Using the Strengths of Your Employees to Increase Engagement
When building programs to develop employees, many companies begin by looking at potential weaknesses and implement training to patch up those shortfalls. What companies don’t realize is that a potentially more efficient tactic for strengthening their team is to focus on the strengths of their team. At Intellicom, we’ve experienced a multitude of benefits since adopting a strengths-based development program and investing in such.
publish date: May 8, 2018
When building programs to develop employees, many companies begin by looking at potential weaknesses and implement training to patch up those shortfalls. What companies don’t realize is that a potentially more efficient tactic for strengthening their team is to focus on the strengths of their team. At Intellicom, we’ve experienced a multitude of benefits since adopting a strengths-based development program and investing in such.
To name some of the noticeable financial metrics we’ve noticed as a result:
- Revenue growth
- Margins and profit margin increase
- Higher levels of customer engagement and retention
- Higher win rates in competitive situations
- Lower employee turnover and absenteeism
Our Founder and CEO, Dan Shundoff, has seen our team grow both professionally and personally. “Our people are building the career paths that really matter to them,” he says. “They are successful at work, at home, and within the community; making a difference at so many levels, including their own financial well-being.
So, what makes this strategy of turning your attention to your team’s strength a winning one? Well, to start you need to realize that the core of any strengths initiative is to ensure you are focusing on what’s right with someone and less about fixing what’s wrong with them. While fixing what’s wrong with someone reduces their chance for failure, investing in and developing what’s right gives them their best chance for consistent, near perfect performance in any role.
This is because when you uncover and nurture the strengths for each individual employee, you can put them in positions where they will be the most successful and utilize the best performing aspects of themselves. Once engaged, employees have both an emotional and psychological connection to their role and purpose with the company.
Once you engage your employees, you’ll find that it will naturally translate to more engaged customers. According to Gallup, teams that use engagement in everyday work will outperform others by an average of 20% in sales and 10% in customer engagement.
The question is, where do you begin when deciding to implement strengths to cultivate engagement from your team and your customers? It all starts with the understanding and awareness which most people gravitate to quickly and easily. Real growth, though, occurs when managers can align their team’s natural talents and strengths with goals and objectives of the team and the company. What this requires is working with each member individually to cultivate the strengths they possess that will put them in a position to do their best and most meaningful work. There are tools, such as the Gallup Strength Finder, that help you identify these for your employees.
This shift in approaching your employee development may take some time to adapt, but the return has been proven to be worthwhile. From weaknesses to strengths, you will find that once you unlock the potential that each employee already possesses, you facilitate energy, creativity, innovation, efficiency, commitment, and will build a culture that wins in the market place.