Strengths Based Leadership: Leveraging Talent for Organizational Outcomes
Laurie K. Baedke, FACHE, CMPE
President
LIFEworks Healthcare Group, Inc.
Nebraska Optometric Association Fall Convention 2011
September 23, 2011
Strengths Based Leadership: Leveraging Talent for Success
Indiana MGMA 2014 Spring Conference Carmel, IN May 15, 2014
Why Focus on Strengths?
The best-led organizations know that the
direct path to individual, team, and
organizational strengths begins with a
primary investment in their
employees greatest talents.
Find what’s naturally right with your
people, and build on it.
Why Focus on Strengths?
All organizations seek to perform with strength.
To get there, many follow conventional
wisdom:
Focus on fixing weaknesses. Find what’s
wrong with your people, and try to correct it.
Unfortunately, that “wisdom” leaves the
organization struggling on the path to
mediocrity.
Good drivers
Signature Strengths
Why Focus on Strengths?
Why Focus on Strengths?
Speed People operating from strength learn the role faster
and adapt to more variance in the role quicker.
Productivity and Precision People operating from strength produce significantly
more at higher quality.
Sustainability People operating from strength stay longer, miss
less work, and build stronger patient relationships.
Matching Strengths to Engagement
“At work, I have the opportunity
to do what I do best everyday”
…of the 2.7 million workers Gallup asked
in 63 countries, what % strongly agree
with this statement?
Matching Strengths to Engagement
“At work, I have the opportunity
to do what I do best everyday”
…of the 2.7 million workers Gallup asked
in 63 countries, what % strongly agree
with this statement?
Engagement Effect – Focus on Strengths
Engagement Effect – Focus on Strengths
59%
39%
38%
1%
61%
2%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Disagree (1 & 2) Strongly Agree (5)
Engaged
Not Engaged
Actively
Disengaged
My Supervisor Focuses on My Strengths and Positive Characteristics
Engagement Effect – Focus on Strengths
My Supervisor Focuses on My Strengths and Positive Characteristics
Think About It….
Recall a time when someone highlighted your weaknesses. How
did you feel?
In that moment, what was your capacity to encourage or
increase the engagement of another person?
Recall a time when someone highlighted one of your strengths.
How did you feel?
In that moment, what was your capacity to encourage or
increase the engagement of another person?
Based on your own experiences, what conclusions do you draw
about a focus on weaknesses as opposed to a focus on strengths?
Matching Strengths to Engagement
What happens when a person is not operating
from strength?
He or she is quite simply less fulfilled
and less effective.
In the workplace, an employee
is SIX times less likely to be
engaged in the role.
Matching Strengths to Engagement
A person not able to use his or her
strengths at work probably:
• dreads going to work
• has more negative than positive
interactions with coworkers
• treats patients poorly
• tells friends he or she works for a
miserable organization
• achieves less on a daily basis
• has fewer positive and creative moments
Five Clues to Talent
Yearning To what kinds of activities are you naturally drawn?
Rapid Learning What kinds of activities do you seem to pick up quickly?
Flow In what activities do the “steps” just come naturally to you? When have
you gotten so absorbed in a process or activity that you completely lost
track of time and surroundings?
Glimpses of Excellence During what activities have you had moments of subconscious excellence,
when you thought, “How did I do that?”
Satisfaction What activities give you a kick, either while doing them of immediately
after finishing them, and you think, “When can I do that again?”
You Can Count on Me…
Strengths Based Leadership Research
The most effective leaders surround
themselves with the right people and
then maximize their team.
While the best leaders are not necessarily
well-rounded, the best teams are.
Potential Return on Investment
Retention
Employees leave managers, not
organizations
Strengths-based
environments are a catalyst
to focus on right vs. wrong
Potential Return on Investment
Leaders manage to talent
Research shows higher performance
through focusing on strengths
Potential Return on Investment
Increased productivity
Engagement produces a desire to do
more of what I like and with higher
degrees of quality
Potential Return on Investment
Increased awareness of talent in action
Recognition on maximizing what is right
vs. focus on fixing what is wrong
Potential Return on Investment
Higher engagement over time
Growth from individualized foundation
means greater improvement
Potential Return on Investment
Exceed overall performance expectations and achieve powerful organizational outcomes:
higher productivity and retention
increased patient loyalty
greater physician engagement
positive organizational culture
Putting It Into Practice
Invest in your manager.
It’s hard to think of a more vital relationship on the job than the
relationship a person has with his or her manager. Think for a
moment about the type of relationship you have with your
manager. Imagine what it would be like if you both invested in one
another.
Take a few minutes and talk about your relationship with each
other. Use the questions below as a framework for this discussion:
Of the things I do, which two do you think I do best?
Which of my strengths do you benefit from?
How do you think we complement each other as
partners?
Identifying Talent In Others:
What are the parts of your job that make you feel most
successful?
What do you find most satisfying about your work?
What about your work motivates you the most?
Tell me about the best recognition you have ever received.
Why was it the best?
When you achieve your goals, how would you like to be
recognized?
When you are successful, who do you want to know it?
Identifying Talent In Others:
What do you do best?
Give me an example of how you used your talents at work
during the past week.
How do you tend to communicate (i.e. face to face, verbal,
written, large group, small group, etc.)?
How do you build and maintain relationships?
What drives you?
How do you set direction and make decisions?
How do you overcome obstacles?
Laurie K. Baedke, FACHE, FACMPE President LIFEworks Healthcare Group, Inc. 1150 Westridge Drive Blair, NE 68008 402.680.3311 [email protected]
www.lauriebaedke.com/blog
