Tool Box
Issue No. 49 - October/November 2009
How to know your own strengths
by Chris Gebhardt
Something goes wrong. A team is in crisis. Sales are down. A project is over budget and behind
schedule. You’ve just lost another valued employee to the competition.
When any one of these things happens in an organisation the default response often is: ‘Find out what went wrong and fix it.’
Somewhere in the problem solving cycle, it is important to identify the source of the problem - and
the improvement required. But what happens if the default response is, ‘OK, let’s first look at what is working in this situation or in similar processes in other parts of the organisation?’
The responses to those questions build a corporate inventory of strengths and a new context for the problem analysis. The root cause discussions no longer just focus on what went wrong, but start with drawing on the strengths of ‘what is working’.
Suddenly you are getting more ROI from your strengths as they become an integral part of problem solving. This applies to teams and individuals as well as organisations.
A Current Strengths Inventory (CSI) is an on-going record of your identified strengths. The CSI provides
a frame of reference for conversations, actions and decisions. Providing clues to what differentiates
you as an employer and a product or service provider, it is possibly some of your most valuable intellectual property.
An external person can conduct a detailed CSI and report on how to better leverage your systems, people and output strengths; but anyone in an organisation can start to build a CSI. The initial CSI usually uncovers strengths which are taken for granted and not leveraged as the significant differentiators that they are.
If you are a manager, starting your own CSI is easily integrated into your regular discussions. At team meetings, in one-on-one conversations or performance reviews, ask some of the research-based CSI Starter Questions in the box on this page. Discuss wit...
