Don’t mind the gap
Here's a challenge: Think back to your experiences of reading school reports, either your own, or your children’s. What grades did you, or your parents focus on? If you answered (even quietly to yourself) that your focus fell on the lowest grades, you would not be alone. Author Marcus Buckingham asked a range of parents the same question and a whopping 77% of parents admitted they typically concentrate on the lowest scores. This shows that our focus on the THE GAP has been instilled in us very early on in our learning journey.
A Gallup study found that employees who use their strengths, skills, and abilities every day feel more confident, self-aware, energised and productive when focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses. They are six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive, and 15% less likely to leave their jobs. These are compelling reasons to shine the spotlight on the superpowers your people already have, and how they’re using them at work. And especially compelling in this talent-short market where retention is key.
And yet, it seems that even though this research has been around for a while, feedback from participants on our career development programmes tells us that the focus on THE GAP is alive and well in many organisations.
They consistently tell us about the great experiences they have doing our strengths interview activity and how rare it is to get purely positive feedback about their strengths (without having ‘opportunities for improvement’ in the mix!)
So, what’s happening in your organisation to celebrate people’s strengths?
Here’s one tip from us: Just in time feedback. No training necessary and it’s completely free! All it involves is noticing the good stuff and getting into a regular practice of sharing it in the moment. The EEC framework - Give an Example, talk about the Effect, offer Congratulations - is a great way to frame your feedback and is guaranteed to make someone's day.
How could this simple practice become part of your DNA at work?
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