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You are here: Home / Archives for 1 - Productivity / c Define / Strengths

StrengthsFinder App Now Available

December 1, 2014 by Matt Perman

You can get it for your iPhone.

Here’s their description:

Download it now and study your personal strengths wherever you go.

  • If you already have your top five strengths, you can reveal all 34 of your strengths at a discounted price
  • Take the Clifton StrengthsFinder, view your strengths, and read your insight statements.
  • Use your app credentials to access Gallup Strengths Center. And vice versa.
  • The Android version is currently available in English, with the iOS version available in Chinese, German, and Spanish. We will be launching more languages for both platforms in 2015.

Filed Under: Strengths

A Christian View of Working in Your Strengths (Especially in Relation to Thinking About Our Weaknesses)

October 18, 2012 by Matt Perman

People often ask me “if we are supposed to seek to work within our strengths most of the time, what about our weaknesses?” The question is about more than simply “how do we manage our weaknesses.” Rather, the question stems from the (very good) observation that God especially uses weakness in his kingdom. Does this change anything about the way we should go about our work? Should we, for example, conclude that we should not seek to focus on our strengths most of the time?

I have many thoughts on this, and actually have written a short book (unpublished, and not yet fully polished) on a Christian view of strengths where I also deal with this question in some detail. (That book was originally a very, very long chapter I originally wrote for What’s Best Next.) I hope to publish that book at some point, once What’s Best Next is taken care of.

But for now, here’s a chief part of the answer: There are plenty of weaknesses within your strengths themselves. You don’t need to worry about making yourself weaker than you already truly are.

And, if God has a special weakness he has ordained for your life to make you more fruitful as you have to rely on his power to live in light of it and overcome it, he’ll see to that, as he did with Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

Further, what’s interesting from Paul’s experience is that he was actually quite diligent in asking the Lord to take away his weakness (see verse 8). That is the Christian response. It is not Christian to try to make ourselves weaker than we already are. That’s presumption, not Christianity. The Christian response to suffering is to first ask the Lord to take it away. But then in instances where he doesn’t, then the Christian response is to accept it and, indeed, glory in it, as Paul did, as a (forced!) invitation to rely on a greater strength — namely, the strength of Christ (vv. 9-10).

Let me just say one more thing. I would suggest that, perhaps, the notion that we ought to avoid focusing on our strengths is actually somewhat prideful. For it assumes that your strengths are stronger than they really are. You focus on your weaknesses when you are forced to. That’s what makes them weaknesses. A weakness that is “chosen” is not, typically, a true weakness.

Use your strengths. God has given them to you, and you in fact have an obligation to use them for the good of others — that’s what justice is: the strong using their strength on behalf of others (note also the biblical exhortations to do this in 2 Corinthians 8 – 10; also the command in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 as it applies to money and the Parable of the Talents). Please don’t worry about being “too strong.” You’re not. And when God does bring (even greater) weakness your way, first seek to remove it and ask him to remove it and, if he doesn’t, recognize it as an opportunity to rely on God in a different way, and rejoice in that.

Filed Under: Strengths

Managing Your Weaknesses

May 15, 2012 by Matt Perman

A few thoughts:

1. Avoid working in your weaknesses if at all possible.

2. If you can’t, then seek to become competent in your areas of weakness. You won’t become extraordinary in areas of weakness, but competence is sufficient.

3. Continue to spend the most time sharpening and harnessing your strengths. This is where your contribution will shine. As long as you are competent in your weaknesses, they won’t detract and your strengths will stand out and make an extraordinary contribution.

An example (a slightly risky one since I’m not huge into basketball, but you will get the point): Let’s say you are a basketball player and you are great at making baskets but pretty bad at getting rebounds. You need to become solid at getting rebounds when they come your way, so you don’t do harm. But your focus should be on putting yourself in a position to take shots, not get rebounds, if that’s where you make an incredible contribution.

And here’s an example of avoiding your weaknesses altogether: if you are a great quarterback, it doesn’t matter if you are terrible at defense. Don’t play defense. This is so obvious as to be completely undisputed.

Why, then, do we feel like there is some sort of virtue in focusing on our weaknesses in our work?

Seek to contribute where you can make the greatest contribution.

 

Filed Under: Strengths

Don't Waste Your Employee Training: Build on Strengths, Not Weaknesses

April 17, 2012 by Matt Perman

The latest Gallup Management Journal has a good article on Why Strengths Matter in Training.

Here’s the summary:

Too many training and development efforts fall short because they don’t factor in employees’ talents.

And is some important data, for any who somehow think organizations can ignore the importance of focusing on their employee’s strengths:

Gallup research shows that people who know and use their strengths — and the companies they work for — tend to be better performers. In a study of 65,672 employees, Gallup found that workers who received strengths feedback had turnover rates that were 14.9% lower than for employees who received no feedback (controlling for job type and tenure).

Moreover, a study of 530 work units with productivity data found that teams with managers who received strengths feedback showed 12.5% greater productivity post-intervention than teams with managers who received no feedback. And a Gallup study of 469 business units ranging from retail stores to large manufacturing facilities found that units with managers who received strengths feedback showed 8.9% greater profitability post-intervention relative to units in which the manager received no feedback.

Companies that want to boost productivity and innovation must help employees apply their natural abilities to the day-to-day requirements of their role. Implementing a strengths-based approach often demands a fresh mindset; the old ways won’t do. The questions below can help employees figure out how they can best apply their talents in their role — and can help managers and leaders learn how to use a strengths-based approach to boost company performance.

Filed Under: 4 - Management, Strengths

Marcus Buckingham's New Book, Standout, Now Available

September 14, 2011 by Matt Perman

Marcus Buckingham’s new book, StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengths Revolution, is now available. I’m very much looking forward to reading it, and the new strengths assessment that has been released along with it sounds very helpful.

Michael Hyatt has an excellent review. Here’s an excerpt:

As usual, Marcus does a great job striking the balance between theory and practice. He gives you just enough of the theory to understand the statistical validity of the testing instrument. Yet he does this without making your eyes glaze over. He also does a fabulous job of providing lots of real-world illustrations and personal anecdotes.

If you enjoy self-assessments, want to further exploit your strengths, and make your greatest contribution, this book is for you. If you lead a team, it would be well-worth the investment to read the book, take the test, and then discuss the results as a group. It will provide you with insights into how you can better tap the strengths of your team and recruit roles that aren’t currently represented.

And here’s a video of Buckingham talking about the book:

Filed Under: Strengths

How Weakness Builds Strength

August 15, 2011 by Matt Perman

Justin Taylor has a good excerpt from Joni Eareckson Tada’s booklet Hope . . . The Best of Things.

Here’s a key quote that illustrates the meaning of Jesus’ words “my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9):

I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven.

Now, I know that’s not theologically correct.

But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands.

I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me.

He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings.

And I will say,

“Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be.”

Filed Under: Strengths

The Biblical Basis for Focusing on Your Strengths

July 28, 2011 by Matt Perman

My post today at the Global Leadership Summit blog.

Filed Under: 3 - Leadership, Strengths

Can Too Much of a Strength Become a Weakness?

July 18, 2011 by Matt Perman

I differ from conventional wisdom here and believe the answer is no. It is not the case that some weaknesses are simply strengths taken too far.

Rather, the problem is not too much of one strength, but too little of another.

The reason this is important is because if you think a weaknesses is arising from having “too much strength” in an area, you will counsel the person to dial back their strength. Which won’t work and will only result in frustration.

But if you realize that the issue is not having enough strength in a counterbalancing area, the right solution emerges: build more strength in the relevant additional area.

Here’s how Marcus Buckingham puts it in Now, Discover Your Strengths:

Some people wonder if a strong theme can become so dominating that it gets in the way of excellent performance and is thus, by definition, a weakness. For example, can someone have such a powerful Activator theme that he forgets to focus on the future? Or can someone’s Command theme be so overwhelming that he frequently upsets the people around him?

We have a different view. A person can never have too much of a particular theme. He can only have not enough of another one. For example, rude people don’t have too much Command. They have insufficient Empathy. Impatient people don’t have too much Activator. They have too little Futuristic talent.

This distinction isn’t esoteric. On the contrary, it has practical repercussions. If you assume that the person is struggling to excel because he has too much of a particular theme, then you will tell him to tone the theme down, to stop behaving that way, and to be less of who he truly is.

This is repressive advice. It may be well intentioned, but it is rarely effective.

Conversely, if you assume that he is struggling because he has too little of a theme(s), you will offer him more positive advice. You will suggest that he manage around this weakness. You will tell him to decide which of the five strategies would prove most helpful, select one or two of them ,and tailor this strategy to his unique situation. This advice often proves challenging to implement, but as advice goes, it is more creative, more purposeful, and thus more effective.

Filed Under: Strengths

Five Ways to Neutralize Your Weaknesses

June 2, 2011 by Matt Perman

Since we are to focus on our strengths, not weaknesses, what should we do about our weaknesses?

The answer is to neutralize them. Marcus Buckingham gives five ways to do this in his helpful resource kit The Truth About You. The resource kit covers a whole lot more than this, but here’s a quick summary of the five ways Buckingham gives to neutralize your weaknesses.

1. Just stop doing it

Some things that we think we need to be doing might not be necessary at all. Originally they may have been, but circumstances and needs have changed — and our thinking just hasn’t caught up yet.

So for some things, ask “do I need to be doing this at all?” And if in doubt, maybe stop doing it for a while and see what happens.

2. Partner up

As Buckingham puts it, “seek out someone who is strengthened by the very thing that weakens you.”

The power of partnering should not be under estimated. In one of his other books, Buckingham points to Bill Gates as  example and points out that “Bill Gates’s true genius, the genius that differentiates him from the masses, lies in his ability to find just the right partner at just the right time.”

In response to those who would say “of course he can find the right partners; he’s Bill Gates,” Buckingham responds: “The causal arrow actually goes the other way. He is ‘Bill Gates’ in part because he had a genius for finding the right partners.” “Whatever your assessment of Gates, when faced with a role that repeatedly calls upon your weaknesses, you would do well to remember that effective partnering is the quiet secret of the successful.”

3. Sharpen your strengths to make your weaknesses irrelevant

This means becoming so effective in your areas of strength that your weaknesses are overwhelmed; they become a non-issue.

He gives Tom Brady as an example here. He writes:

Brady holds the ball very tightly, which makes his passes exceptionally accurate, but it also prevents him from throwing the ball as far as other quarterbacks like John Elway, Brett Favre, or Brady’s predecessor at New England, Drew Bledsoe. Rather than try to transform him into someone he wasn’t, his coaches built their game plan around a series of short passing plays that would demand, and capitalize on, Brady’s awesome accuracy. When he took over from Bledsoe as the Patriots starting quarterback, Brady threw a record 162 passes in a row without an interception.

4. Look at your weakness through one of your strengths

This means finding a way to use your strengths to do the activity that weakens you.

Buckingham gives Rudy Giuliani as one example here. As an attorney, Giuliani was very effective at arguing his cases in court. But when he became mayor of New York, he struggled giving speeches to a roomful of people behind a lectern.

He worked at it and hired a speech coach, but still struggled. Then his coach said to him: “You love arguing. So turn every speech into an argument. Come out from behind the lectern, leave your notes behind, take questions from the crowd, and then walk around where everyone can see you and make your case.”

As Buckingham points out, this worked perfectly and has been Giuliani’s style ever since. “He comes across as comfortable, powerful, authoritative; exactly what a leader should be. He took his weakness — public speaking. He looked at it from the perspective of his strength — arguing. And he neutralized it.”

Buckingham adds:

“And oh, by the way, he has also gradually become better and better at doing regular public speaking. You’ll find this too. You’ll find that when you fall back on one of your strengths, it has a side effect of helping you with your weakness.

5. Suck it up and do it

Sometimes, obviously, this is just what you have to do.

But don’t go here too fast. That’s the mistake most people make — and thus they short circuit better approaches that will make them more effective for everyone.

So treat this as a last resort, and seek to minimize the time you have to spend here so that most of your time can be spent on your strengths.

Filed Under: Strengths

A Better Answer to the Question "What is Your Greatest Weakness?"

April 28, 2011 by Matt Perman

A common job interview question is “what is your greatest weakness?” (Or some variation of it.)

A common response is to answer in terms of what you are bad at or tend to overdo (but often trying to give it a positive spin by making it seem the flip-side of a strength!).

That’s an unnecessary and unhelpful route to go with that question. The reason is that it misunderstands the nature of a weakness.

A weakness is not what you are bad at. A weakness is any activity that drains you. Or, in other words, a weakness is any activity that depletes you.

Understood in this light, it is not simply the most honest thing to give a straight answer, it’s also the most strategic because you don’t want to have a job that calls upon your weaknesses primarily (for you will be unable to excel and will end every day drained). What you want to do with your weaknesses is make them irrelevant by managing around them. Adjust the position so it doesn’t generally require you to do what weakens you, for example. Or find a partner who is strong where you are weak.

Given these things, here’s an example of a good answer to the question: “What is my greatest weakness? A weakness is an activity that drains you. Understood in this light, one of my greatest weaknesses is falling behind on email. If I let my email go for a few days, I feel like I’m under a pile of nagging, unfinished tasks, and it drains my energy. [Then, you go to how you have addressed the weakness and make it irrelevant:] As a result, I have a daily process for getting my inbox to zero, and I make sure not to skip more than a few days unless circumstances really call for it. I find that as long as I make it a priority to keep my in box processed regularly (which I have a system for), I don’t have to deal with the sense of being drained from a collection of unprocessed and unknown emails.”

Filed Under: Job Finding, Strengths

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What’s Best Next exists to help you achieve greater impact with your time and energy — and in a gospel-centered way.

We help you do work that changes the world. We believe this is possible when you reflect the gospel in your work. So here you’ll find resources and training to help you lead, create, and get things done. To do work that matters, and do it better — for the glory of God and flourishing of society.

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About Matt Perman

Matt Perman started What’s Best Next in 2008 as a blog on God-centered productivity. It has now become an organization dedicated to helping you do work that matters.

Matt is the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and a frequent speaker on leadership and productivity from a gospel-driven perspective. He has led the website teams at Desiring God and Made to Flourish, and is now director of career development at The King’s College NYC. He lives in Manhattan.

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