Identifying & Building to Our Strengths

It is easy for us to identify our weaknesses, especially in discussions with our colleagues and management.  Our weaknesses are areas we are obviously deficient in, and we look to address them through training and development.  It is a lot more difficult to identify our strengths.  Our strengths tend to be in areas we are so proficient, we take it for granted, and fail to see the value in those skills.  The average person thinks, “If it is easy for me, it is easy for others, so I have no need to highlight it.” 

From a management perspective, we want our team to play to their strengths.  Management often mistake what people are competent at as their strengths.  They may not be the same set of skills.  Competency is built on experience, repetition, and the ability to learn.  Strengths are built on that, but have an underlying foundation of the individual attributes to enhance them.  For example, in an organisation I was involved in, we had a person who was excellent in event management.  She put together all the programmes, and did so competently.  Her real talent actually lay in corporate relations, and getting sponsorship.  Because she was tied up in event management, we missed out on her talent in corporate relations. 

Part of leadership involves managing the human resource element.  This is often mistaken as pure headcount and cost.  True human resource management is the ability to identify, develop, and deploy people where they are most useful and beneficial to the organisation.  It means having the discernment to spot talent, and not mere competency.  We begin by identifying the strengths of each member of the team. 

One of the stranger things about innate talent or ability is that we imagine that everybody should be like us, and wonder why they find things we have no trouble with, challenging.  As such, we look for things that people are secretly or overtly impatient with others, because they think they take too long to do it, or find it unnecessarily difficult.  This works the other way as well, since there are things some people find especially difficult to do.  This has nothing to do with intelligence.  We are all wired differently.  This also means, for some people, there are accolades and compliments they dismiss.  That which is too easy is not worth complimenting. 

The second thing we do is consider, in our interactions with these people, what are the subjects that occupy their thoughts when there is nothing else to think or talk about.  The areas people focus on are the areas of deepest interest, which implies the areas of greatest competency, their talent.  We are too quick to dismiss hobbies, interests, and past activities beyond a cursory classification of whether they are team players, have leadership potential, or other attributes that conveniently fit the boxes we have created when we recruit these people.  We need to consider, at a deeper level, how these very interests relate to tasks available within the company so we can best leverage on these talents.  These are not abilities that are typically listed on most curriculum vitae. 

In our interactions and discussions, we need to consider, at a deeper level, the fundamental question for every idea, every suggestion brought up, “What is in it for you?”  Consciously, or unconsciously, people want something for everything given.  If we can identify them, we can utilise it to motivate them better, while also leveraging on their talents and their self-interest. 

We then take these strengths, create a matrix, and educate the entire team about the strengths of each member.  This makes working to each other’s strengths a formal part of the team dynamic.  We build these teams from a select core, and then create a support team around them, as the business grows.  Every time there is turnover, we consider the strengths of the replacements, and adjust accordingly.