Strengths Coaching for Family Members....

Last night my sister Paula called and wanted some help printing out some loan pre-approval documents. As we talked, she thought it might be better if she just came over and I could help her that way. She then proceeded to call other family members - mom, dad, brother, sister - to also come over. I shared that while they were here, I could work with them to help them learn their Top 5 Strengths and then do Strengths Performance Coaching. The plan was set.

Today all family members but my one sister were able to come over. Three completed their Strengths Finder assessment and it was very interesting to see their results. The funniest thing is that Paula's Top Strength was "includer." I pointed out to her and the others that the reason everyone was her today was because of Paula using her top strength!

Paula's Top 5: Includer, Strategic, Adaptability, Relator, Belief
Johnny's Top 5: Achiever, Restorative, Learner, Responsibility, Developer
Mom's Top 5: Consistency, Adaptability, Deliberative, Learner, Includer

First Strengths Coaching Session!

Today I held my first official strengths coaching session! It was with Candice who is a college student and an intern at work (and a fellow blogger!). It was great to get practice in using the coaching booklet and to talk about the different dimensions of the Strengths Finder themes to promote greater awareness and understanding. Working with Candice was so easy perhaps cuz I've gotten to know her pretty well, but more importantly I think she really does live her strengths (in my opinion!!). Just before our coaching session, she told a story to our group at lunch that was a perfect example of actions she took at school that were consistent with her "includer" and "responsibility" strengths. This session was a great one to get started, and I could only hope that all future coaching sessions are so easy and productive!

Candice's Top 5: Responsibility, Includer, Achiever, Futurist, Strategic

Supporting Your Strengths Session 1/25/2010: "Go Put Your Strengths To Work"

Tonight was an amazingly energizing night as I facilitating this month's Supporting Your Strengths (SYS) session at St. Ambrose. At last month's session, I had recommended we have a "book club" discussion about the book "Go Put Your Strengths To Work" after participating in a similar book club discussion at work. The SYS group was interested in the idea and a session was born!

The key materials I had to leverage were (1) survey questions and results from national and best practice organizations to serve as comparisons to our responses and (2) the book!

We had a little techincal troubles getting started -- my laptop was not easily compatible with the parish projector. Thank goodness we had Rudy in the audience who saved the day with his technical expertise and troubleshooting!

Below are the slides I prepared for our discussion. I'd be happy to the Powerpoint version upon request.

Our session went from 7-8:30pm. About half of the group stayed and chatted for another hour after the session! We have had a core group of people who took the original Living Your Strengths class and who have come to nearly every session of SYS. We are really starting to see the benefits of ongoing dialogues to enhance people's understanding of their God-giving talent. To see faces light up and light bulbs go off absolutely made this a worthwhile and energizing session. Can't wait til next session!

Til next time....

What I Bring to Strengths Performance Coaching Sessions

At the Strengths Performance Coaching program I recently attended, we went through a great exercise that I wanted to share. We analyzed our top 5 signature themes and identified our capabilities (or most helpful talents) as well as potential barriers (or most hurtful traits). I thought it would be useful to capture this information for future reference as well as any insights, input, or guidance that others may provide.

1. Achiever, 2. Learner, 3. Responsibility, 4. Arranger, 5. Relator

Capabilities:
1. Setting the pace, getting things done, bringing a high intensity, having great stamina and a strong work ethic
2. Curiousity, wanting to learn more, provider of applicable tools and resources
3. Keeping things on track, keeping promises and commitments, holding people accountable
4. Comfortable with change and ambiguity, comfortable working through others
5. Genuine, authentic, interactive, able to form strong one-on-one relationships

Potential Barriers:
1. Putting the project before the person, just wanting to get the work done
2. Too curious, feeling of irrelevance or unproductivity
3. Frustration if it isn't done or done in a certain way
4. Difficult to follow, not clear or easy to follow, too many ideas or options
5. Becoming too close or being viewed as providing preferential treatment to some

The best part about the StrengthsFinder is that it provides an outstanding tool and many supporting resources to increase self-awareness. Armed with this self-awareness, people now have the option to learn more and more importantly, take actions based on what they naturally do best. However, even our best strengths can be viewed by some as weaknesses if they are overdone or "overplayed."

So, to increase self-awareness, it is nice to know the capabilities of your strengths and perhaps even more important to understand potential barriers or barrier labels. I'm glad we went through this exercise! I'm looking forward to scheduling some practice coaching sessions so I can learn more about how my strengths play out while helping others learn and apply their naturally best talents.

My Theme Sequence - Clifton StrengthsFinder

As part of the Strengths Performance Coaching program, I received my theme sequence report. This report presents the 34 themes of talent, in rank order revealed by my responses to the StrengthsFinder.

1. Achiever
2. Learner
3. Responsibility
4. Arranger
5. Relator
6. Positivity
7. Context
8. Connectedness
9. Includer
10. Significance
11. Ideation
12. Woo
13. Activator
14. Input
15. Self-Assurance
16. Belief
17. Focus
18. Maximizer
19. Intellection
20. Developer
21. Futuristic
22. Analytical
23. Empathy
24. Command
25. Communication
26. Deliberative
27. Harmony
28. Restorative
29. Competition
30. Discipline
31. Adaptability
32. Consistency
33. Strategic
34. Individulization

Any surprises? Questions? Curious about your thoughts:)

Gallup Strengths Performance Coaching Training

I was fortunate to get an opportunity to participate in a two-day Strengths Performance Coaching program on January 14-15. What a great experience! The first day of the program was more repetitive in a way as it focused on the 34 Signature Themes, what they mean, and how they are applied. The second day gave us plenty of opportunities to continue this dialogue and to incorporate coaching techniques ending with a practice coaching session.

Next steps include conducting 10 practice sessions and to get individual feedback from each session. A certificate can be earned once these sessions are complete and the feedback is at a level of 4.0 or higher. I'm looking forward to these next steps!