People's
strengths are an organisation's greatest asset
People
who use their strengths are more engaged, energetic, productive, flexible,
satisfied and resilient
Bold
claims, but how are they justified?
An
outline of the research relating to strengths use in the workplace is set out
below. For a fuller survey and discussion, see
Average to A+: Realising Strengths in
Yourself and Others (CAPP Press, 2007) by Prof Alex Linley, Director of
CAPP.
Strengths
enable organisations to:
ü
Tap into
unused talent
Organisations
succeed not by winning the war for talent but by fully using the talent and
unlocking the motivation of the people they already have in their organizations
(O'Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000)
ü
Attract
and retain more of the people you need
Strengths-based
recruitment delivers increased levels of performance, engagement and retention
(Stefanyszyn, 2007)
ü
Improve
individual performance
Individual
performance is significantly improved by a focus on strengths, and undermined
by a focus on rectifying weaknesses (Corporate Leadership Council, 2002)
ü
Build
employee engagement
Strengths
use is one of the key drivers of employee engagement (Wagner & Harter,
2006), which is itself linked to a wide array of organisational benefits
(Stairs et al, 2006)
ü
Develop
flexibility and openness to change
Employees
are more willing and able to adapt to change and new challenges that are
aligned to their strengths (Linley, Harrington, & Hill, 2005)
ü
Improve
teamwork
The
use of strengths generates positive emotions which facilitate teamwork and
improve team performance (Losada & Heaphy, 2004)
ü
Increase
diversity and positive inclusion
(Johnson
& Fredrickson, 2005)
ü
Increase
resilience
The positive emotions generated by strengths use fuel
resilience and undo the lingering after-effects of negative events(Fredrickson,
2003)
ü
Contribute
to the happiness and fulfilment of your employees
People
who use their strengths experience higher levels of energy, goal attainment,
congruence and well-being (Govindji & Linley, 2007)
And
yet..
û
Many
individuals are not clear what their strengths are and many managers don't know
how to capitalise on them (Buckingham
& Clifton, 2001)
Buckingham, M., & Clifton , D.O. (2001). Now, Discover Your
Strengths. New York : Free Press
Corporate Leadership Council (2002). Building the High Performance Workforce.
Washington, DC: Corporate Leadership Council
Fredrickson, B. L. (2003). The value of positive emotions. American Scientist,
91, 330-335
Govindji, R. & Linley, P. A. (2007). Going from strength to strength. Coaching
at Work, 3, 44-47
Johnson, K. J. & Fredrickson, B. L. (2005). "We all look the same to me:"
Positive emotions eliminate the own-race bias in face recognition. Psychological
Science, 16, 875-881.
Linley, P. A., Harrington, S., & Hill, J. R. W. (2005). Selection and
development: A new perspective on some old problems. Selection and Development
Review, 21, 3-6
Losada, M. & Heaphy, E. (2004). The role of positivity and connectivity in
the performance of business teams: A non-linear dynamics model. American
Behavioral Scientist, 47 (6), 740-765
O'Reilly, C. & Pfeffer, J. (2000). Hidden Value: How Great Companies
Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People, Boston: Harvard
Business School Press
Stairs, M., Galpin, M., Page, N., & Linley, P. A. (2006). Retention on a
knife edge. Selection & Development Review, 22, 19-23 Stefanyszyn,
K. (2007). Norwich Union Changes Focus From Competencies to Strengths. Strategic
HR Review, 17 (1), November/December 2007, 10-11
Wagner, R., & Harter, J. K. (2006). 12: The elements of great managing.
New York: Gallup Press