Hello! My Name is: My Five Signature Themes Are:

Strengths Based Development

Strengths Quest Discovering and Harnessing Your True Talents Today’s Workshop is designed to help you learn more about your own top 5 talents, as identified in the Strengths Finder assessment. We will use this time to more fully appreciate the uniqueness of your combination of talents and how to polish and leverage them at work.

Seminar Leader: Susan Thomas Strategic Empathy Individualization Maximizer Ideation

Focus on YOU! Name? What you get paid to do? Which Theme fits you like a glove? (Intro) Which talent, fit you like a glove?

Gallup asked the following question How many of you get to do what you do best everyday at work?

Do You Use Your Strengths Every Day? 2 out of 10

Human Psychology Strengths Based Approach Deficit Approach Study what is right with people Deficit Approach Study what is wrong with people Foundation Don Clifton – 30 years of research Psychologist

Performance Management Strategy

Change of Focus

What Does Performance Improvement Mean to Most People? Fixing Weaknesses!

Gallup asked the following question Which would help you be more successful in your life – knowing what your weaknesses are and attempting to improve your weaknesses? or knowing what your strengths are and attempting to build on your strengths? http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

StrengthsFinder Assessment Identifies one’s themes of talent (dominant patterns of thinking, feeling behaving) These themes are areas where there is the greatest potential to develop strength Can be developed into strengths when supplemented with relevant knowledge and skills

Maximizing Talent We can maximize the talents of others (and ourselves) by setting them up for success. Knowing someone’s strengths can tell us a lot about the way they execute, influence, build relationships, and solve problems. When we know someone’s areas of excellence we can help them use their strengths by positioning them in situations or with others where those strengths can be alive. Performance Review

Five Clues to Talent (Complete work page) What are you naturally inquisitive about? (Yearning) What activity are you engaged in when the time flies by? (Timeless) What activity gives you a great deal of satisfaction? What do you pick up rapidly? What can you do to near perfection? (How did I do that) (Complete work page) 5 clues to talent

StrengthsFinder Reflection After reading your Signature Themes Report, complete the following questions: Which of your Signature Themes describe you best? Which of your Signature Themes do you use most frequently? Were you surprised by anything in the report?

Peak Performance Recall a personal accomplishment (job or personal) – something you feel proud of. Break down the steps to success, the outcomes achieved, and the skills required. Now, consider the Strength Finder themes you utilized to achieve this success. (Exercise)

The Strengths Approach: The 34 Talent Themes Achiever Analytical Command Connectedness Deliberative Empathy Harmony Individualization Learner Relator Self-Assurance Woo Activator Arranger Communication Consistency Developer Focus Ideation Input Maximizer Responsibility Significance Adaptability Belief Competition Context Discipline Futuristic Includer Intellection Positivity Restorative Strategic One of the most powerful tools to navigate disruptions or changes is our very own strengths. These natural ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving can be a force through the darkness into the light of optimism, hope, and growth.

Signature Themes and How You Use Them * Strengths Description/ Definition of the Strength Why It’s a Strength (What does it enable/empower me to do?) When/Where I Recently Used This Strength Activator Move to action quickly Make quick decisions Set up a workshop for staff

Clarifying the Language The key to building strength is to first identify your dominant themes or talents (naturally occurring thoughts, feelings and actions) Strength = talent + knowledge x skill A strength is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a given activity. The formula for Strengths Building is this: Identify your talents—the ways in which you most naturally think, feel, and behave and multiply with that time spent practicing, time spent developing your skills, and time spent building your knowledge base. In so doing, the outcome will be a strength—the ability to consistently provide a near perfect performance in a particular task. Let’s continue to explore how talents, skills, and knowledge move us into the strengths building zone.

Integration of Strengths Workplace: increases in employee engagement and productivity (do what I do best) Education: improved attendance, grades, enthusiasm, options Relationships: optimize team relationships and importance strengths.ning.com Paula_wilhelm@gallup.com mark_pogue@gallup.com krista_volzke@gallup.com 952-838-0236

Talent Line-Up

Investing in Strengths Drives Engagement Improvement % Weakness fixing – 9% improvement Strengths development – 73% improvement

Got Engagement? Engaged Not Engaged Actively Disengaged These employees are loyal and productive. They are likely to stay with their company for at least a year. They are less likely to have accidents on the job and to steal. Not Engaged These employees may be productive, but are not psychologically connected to their company. They are more likely to miss work days and to leave. Actively Disengaged These employees are physically present but psychologically absent. They are unhappy with their work situation and insist on sharing this unhappiness with colleagues. Define Terms Companies would be better off to pay the Actively Disengaged to stay home – loss of productivity!

Disengaged?

Workplace Teams Staff participating in strengths based development programs widely report an increased understanding and respect for their co-workers, and that they work together better as a result of knowing, accepting, and working to develop the strengths that their peers bring to the table

Treasure Hunt Name Name of Theme Benefit of the Theme Talent Search

Relationship Building The Four Domains Executing Influencing Relationship Building Strategic Thinking Achiever Arranger Belief Consistency Deliberative Discipline Focus Responsibility Restorative Activator Command Communication Competition Maximizer Self-Assurance Significance Woo Adaptability Connectedness Developer Empathy Harmony Includer Individualization Positivity Relator Analytical Context Futuristic Ideation Input Intellection Learner Strategic Here is how the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder themes cluster within each domain. What I’d like to invite you to do is to quickly find your top five themes and see if you have a dominant domain using your top five. Sometimes it takes a person’s top 10 to clearly identify a dominant domain, but we’ll try it with five. Executing – make things happen Influencing – selling the teams ideas inside and out Relationship Building – the glue that holds the team together Strategic – Focus on what cold be (give time) Would you each be willing to share your dominant domain? In addition to telling us each where we have strength, there’s also the application of this information to the team setting and classroom setting that I’d us to explore further.

Mapping your team

Team Grid Understanding the theme dynamics of your team helps you to be a more successful and productive team. Acknowledge team's strengths Consider assignments/roles based on strengths Opportunities that your team may have for partnerships within the team

Complementary Partnerships Partnerships are forming all around us every day. They are formed for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons include: To “make up” for a lesser talent To “take over” where one person leaves off To “enhance” what one person already possesses For instance, if a person has a lesser pattern in the Ideation theme, he or she may want to partner with someone with intense talent in this area when it comes time to create unique and engaging activities to support a new unit. In this way, one person leverages the talents of another to accomplish the objective For instance, in a car dealership, one person might help you decide which car to buy, and another person will write up the purchase agreement. Both people contribute something unique and important to the purchase of your car. For example, a person high in Focus might partner with someone high in Achiever when it is crunch time on a specific project. In doing so, both people bring the best of who they are and the results can be extraordinary

The (Very Different)Strengths of Leaders Wendy Kopp Founder and CEO Teach for America Brad Anderson CEO Best Buy Simon Cooper President The Ritz Carlton Mervyn Davies Chairman Standard Chartered Achiever Competition Responsibility Relator Strategic Context Ideation Input Learner Connectedness Maximizer Woo Arranger Activator Significance Futuristic Positivity

Here is what Gallup knows about top achievers: fully recognize their talents and build on them to develop strengths apply their greatest talents in roles that best suit them. invent ways to apply their greatest talents to their achievement tasks. (StrengthsQuest, p.8)

The Potential What might happen if departments developed strengths to build everyone’s potential in becoming the “best of the best” in the process of learning, working and living? Camel video http://strengths.ning.com/video/2097137:Video:2302

Managing Challenges Strengths conversation Get the right education and training Leverage your strengths to manage a weakness Partner with someone Just do it! Don’t do it

www.strengthsquest.com On the Purchase tab Resources www.strengthsquest.com On the Purchase tab www.strengthsquest.com

What’s Next? Share your results with a friend/colleague One idea you will take with you Visit www.strengthsquest.com Events Educator Resources Purchasing Information Strengths School: www.strengths.org Strengths Network: www.strengths.ning.com What questions do you have? Make a list of them and post them on the discussion board. Now it’s time to review the weekly homework assignment. Some of these assignments will be postings to the discussion board and we’ll highlight that when we get to them.