Discover Your Team’s Strengths
Each person on your team has their own unique strengths and talents. If you’re in a leadership position, you should know how to identify the strengths of each member on the team. When you know how to manage individual team members’ natural gifts, you can expect results like increased productivity and improved performance. Managing those essential skills will also get employees more engaged, and you’ll hold onto your best employees. One of the most important jobs of any leader is to unlock those strengths and use the knowledge towards positive results.
Building on Strengths in the Workplace
Discovering your team’s strengths and weaknesses are harder than it seems. After all, most of us are trying to figure out where our strengths and weaknesses lie in both our work and personal lives. It’s a constant, and we’re all just humans. Hopefully, we’re learning something new about ourselves every day. As a team leader, it’s essential that you discover what works with your team. So how do you discover your team’s strengths? Here are a few ways to do it.
Listen and observe. We sometimes take our employees for granted. We work with people day in an day out, and see people acting normally. However, when we take the time to observe and listen, we may notice certain traits about our team members. Get to know your team. Be real with your employees, show them that you’re human too. Your team is made up of different personalities, with different needs and ambition. Observe how employees interact. Perhaps there’s someone on the team that’s always in a good mood and always friendly. This may be a person that’s a natural at managing relations between employees, which can be a strong asset for a manager that is looking to better connect with team members. After all, some employees don’t trust their manager, so if you can make a connection with your teammates, you can achieve positive results. Another way to get to know your team better is through social events. Barbecues, quarterly recognitions, and light pre-holiday drinks are all events that could work. Try setting something up that gets team members mixing and mingling. During these kinds of events, people are more relaxed and more likely to open up. Of course, always be on your best work behavior.
Explore team-building activities. Team building should be an everyday priority. Has your team lost its energy and motivation? Has morale dropped? Are conflicts within the organization creating division? Make team building a part of your work culture and you can start resolving these issues. Working towards a common goal unites people, and team building activities, such as mind games, are a great way to identify team strengths. Take a puzzle-solving game like National Treasure. In this team building activity, team participants need to think fast and objectively. It encourages team camaraderie and tests a variety of skills. Unlock team strengths such as interpersonal communication, problem-solving, time-management, abstract thinking, and the ability to work under pressure. Team building games motivate people to work together. They also reveal strengths and even weaknesses. You can explore team building activities to address specific needs in your organization and apply them to address these issues.
When you have a better understanding of your team members’ strengths, develop them. Focus on each individuals’ unique strengths. As a leader, you can find the right roles for your employees and create an environment that is positive and rewarding. Remember, we’re all in this together.
