There’s a number of secret weapons I use in my work supporting HR professionals and leaders to build and maintain great workplaces. One is leveraging my understanding of what I bring to the conversation by way of my strengths. Beyond this is helping them apply the power of strengths to their own day-to-day of creating a vibrant, diverse, dedicated and high-performing workplace. Do I have a strengths tool of choice? Why, yes, I do!
There are a number of highly regarded strengths profiling tools on the market. I’ve been in the people game for quite some time now, bordering on twenty-five years in fact, which means I’ve experienced more than my fair share of profiling tools, including the range of strengths tools. I’ve written before about my preference for working with DiSC, but I’ve recently experienced a new (to me) tool that impressed me to the point that I completed further study to achieve accreditation so as to share its greatness with my clients.
Say hello to Strengths Profile.
Developed by Cappfinity, Strengths Profile has a different focus or a philosophy on strengths that I’m particularly drawn to. At the crux of things, I like it because it is simple and easy to bring into the everyday. It defines ‘strength’ as an indicator of performance, energy and use. It looks at how well you perform while applying a specific strength and how it energises or drains you. It also looks at frequency of use and how that impacts on performance. What I really like when I compare it to other tools on the market is how it goes deep on what strengths mean in a practical sense. Here’s what I mean by this:
The profile reveals 60 strengths in four categories:
Realised strengths – those you use and enjoy
Learned behaviours – things you’ve learned to do, might perform really well at but don’t particularly enjoy
Weaknesses – things you find hard and really, really dislike
Unrealised strengths – those you don’t use very often.
Want to know what these look like in real life? Let me share a snapshot of mine:
My realised strengths are Narrator, Rapport Builder and Connector. These suggest that telling stories comes naturally to me, that I can start conversations with people quickly and easily and I love making connections between people. Over the course of my career I’ve become well known for these strengths and they come easy to me. I can dial them up or down almost on autopilot!
My top three unrealised strengths or my hidden talents are Innovation, Self-belief and Resilience. These suggest that I have an ability to make things better than they were before, that I can be confident and self-assured and that I can take setbacks in my stride and bounce back. However, being unrealised strengths according to my profile means that I hide these away and really should make some effort into exploring them and using them more frequently.
The HR leaders I work with are all about addressing the opportunities and obstacles inherent in the role. It can be a challenging and sometimes lonely space to work in, so the Strengths Profile lens, when paired with DiSC offers a way for them to understand not only what they can do, but also what they love to do. This allows them to bring their authentic self to work and it’s long proven that using your strengths helps you achieve a happier, productive and more rewarding life – personally and professionally.
Beyond the individual, the complementary nature of Strengths Profile and DiSC really comes into its own when working with teams. HR leaders want to focus on getting the best out of people and the information revealed via Strengths/DiSC can be embedded into development plans and performance reviews.
If you’d like to know more about how I apply Strengths Profile and DiSC to my work with HR leaders, please reach out. I’d love to talk to you about my approach and how I can be of support.
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