Over the past couple of months I’ve written many times about the benefits of focussing on your strengths (e.g. here and here); most Positive Psychology literature (unsurprisingly) concentrates on what’s good about using a strengths-based approach and mentions very little in the way of the downsides. I’ve come across the phrase “overusing strengths”, but that’s about it. You need to look quite hard at the VIA-IS, StrengthsFinder and Strengthscope websites to find anything suggesting there might also be disadvantages.

Carol Dweck’s* research on fixed and growth mindsets made me wonder whether developing an inflexible view even of one’s good points (e.g. strengths) might actually be a bad thing, and that’s how I came to write my recent posting on Positive Psychology News Daily.

Anyhow, today I was sent a link to a post on the Berkun Blog, called “Why you should be bad at something“. It’s not just that being bad at something is OK, according to Scott Berkun it’s an absolute necessity if you’re going to learn something. How right he is. In order to learn you need to have a growth mindset, to try, and to keep trying over again when you fail. As a child you had a growth mindset – you’d never have learnt to speak, walk, read and write if you’d waited until you were good at it first.

What I like about Berkun’s post is it links the themes of comfort zones (which we have also discussed before here), learning, ageing, mindsets and happiness.

Berkun says “This sounds idiotic but I think being good, as in proficient, isn’t good all the time… as I get older I realize how important it is for my soul to be bad or awful in at least one thing I do, and to take pleasure in it anyway. There is a way to take pleasure in things independent of my ability at them and I’m convinced that cultivating it will make me a happier person“.

I dare you to be really bad at something!

* Carol Dweck (2006) Mindset: The new psychology of success

Thanks to Neil for the link to Scott Berkun’s blog.

Norwich Union is a company at the cutting edge of leadership and management techniques in the UK, for the past 18 month piloting the use of a strengths-based approach in various areas of Organisation Development and Human Resource Management, such as recruitment.

For most candidates and companies, the interview process is something to be endured rather than enjoyed , but according to KarenStefanyszyn , Head of Organisation Development, focusing on what people are good at and what makes them tick has transformed the interview process at NU and had some remarkable knock-on effects in the business.

For example: over 91% of NU staff recruited using strengths-based interview techniques said that the interview prepared them for their new roles; over 72% agreed that it was easy to settle into their new role; and over 73% said that they now use their natural talents at work every day. I find these results astonishing when I consider a typical interview outcome – that the job is not what was expected, the honeymoon period lasts a matter of weeks before reality bites, and results in lower morale and motivation.

In addition, Stefanyszyn reports that 100% of recruits scored above 90% in quality audits, and staff turnover figures in the first 6 months were halved. As a result of such positive feedback, the company is piloting the use of strengths in other areas of OD andHRM such as talent management. We look forward to hearing how this progresses.

The use of strengths in business is not entirely problem-free however. As an organisation you need to be clear which strengths model is the best fit – there are many well-known and well-validated models to choose from (such as StrengthsFinder and VIA-IS), others are being developed (for example by Dr AlexLinley , Director of the Centre for Applied Positive Psychology ), or you could always create your own.

As with any management tool, it can provide a useful common language with which to explore and resolve issues. You still need to be mindful, however, of the downside – that some people get quickly attached to labels, and forget that tools are only a means to an end.

That said, the use of strengths is gaining traction in UK businesses for one very good reason – for creating positive energy and excitement at work, nothing beats it. Imagine actually having fun during a job interview, and coming away from it feeling that you had learnt something new about yourself – now that really would be radical. I believe that using strengths in recruitment has the potential to transform the interview process in this way.

If you have had experience of using a strengths-based approach at work, we’d love to hear from you.

Our last post looked at how to identify your character strengths using the VIA-IS on-line tool.

There is another on-line inventory called the Gallup Strengths Finder tool.

In order to access it, you need to buy Tom Rath’s book first; with the book you get a password which enables you to access the tool on-line. As with the VIA-IS questionnaire, you get a report of your Top 5 Strengths. There is guidance in the book as to how to interpret the results and apply them.

And as we mentioned before, please use the results as a starting point for a discussion about your signature strengths, and how you might apply them day-to-day. You can also use them as the basis for creating an alternative Personal Development Plan, one which builds on the aptitudes you already have and which you enjoy using.

As always, we’d love to hear how you get on.