Marcella Nelson is the president of Breakthrough Coaching and Consulting, which provides leadership and career coaching, organizational consulting and training services to corporate and individual clients. She works with leaders, teams, and professionals to remove barriers to success and accelerate the achievement of business and career goals. Marcella’s mission is to help people to have successful careers and companies to have successful employees.
Prior to founding Breakthrough, Marcella was an accomplished Human Resources executive with over 20 years experience in a variety of industries, including on-line information services, high tech, manufacturing and health care.
Marcella is a graduate of Smith College, has completed the Strategic Human Resource Management program at the Harvard Business School, MBA coursework at Babson College, and is a certified graduate of Corporate Coach University. She is a member of the national and New England chapters of the International Coach Federation and of the Society for Human Resource Management. Marcella is also a featured speaker and workshop leader on career, leadership, teamwork, and performance enhancement topics for organizations such as Bryant University, Northeast Human Resources Association, University of Massachusetts, Leading Women, Learning Connection, Southeastern Massachusetts Chambers of Commerce, and many other professional organizations, corporations and non-profits.
Visit Marcella's website at: http://www.coachbreakthrough.com
"It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first rate performance to excellence."
-- Peter Drucker
Discovering and leveraging your strengths and the strengths of others is a critical pathway for fulfilling potential and achieving extraordinary performance outcomes and career success. Seems obvious? It's actually revolutionary.
Most people and organizations spend more resources on remedial training to make incompetent performers into mediocre ones rather than on developing strengths to make a competent person into a star.
This doesn't mean that there is no room for corrective actions to fill skill gaps. All successful people need to become competent at things that are essential to their jobs. But to focus solely on these areas will not result in first-rate performance.
Here are 8 ideas to help you identify and build on your strengths and help others do the same.
1. Know your own strengths.
There are many ways to increase your self-awareness. Performance reviews, 360 assessments, feedback from colleagues are just a few. List your accomplishments and the skills you used to achieve each of them and note which skills you used repeatedly. You can also take one of many available assessments and work with a trained coach to interpret and apply the results. Or simply ask yourself and others a few key questions: “What do people come to me for? What do I contribute spontaneously? What tasks bring me the most satisfaction?”
2. Redesign your job to build on your strengths.
Find ways to restructure your job to reflect you at the top of your game. Look for opportunities to redesign relationships, communications, time frames, etc. If your job can't be redesigned around your strengths, it may be time for a change.
3. Beware of overused strengths.
Under pressure, people tend to do more of what they normally do. If that doesn't work, they become frustrated and over-work it or give up. The decisive person becomes autocratic, the influential person oversells. Knowing your strengths gives you a better idea of how to deal with weaknesses and the confidence to address them.
4. Appreciate diverse styles.
Behaviors that are different from ours lead to frustration and conflict. Our goal should be to move from judging others to understanding and valuing them for their unique contribution. You don't need to like someone to work with them effectively. You must be able to trust them, however, and that requires that you understand them.
5. Know and utilize the strengths of others.
Everybody's motivated. They're just motivated for their reasons, not yours. If you want to succeed, tap into other people's preferences. Assign team roles and define team operating rules based on members’ strengths and styles and have a plan to compensate for missing strengths.
6. Acknowledge and empower.
People leave jobs because they feel unchallenged and unappreciated. University of Michigan researchers found that when individuals or teams hear five positive comments to every negative one, they unleash a level of positive energy that fuels higher levels of performance. Let others know their value and let them add value.
7. Take responsibility for relationships.
Accept that other people are also individuals. Adapt your behavior to their needs. Ask what others are working on and how you might help. Adapt yourself to what makes your boss effective. Help successful leaders or potential leaders make the behavioral changes needed to take them to the next performance level.
8. Know your values.
Knowing your values is also critical to success. Sometimes there is a conflict between your strengths and your values. What you do well may not fit or may no longer fit your values. Or your values and the values of your organization may clash. If you have different views of the function of the business and of management, your chances of success and satisfaction in that job are diminished.
Know, value and leverage the strengths and skills of others to be an exceptional leader and achieve success. Organize your career around leveraging your personal strengths, style, skills and values to achieve personal fulfillment and make a contribution
"Successful careers . . . develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work and their values. Knowing where one belongs can transform an ordinary person -- hardworking and competent but otherwise mediocre -- into an outstanding performer." -- Peter Drucker
COACHING CALL TO ACTION
Many employees don't feel they use their strengths on a regular basis and aren't acknowledged for them. This week pay special attention to 4 and 5 above. Spend some time looking at your own and others' strengths and styles and determine how you can motivate yourself and others based on these attributes.
For more information or help implementing these concepts, contact Marcella Nelson at marcella@coachbreakthrough.com or 508-758-9938. Please visit our website www.coachbreakthrough.com . Achieving breakthrough results for businesses and careers.
Copyright: 2007 Marcella Nelson/All rights reserved.