Strengths

Best Articles on Leading with Strengths

December 20, 2016 by Alissa Finerman Leave a Comment

As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach I have seen how a strengths approach can make a difference for employees, customers and companies. It’s a win-win. The Gallup Organization does amazing research on the strengths based approach and how it can help your employees, managers and organization. Here are a few excellent articles to learn more. Feel free to contact me with any questions or to learn more about doing a strengths seminar for your team.

* How a strengths based development approach can improve profit, sales, engagement for your company, customers and employees

ROI for Strengths Based Development

* Managers can make a huge impact in the success of your company and employee engagement. This article shares why managers matter, how they can make a positive or negative impact and a few strategies to help them development.

Manager Development Matters

* The strengths based development approach is impactful. This article shares some powerful stats that companies are seeing from using this approach. It also shares some best practices for managers to consider.

Strengths Based Development: The Manager’s Role

Why Aren’t All Organizations Strengths Based

Why Coaches are Essential to Creating Strengths Based Organizations

Building A Strengths Based Organization

Do Strengths Differ for Men and Women

Strengths Based Development for Leaders

Do Employees Know What’s Expected of Them

About Alissa

Alissa Finerman is an Executive Coach and Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, speaker and author of Living in YOUR Top 1%. She works with managers, C-suite executives and teams to leverage strengths, shift beliefs and achieve meaningful goals. Alissa has an MBA from the Wharton School and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley. She has worked with Ross Stores, Petco, BNP Paribas, Neutrogena, Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Milken Institute, LA Business Journal, Prostate Cancer Foundation, and NBC Universal. To learn more about coaching with Alissa, please visit her website and follow her on Facebook

Building a Strengths Based Leadership Brand

August 22, 2016 by Alissa Finerman Leave a Comment

What Does Your Brand of Leadership?

this article was featured on the Virgin entrepreneur blog

Leaders can be effective with a variety of styles. There is no one size fits all model for success. While some study the styles of others, it’s even more important to develop your natural style that plays to your strengths. Effective leaders figure out the best way to build trust, instill hope, show compassion and provide a stable and solid environment where people can thrive and achieve team goals. The question is how do you develop your leadership style and authentic voice?

I recently worked with a client who was referred to a “quiet” leader (he managed a sales team) and his manager wanted him to share his voice more so people could appreciate his insights. Whereas some leaders are the first in a meeting to offer their point of view or decide what the team is going to do, some leaders like to listen first rather than hear themselves talk all the time. Both approaches can make an impact – the work is in gaining clarity on what you do well (your strengths) and how you can apply your strengths to gain credibility and results as a leader.

When I work with leaders who manage a team, we focus on developing their personal style of leadership. Each person needs to be able to answer this clearly and confidently. Leaders also need to be aware of how their leadership style is working and what your team needs more or less of. You may be a hands on leader who likes to get into the details with your team or more of a hands off leader who shares the goal and then checks in every once in a while to see how the project is progressing. Although there is no perfect path for leadership, you can create your personal and authentic brand to drive performance and engagement.

A few key areas that I discuss with my coaching clients include:

How do you build trust as a leader?
What strengths help you excel as a leader?
What steps can you take to best partner with the people on your team?
What’s the process for developing each person and connecting one to one?
What do you do to motivate your team and recognize them for their contributions?
What actions do you take to help your team identify and use their strengths daily?
What do you do to build a stable yet inspiring environment where people have the confidence to do what they are best at?

Leaders need to deliver consistent outcomes and motivate their team by leveraging strengths and aligning them with meaningful goals. There are no simple formulas to be an effective leader but there are specific questions each leader can address to make the biggest impact and develop their team. One of the best steps you can take as you develop as a leader is to define your personal leadership brand to enjoy greater success.

We’d like to hear from you…how do you define your personal brand of leadership and what helps you be successful?

Managing the Millennial Factor

August 22, 2016 by Alissa Finerman Leave a Comment

Millennials are an important part of the workplace. There are 73 million millennials who were born between 1980 and 1996. Their voice matters and if companies, teams and people are going to be successful, managers need to understand this growing segment of the workforce and manage them more effectively.

When people are not engaged at work they are less likely to be loyal to a company and will move around more easily for new opportunities. Per Gallup, millennials are the least engaged generation at work at 29% compared to Genxers at 32%, Baby boomers at 33% and traditionalists at 45%. Gallup estimates that turnover for millennials stemming from lack of engagement costs the US economy $30.5 billion on an annual basis. High turnover is very detrimental to building a cohesive team because people need to be recruited, trained and re-learn about how best to partner with co-workers.

Managers who want to connect with and effectively manage millennials need to expand their development style and understand the six shifts taking place, per Gallup research, in this segment of the workplace.

My paycheck to my purpose

There is a big shift taking place right now and it’s moving away from just having a job to make money to wanting to work for a company that’s making a difference in the work (think Tesla, SpaceX, Google, Uber, SAP, Toms). So companies need to realize that works like purpose make a difference and just simply having a sales target or empty goal that means nothing to an employee will not drive engagement. Millennials want to feel like they are connected to a larger purpose and making a difference.

My satisfaction to my development

Companies can give all the perks in the world to their employees but if people don’t feel like they are being heard, recognized and developed by their managers they will not be engaged. A simple step mangers can take is to schedule regular meetings with their team and give feedback and share the goals and specific role responsibilities. People like to feel that they matter and that their voice is being heard. Regular meetings is an easy way to address this area and improve performance.

My boss to my coach

Millennials want their “boss” to act like a coach and help them get better everyday. Bosses are often more about giving out orders rather than having a collaborative approach and listening to input (every boss is different). Millennials want to be part of the team rather than feel like there is a chain of command. They think their ideas are just as worthy as those of their boss and wanted to be treated with respect regardless of their age.

My annual review to my ongoing conversations

Historically, companies have operated with annual reviews. This is changing now but millennials want constant feedback just like how they communicate. They are constantly texting, tweeting and instagraming so they see communication at fluid rather than a one time event. Managers need to understand this and adopt if they want to be successful. Gallup highlights that only 21% of millennials meet with their manager on a weekly basis.

My weaknesses to my strengths

Most companies love to have people work on their weaknesses rather than identify and leverage their strengths. The strengths based approach focuses on what people are doing right and partnering to manage any weaker areas. To improve engagement levels, managers need to work with millennials to help them understand their strengths and how they can use them more effectively in their role.

My job to my life

Millennials don’t just see the work day as a job, they see it as a way of life. They want to connect to the organization they work for and feel like they are valued by the organization, team and manager. The best way for a manager to drive engagement and make millennials feel like they matter is to honor their strengths and help them do more of what they love.

* based on the Gallup research report “How Millennials Want to Work and Live”

About Alissa

Strengths Partnering for Greater Success

April 13, 2016 by Alissa Finerman Leave a Comment

If you had to list 3 things that annoy and frustrate you about people you work with or 3 strengths and ways the people you work with add value and contribute to the team, which would be easier for you?

When I ask this question in my Leveraging Strengths for Success Team Seminar, the answer is typically that it’s much easier to find what’s wrong with people than what’s right. This is a mindset that is often found in corporate America but is slowly changing as a strengths based approach becomes more widely used. Many companies look to develop their people by identifying their weaknesses and then design an improvement plan (this approach does not usually excite people to focus on what you’re not good at). Whereas, a strengths based approach focuses on identifying strengths and figuring out a plan to help employees use them more often in their role (this approach does excite people to put your strengths and natural talents to good use). The result with a strengths approach, per Gallup research, is a workforce that has higher engagement, satisfaction, productivity and profitability. Just to clarify, the strengths based approach does not overlook weaknesses but it only focuses on a weakness that gets in the way of your success. So for the sales manager who frequently travels but is not great with travel logistics, she can still be successful in her role by partnering around this weaker area with someone who is good with logistics.

Gallup research also shows that teams who focus on strengths are 12.5% more productive. People also learn faster, work harder and stay longer thereby reducing turnover. As you look for ways to partner, here are some steps to consider:

Identify your top 5 strengths and understand how they help you be successful in your role (you can take the Gallup StrengthsFinder Assessment to identify your strengths)
Clarify your goals so you understand what you can contribute and what strengths you need in a partner
Bring in a partner who complements your strengths and helps to manage around weaknesses
Brainstorm how the partnership can resolve various challenges and achieve specific goals (different partnerships may be needed to achieve different goals)

Here’s how partnering can be more effective. If you are an Activator, defined by Gallup as people who make things happen by turning thoughts into action, you learn by doing and can be impatient with too much talk and no action. Activators like to walk out of a meeting and jump into action. A potential partner depending on the goal could be someone with Strategic, defined by Gallup as people who create alternative ways to proceed and can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues. The strategic person has the ability to see the forest rather than just a single tree. The combination is powerful because you have someone who can move various ideas of a project forward (activator) and a partner who can see the bigger picture and thoughtfully consider the best way to step forward (strategic).

Partnerships become a key strategy as we build effective teams and leverage our strengths. This approach allows us to accomplish key goals that could not have been done alone and partner around any weaker areas. The better you understand your own strengths and what you contribute to your team the more effective your partnerships will be.

About Alissa

The Strengths Spectrum: Where Do You Stand?

April 13, 2016 by Alissa Finerman Leave a Comment

We all have strengths — defined by Gallup as the ability to consistently provide near perfect performance (ie, the customer service rep who can consistently turn an angry customer into a happy customer). Strengths are not just something you are good at — they need to give you energy. Sometimes we use our strengths effectively and productively, known as using them in the mature form, and sometimes we use them ineffectively and unproductively, known as using them in the raw form. As you focus on developing as a leader, you want to consider where you play on the raw vs mature strengths spectrum. Ideally we want to be using our strengths closer to the mature side of the spectrum but sometimes this doesn’t happen because we may be tired, frustrated, pressed for time or have a complete blind spot and be unaware of how we behave and are seen by others.

Once you’ve identified your strengths (you can take the Gallup StrengthsFinder Assessment) and understand how they help you be successful in your role, you can then start to dive into the raw and mature side of each strength. This is not a good or bad thing, every strength has a raw and mature side depending on how we use it. For those who strive to become leaders and more effective and respected in your role, you want to make sure you are closer to the mature side of the spectrum and using your strengths effectively and moving closer toward your goals.

As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach this is where I spend the majority of my time working with clients and teams because this is where leaders and managers get derailed. This is also a valuable tool to develop people on your team and help them become better leaders.

Let’s take a look at a few examples for some of the more frequent strengths in their raw and mature form:

STRENGTH Definition	MATURE FORM	RAW FORM
ACHIEVER(enjoys making a list and getting stuff done)	Likes to focus on tasks and goals in a productive way	Tunnel vision, doesn’t focus on key priorities and is busy on non-essential tasks, loses sight of goal
RESPONSIBILITY(your word is gold)	Takes ownership, you follow-through on what you say	Hesitant to delegate and can be a micro-manager
STRATEGIC(ability to see the bigger picture)	Can see patterns and different paths forward	Too quick to come to a conclusion, can run others over and not listen
ANALYTICAL(thoroughly researches an issue from all angles)	Asks insightful questions and can prioritize key details	Endless need for details and has difficulty coming to a decision

Our work becomes to understand where we play on the strengths spectrum by increasing our self-awareness and getting feedback. The reality is that work and life can be stressful. We often work with difficult people on challenging projects that push us outside our comfort zones. Sometimes we let our ego get involved and we can lose sight of the goal and what we each contribute to the team and project via a strengths based approach. As we increase our understanding of our strengths and how we can use them for us (mature) or against us (raw), we start to become more effective leaders and better respected in the workplace and at home.

About Alissa

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