What is Strengths Coaching?
Management guru Peter Drucker once said ‘‘Many people think they know what they’re good at. They are usually wrong… And yet, a person can perform only from strength’.
Have you ever wondered about whether you’re achieving your potential? How often do you use your natural talents at the moment? Have you lost touch with them a little? Have you got more to give?
Research from Gallup ® indicates that your greatest opportunity for all round personal improvement isn’t where you’re weakest – but rather where you’re strongest!
The aim of Strengths Coaching is to provide a powerful, high-quality structure that supports you to:
- Uncover your true talents and develop them into strengths
- Use your strengths to overcome your challenges and accomplish their goals
- Capitalise on your potential and perform at your best.
Created originally in 1998 by educational psychologist, Don Clifton PhD, together with Tom Rath and a team of scientists at Gallup®, the programme is backed by more than 40 years of research.
What’s the Process?
Strengths coaching can be a stand-alone approach or it can be woven into a broader coaching programme, depending on what you’d like to achieve. Essentially there are 3 steps:
- Take the online Clifton StrengthsFinder® assessment, which measures your natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.
- Review the detail of your report, which includes personalised insights on how your talents and strengths appear in your life – and where your potential might be for the future!
- Develop a personal action plan to build your unique talents into strengths…and become the best version of yourself!
What are the benefits?
To date, over 17 million people worldwide have taken the assessment. Gallup ® research shows that people who know and understand their Clifton StrengthsFinder themes® are:
- Likely to be happier and more engaged at work:
- 6x as likely to be engaged at work
- 7.8% more productive in their role
- Likely to be more confident, energetic and happy outside of work:
- 3x as likely to have an excellent quality of life
- 6x as likely to do what they do best every day.
For more information, see https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/
My view
I believe that if we’re to achieve our potential in life and work, one of the keys lies in truly understanding our talents and strengths. What comes naturally to us? What energises us? What do we feel confident about? How can we build from there?
Developing our talents into strengths doesn’t mean that we ignore areas where we’re not so strong naturally. Instead, we can learn how to manage around these areas, developing new capabilities and capitalising on our strengths to achieve our objectives.
As a Gallup ® Certified Strengths Coach, I’ve seen the process boost confidence and generate positive changes in clients from a range of ages (from students to the ‘more mature’ end of the age range!) and professions (from financial services to the creative industries).
One businessman realised that, although he’d worried that his inability to network was holding him back, he could capitalise on his talent for building trusting one-on-one relationships to build his network in a different, but equally effective way. A scientist decided that he could use his natural talent for focusing on work tasks to focus on a series of steps to build a social life to balance out his intense work schedule. Another client commented: ‘I found it such a positive experience…. I came out feeling really affirmed about myself and confident about where I can go from here!’
So if you’re interested in learning more about your natural talents, and how to live and work in your strengths zone, then Strengths Coaching could be worth trying!
(Gallup ® and Clifton StrengthsFinder ® are trademarks of Gallup Inc.)