In our blog two weeks ago, we talked about identifying your strengths and the strengths of your employees through the use of assessment tools.  The CheckPoint assessment is great for a manager to receive feedback from his/her boss, their direct reports, and their peers.  The ProfileXT tells you how you think, behave, and your occupational interests.  When used together, they present a comprehensive picture of what you do well, and why.

In this blog, now that you have identified those strengths, let’s look at the three steps to build upon those strengths.  Strength building, like all tasks with many steps, is like eating an elephant.  The only way you can eat an elephant is one bite at a time… 

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Think back to your last performance review. Your boss probably spent 10-20% of the discussion on things you do well, and the bulk of the discussion on your “areas for improvement” (aka: your weaknesses, your shortcomings, things you do not do well, etc.).  Sound familiar?  In fact, the only homework you might have had coming out of that review was to develop an individual plan to improve those “weaknesses”. But let’s be realistic, you never would be in the job you are in if it were not for your Strengths. I’m not saying to ignore your weaknesses. I’m just suggesting that we need to play to our Strengths just as much, or more, as we need to minimize our weaknesses. 

But, do you really know what your Strengths are?  What about your employees’ Strengths?  In this blog, we will focus on the importance of determining Strengths and the assessment tools available to help.

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