them to strengthen those weaknesses we cannot ignore, and when we are in an enabling environment.  Who will you strengthen and encourage today?

For more information on CAPP see www.cappeu.com and for more on scaling see The Solutions Focus

So much of our work life and possibly our home life as well is about dealing with weaknesses.  The appraisal as an opportunity to point out someone’s short-falling or be given (yet again) the personal development plan to work on that weakness.

We tend to have a wide vocabulary relating to weakness – ‘could do better’, ‘room for improvement’, ‘rise to the challenge’, ‘opportunities for development’, etc.  But how big is our strengths vocabulary?  Can you readily define a strength?  How many strengths do you have?  How many do you regularly use in your work situation?

The Centre for Applied Positive Psychology or CAPP is headed up by Alex Linley.  In his book ‘Average to A+’, Linley defines a strength as follows:

A strength is a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic and energising to the user, and enables optimal functioning, development and performance.

So it’s something that is already there within our psyche, even if latent and/or underdeveloped.  It may be something we have inherited or developed very early in life.  We are predisposed to using that strength.  When we use a strength, it feels ‘real’ – that we are being true to ourselves rather than acting or showing learned behaviour.

Using our strengths is energising in that we have more vitality, less burnout and swifter recovery.  It recharges rather than exhausts us.  When we use our strengths, we perform and function better.  We tend to feel more in the flow, we learn and develop faster and we are most likely to excel – rather than be average. To be A+ or A star rather than C.

Linley points out that we need to realise our strengths in two ways: to identify those we have, to recognise and appreciate them; and to make use of them, to realise their potential.

CAPP is developing strengths-based interviewing to help organisations identify individuals whose strengths match the requirements of the role. So often organisations focus on the gap analysis – what is missing in the applicant and how it can be bridged.  Just asking interviewees:

• “when are you at your best?”
• “what can I count on you for the most?”
• “what are the things that most energise you?”

will quickly begin to identify strengths.  That is not saying ignore weaknesses.  But a focus on strengths makes many weaknesses irrelevant.  It gets away from the ‘curse of mediocrity’ where we can all do everything or be anything we want to be…

Strength spotting is a fun exercise, especially for anyone who wants people to flourish in the workplace.  Alex Linley’s book is available through the 3D HR Book Store or from CAPP.