Strengths-based Manager's Guide to Personal Development

A MANAGER’S GUIDEUsing StrengthsFinder for Personal Development

Managers account for 70% of the variance in

employee engagement

Actively disengaged employees cost S’pore S$6 billion in lost productivity

9 in 10 people struggle to be effective managers

unless developed

13 in 15 employees worldwide are disengaged or actively

disengaged at work

“Empowering managers to focus on their strengths and those of their teams is key in increasing employee engagement.

- Victor Seet

3 STEP GUIDE TO GROWTH

1. Know and understand your dominant StrengthsFinder themes

2. Take ownership of your talent themes

3. Aim your strengths towards your goals as a manager

STEP ONE: UNDERSTAND YOUR DOMINANT THEMES AS A MANAGER

➤ Dig into all the resources you can find to help you understand your Top 5 CliftonStrengths themes

➤ Reflect on your usual behaviour, habits, and past experiences

➤ Key Question: can you connect your StrengthsFinder talent themes to your past experiences, patterns of thought, decision-making processes, or habits? Try doing this for each of your Top 5 CliftonStrengths themes.

STEP TWO: OWN YOUR DOMINANT THEMES AS A MANAGER

➤ Ownership comes when we start to accept and view our StrengthsFinder lenses in a positive way. Ownership drives us to action.

➤ If we dislike our StrengthsFinder themes or are skeptical about them, we won’t be able to aim them toward specific goals we have in our work and personal lives.

➤ Key Question: Can you link your dominant talent themes to an ‘identity’ you can assume at work? How does assuming this identity help build greater ownership in your role as a manager?

STEP THREE: AIM YOUR DOMINANT THEMES AS A MANAGER

➤ Understand the negative impact that our strengths can have on our team members at work.

➤ Connect our StrengthsFinder themes with specific, actionable goals tied to broader work outcomes.

➤ Key Questions:

➤ In which areas do you tend to impose your thoughts and decisions on your team?

➤ How do your themes tend to manifest in times of stress?

➤ What is your natural leadership style, and how does this relate to your strengths?

STEP THREE: AIM YOUR DOMINANT THEMES AS A MANAGER

➤ Using the SMART goal framework, can you set a goal for each of your strengths?

➤ For example:

➤ Activator: Connect with 50 new organisations within a year and convert 20% of them into clients

➤ Communication: Share with and influence 2,000 people in Asia to do the StrengthsFinder profiling assessment through Strengths School within a year

➤ Strategic: Get recurring business from 80% of our existing clients within a year

“A Strengths-Based Manager leading by example will have taken the vital first step in engaging his or her team members.

- Victor Seet