Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit - Strengths (9)

It’s week 9 of Expanding Your Group and Team Coaching Toolkit. This week we are going to explore one of my favorite areas to coach around – Strengths. 

Why are strengths important?

Gallup has undertaken decades of research on the topic of strengths and has found:

Individuals and teams that are able to lead more by strengths, are:

•       6x more engaged

•       3 x more likely to report having excellent quality of life

•       8.9% greater profitability

•       Teams which focus on strengths have 12.5% greater productivity

(Gallup Strengths Center)

As teams we work collectively and understanding our strengths can make a big difference in terms of communication, triggers, stress, prioritization and flow. As team coaches you may be working with a blend of individual and team strengths.

Questions around strengths : Teams

1.       What do you notice about your strengths collectively?

2.       What strengths can you rely on?

3.       What do you notice about roles in the team and strengths?

4.       What strengths are missing across the team?

5.       What is the blindspot created by over-relying on your strength?

6.       What strengths do you need to collaborate with, or bring in?

As group coaches the primary focus will likely be on individual strengths and how people are capitalzing on these in their own worlds. There may, or may not, be any intersect between individual group members in between the sessions.  

Looking to your own self around strengths consider these questions I posed here at the blog in 2012:

As you consider your strengths ask yourself:

1.       How are you using your strengths on a regular basis?
2.       Which ones are not being used?
3.       Which ones are being overused, and may be creating a blind-spot?
4.       Which, if any, were you surprised to see?
5.       Which one would you like to place some focus around and use more in your work or life in the next month or quarter? What changes would this entail?

For more on this topic check out StengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, or Go, Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham. If you prefer to work around Signature Strengths with the VIA Character Strengths Survey Check out The Power of Character Strengths: Appreciate and Ignite Your Positive Personality by Drs. Ryan Niemiec and Robert McGrath

Enjoy the conversation,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, CPCC, PCC – Potentials Realized 
Leadership | Teamwork | Business Success
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), Coaching Business Builder Workbook and Planner (2018) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (2013)
Follow along with the #90DaysPlanDoTrack series over at Instagram @CoachingBizBuilder 
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Join us for an upcoming ICF CCE approved program - Group Coaching Essentials (starts Friday June 7th - 8.75 CCEs), or the Virtual Facilitation Essentials(starts Monday June 3rd at 1:30 pm ET - 4 spots open - 8.5 CCEs)