For many years whilst in the Army, his performance appraisals went something like this: “here’s all the things you are good at, and here’s all the things you are not so good at, so let’s spend all our time talking about what you are not good at and try to fix them”. So not fun, and so not productive.
Let’s face it, if you are not good at something you almost certainly don’t like it, and no matter how much effort you put in, you will probably only improve a little bit.
Then he moved to a new job, and was feeling a bit nervous about his first performance appraisal. It started off the same – “here’s all the things you are good at, and here are the things that we both know you are not so good at.” But then the script changed – “So now let’s make sure you get to do all the things you are good at, and find someone else to do the other stuff”.
Wow! How good would that feel! And you can bet that boss and business got a serious lift in productivity and discretionary effort the next year.
This is what a strengths-based culture is all about.
Everest now offers Strengths Coaching to individuals, teams or whole organisations. If you want to know more, or would like some tools and support to get it happening in your workplace, give us a call!
Meredith Mackenzie – HR Specialist & Strengths Coach
Ph: 027 292 4290