CAPITALIZING ON PERSONAL STRENGTHS AND TALENTS

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CAPITALIZING ON PERSONAL STRENGTHS AND TALENTS





















WORLD CLASS TRAININGGETTING YOUR FIRM ON
TRACK PRESENTED BY SAM M. ALLRED, FOUNDER
DIRECTOR OF UPSTREAM ACADEMY
PRESENTED BY TIM BARTZ CEO OF ANDERSON ZURMUEHLEN
COMPANY
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To excel in your chosen field and to find
lasting satisfaction in doing so, you will need
to understand your unique patterns. You will
need to become an expert at finding and
describing and applying and practicing and
refining your strengths. Marcus
Buckingham
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PRESENTATION ROADMAP

• Observations regarding strengths and weaknesses
• Five ways to begin focusing on strengths
• Question and answer session
• Email questions to tbartz_at_azworld.com

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? OBSERVATIONS REGARDING STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
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OBSERVATION 1

• Every one of us has a unique combination of
  strengths as well as weaknesses.
• Some strengths may be more valuable and/or more
  obvious than others.
• Some weaknesses may be more obvious and/or more
  irritating than others.

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OBSERVATION 2

• We have been raised in a culture that asks us to
  focus on correcting our weaknesses rather than
  maximizing our strengths.

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• Most evaluation forms lead evaluators to focus on
  fixing weaknesses rather than maximizing
  strengths.
• Habit tells us our focus points should come
  wherever an individual receives the lowest score.
  We tend to think of this as low hanging fruit.

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• If you think a weakness can be turned into a
  strength, I hate to tell you, but thats another
  weakness.  
• Jack Handey

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OBSERVATION 3

• A number of personality tests are available to
  help identify our natural tendencies the
  challenge is in determining how to transfer our
  talents into results for the firm.

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OBSERVATION 4

• This idea/concept of playing to our strengths is
  easy to buy in to, but difficult to implement.
• If it were easy to play to ones strengths in the
  business world, more people would be doing it.

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OBSERVATION 5

• Although we have lots of choices available to us
  throughout our careers, most individuals seem
  perfectly willing to accept a work life that
  doesnt neces-sarily thrill them.

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• Good is the enemy of great . . . Few people
  attain great lives, in large part because it is
  just so easy to settle for a good life.
• Jim Collins

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• As the decades have passed, I have come to
  realize the profound wisdom of my mentors
  remarks. The message is simple Success comes
  from doing what you enjoy. If you dont enjoy
  it, how can it be called success? David
  H. Maister

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• Maister provides these statistics about how
  people spend their work time
• I love this 20 to 25
• I can tolerate this 60 to 70
• I hate this 5 to 20

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OBSERVATION 6

• The predefined pattern of firm operation often
  makes it very difficult for an individual to play
  to his or her strengths.

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OBSERVATION 7

• This book by Marcus Buckingham and Don Clifton
  represents breakthrough thinking about how to
  help individuals play to their strengths.

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• Most Common Assumptions About People
• Each person can learn to be competent in almost
  anything.
• Each persons greatest room for growth is in his
  or her areas of greatest weakness.
• Pg. 7

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• Most organizations take their employees
  strengths for granted and focus on minimizing
  their weaknesses. They become expert in those
  areas where their employees struggle, delicately
  rename these skill gaps or areas of
  opportunity, and then pack them off to training
  classes so that the weaknesses can be
  fixed. Pg. 8

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• These are the two assumptions that guide the
  worlds best managers
• 1. Each persons talents are enduring and
  unique.
• 2. Each persons greatest room for growth is
  in the areas of his or her greatest
  strength.
• Pg. 8

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? FIVE WAYS TO BEGIN FOCUSING ON STRENGTHS
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1. LEARN ABOUT STRENGTHS

• If you havent already done so, read this book by
  Marcus Buckingham Donald O. Clifton.

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• What is a strength or talent?
• A talent or strength is any recurring pattern of
  thought, feeling, or behavior that can be
  productively applied.
• For example Inquisitive, competitive, charming,
  responsible, caring, persistent, communicator,
  leader . . .

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• The definition of a strength is consistent
  near-perfect performance in an activity.
• For an activity to be a strength you must be able
  to do it consistently. And you must also derive
  some intrinsic satisfaction from the activity.
• Question Can we learn to love something?

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• The acid test of a strength? The ability is a
  strength only if you can fathom yourself doing it
  repeatedly, happily, and successfully.
• You do not have to have strength in every aspect
  of your role in order to excel.
• Excellent performers are rarely well- rounded.

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• Talents are your naturally recurring patterns of
  thought, feeling, or behavior. Your various
  themes of talent are what the StrengthsFinder
  Profile actually measures.
• The key to building a bona fide strength is to
  identify your dominant talents and then refine
  them with knowledge and skills.

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2. IDENTIFY YOUR STRENGTHS

• Take the StrengthsFinder Profile and from the
  list of 34 themes of talent, get your list of
  signature themes.
• These themes/talents represent potential for your
  personal strengths.

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• Review your top five talents and read about each
  one them in Chapter 4, The Thirty-four Themes of
  StrengthsFinder.
• Also read about how to manage these strengths
  in Chapter 6, Managing Strengths.

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• Also review the results of your Leadership Skills
  Evaluation. Identify those recurring patterns of
  thought and behavior that point you towards your
  talents and strengths.

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3. WORK WITH A COACH/MENTOR

• The coachs role is to not only help you identify
  your talents but also help you understand how to
  implement those talents to help the firm be more
  successful.
• Determining what you like doing most is a good
  place to start. Remember, there needs to be a
  connection to the firms success.

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4. EXPLORE OPPORTUNITIES

• People will stay with an organization that will
  make them a better professional.

• Consider these key questions
• Do I have the materials and technology I need to
  do my work right?
• Does the firm allow me to do what I do best every
  day?

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• Remember that you are looking for incremental
  change. Work to manage your own expectations.
  Look for opportunities to play to your strengths.
• Keep in mind the proper progression . . .
  finding and describing and applying and
  practicing and refining your strengths.

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• Goal setting is a critical aspect of helping you
  focus on your strengths.
• Setting goals aimed at growing your strengths
  will be a lot more fun than working on goals to
  correct weaknesses.
• That being said, damage control with weaknesses
  is an important matter.

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Questions to consider

• Are job assignments matched with talent?
• Do the best people get the best opportunities?
• Is training focused on maximizing individual
  talents within the constraints of professional
  standards?

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Questions to consider

• Do the best people get the best training?
• Do coaches evaluate performance based on
  individual deployment of talents?
• Do coaches assist individuals in methods to
  mitigate weaknesses?

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5. BASE-LINE CHARACTERISTICS

• Regardless of your strengths, there are
  foundational characteristics every successful
  leader must have. These include
• Willingness to be coached and managed to enforced
  standards
• Self-accountable
• Habit of seeking excellence

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• Foundational characteristics continued
• Teamwork in an atmosphere of mutual respect
• Pursuit of continuous professional growth
• Willingness to develop marketing talents and
  skills

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Closing thoughts . . .
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• Whether someone is the right person has more
  to do with character traits and innate
  capabilities than with specific knowledge,
  background, or skills.
• Jim Collins Good to Great

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That which we persist in doing becomes easier to
do. Not that the nature of the thing has
changed, but that our ability to do has
increased. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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? ELA PARTICIPANTS ANSWER KEY QUESTIONS
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Due to background noise, the audio for Questions
1 2 is compromised. We apologize for this
inconvenience and remind all participants to mute
their individual line, do not place your line on
hold.
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QUESTION
What is a personal strength or talent?
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QUESTION
What do you feel are your talents and why do you
believe those particular talents are your
greatest strengths?  
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QUESTION
How have your strengths helped you further your
career?  
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QUESTION
How has playing to your strengths benefited
clients and the firm?  
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Thank You! tbartz_at_azworld.com