3 Practical Ways To Use StrengthsFinder With Your Team

I continue to be a huge fan of StrengthsFinder as a tool for self and other awareness.  In fact, we have talked extensively about this on our blog in the past.  For those of you who might be interested in such a tool, here are three practical ways to use it with your team.

Also note that I’m not a Gallup certified coach.  If you want such a person, I know a couple fantastic strengths coaches I would happily recommend.  Back on track– here are my three practical tools.

1. Gain Self Awareness

I am living, breathing proof that StrengthsFinder is a wonderful tool for learning more about yourself.  Viewing your life through the context of strengths, you begin to better understand why you seem to excel at certain things and maybe not so well at others.  Areas where you are excelling are probably operating out of one or more of your strengths.  To begin learning about yourself, get the book, take the test, learn your top five, and then read the descriptions for each.  Your mind will be enlightened.

2. Gain Other Awareness

In a team setting, it’s particularly useful to have all members of the team take the StrengthsFinder test.  We’ve compiled the results into a spreadsheet so we can compare and contrast.  It’s particularly interesting to see the strengths you share with others and learn about the differences.  We all have colleagues we click with better than others.  The StrengthsFinder book actually gives you strategies on how to work with those with different strengths.  Where one person might have once been annoying, you can now find ways to use their unique strengths to your advantage.  That is powerful.

3. Rich Team Discussion

Now that we all have the strengths language in common, allot some time in team meetings to discuss your strengths.  In a recent discussion, we each talked about our number one strength and gave an example of how that is evident in our lives.  It turned into a very rich discussion that helped us better understand the members of our team.  The better we understand and listen to each other, the better we work together.

By the way, my top five strengths are harmony, responsibility, consistency, empathy and adaptability.  What are yours?

If you’ve used StrengthsFinder in a team context, what are some exercises you’ve found particularly useful when discussing it as a team?

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