Having been working on the StrengthsFinder tool intensively since the coaching course by Gallup, I realised just how versatile this tool is. One way I think I can leverage on the tool is to find some other frameworks which would be useful in the application of Strengths-Based Coaching.
Recently, I read the Daniel Goleman’s HBR Article “What Makes a Leader?” and found this very nice chart titled “The Five opponents of Emotional Intelligence at Work“:
The article suggests that while “intellect was a driver of outstanding performance”, “emotional intelligence played an increasingly important role at the highest levels of the company, where differences in technical skills are of negligible importance.” In other words, the higher up the leadership ladder you are, the more important your EQ is.
And in the article, he describes 5 key components to Emotional Intelligence : Self-Awarness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and Social Skill.
That all seems interesting enough, and each expert will have a different way of addressing how to develop these areas. Personally, I’m interested to see how the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 can be used in this area to develop a person.
Self-Awareness
Whether one opts for the “Top 5 Strengths Access” or the “All 34 Strengths Access”, one will receive a number of reports including a personalised Strengths Insight Guide which describes how your top talent themes affect the way to think and function.
That, in itself, gives you a greater level of self-awareness to understand what your natural inclinations, motivations, likes and dislikes are. With it comes both an appreciation of how you are unique, and an understanding of what you are not. I have found this gives tremendous freedom to one who is trying to be everything to everyone. It’s like trying to squeeze in a square peg into a round hole, and having the freedom to realise and declare your own uniqueness.
With that understanding and insight, one can then be more self-confident and have a more realistic assessment of one’s own capabilities.
Self-Regulation
It seems to be that self-regulation is the ability to “feel bad moods and emotional impulses just like everyone else does, but find ways to control them, or even channel them in useful ways”.
Breaking this down as a strategy, it could look something like:
Event -> Feel the emotions -> Identify Best Approach -> Act
One could leverage on their Strategic Thinking themes each time something happens in order to manage their emotions and think before responding. This promotes the ability to Respond to a stimulus rather than React to it.
And if one was low on Strategic Thinking Themes, he could innovate and leverage on other Signature Theme that he has to respond to the situation creatively.
Motivation
With an increased Self-Awareness, one would be able to identify what motivates himself. It’s almost a no-brainer with the StrengthsFinder report! The Strengths Insights Report and Action Planning Guide would give a very good base-line to work on being engaged and motivated.
If you have a strong Learner theme like I do, place myself in situations where I can learn new things, and be challenged by learning (and application of new learnings). If you have strong Relator theme, look for opportunities to build Relationships with others and work towards things together.
There are many ways to meet your objective, and the StrengthsFinder Theme gives you (at least) 5 areas to work on to increase your motivation.
Empathy
There is a StrengthsFinder theme called Empathy, but it doesn’t mean that you are done for without it in your Signature Strengths. The hallmark of this component is “expertise in building and retaining talent”, “cross-cultural sensitivity” and “service to clients and customers”.
Understanding our Themes help us to approach these hallmarks in our own unique ways.
Social Skill
I would approach social skill the same way I did Empathy – by focusing on the hallmarks and identifying how best to achieve them using our own signature themes.
Drawing from a Strengths-Based development approach, it is important to remember that we can’t be everything we want to be, but we can be more of who we are. Perhaps 1 or 2 of the above components will seem more challenging. I believe it is important to focus on leveraging on our strengths to fulfil it, and where one of it does not come naturally, to not force it and perhaps partner with someone with that ability to do so.
