By: Marcus Buckingham

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In his previous books, Marcus Buckingham made the argument that focussing on strengths rather than weaknesses is the best way get the best results from your people.

This book is the ultimate application of that conclusion, which is a six-step improvement program that you and your team can use to achieve outstanding performance.

If you are a team leader, I strongly suggest that you go through this process twice. First, with the mindset of applying what you learn to yourself. And second, with the mindset of how you can help your team do the same thing.

Step #1: Bust the myths

In the business world there are myths that keep us from focussing on our strengths.

Let's tackle them in turn.

Myth #1: As you grow, your personality changes

Everybody loves a good change story. But the reality is that you grow as a person, you end up becoming more of what you already are. What you are like early in your life is a good indicator of what you will be like later in life as well.

The sooner you come to grips with "who you are", the sooner you'll be able to focus on building your strengths.

Myth #2: You will grow the most in your areas of greatest weakness

Think about your experience as a child bringing a report card home (or as an adult looking at your child's report card).

Let's pretend there are mostly As and then one D. All of the attention is going to be on the one D, and what we can do to fix it.

So this mindset of fixing weaknesses is ingrained in our culture as soon as we are old enough to bring home a report card.

The reality is that you will find growing in your areas of greatest strengths to be fulfilling and fun, and thus that's where you are most likely to grow.

Myth #3: A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team.

This myth is the hardest to deal with because we are all expected to do whatever it takes to help the team succeed.

However, Buckingham gives us an alternative reality to contemplate: that a good team member deliberately volunteers her strengths to the team the majority of the time.

A good team is built up of people who play to their individual strengths, and of people with different strengths that complement one another. In other words, teams should be well-rounded, but not individuals.

This is a concept that is easily understood and applied in the sports world, but not so much in the work world.

Step #2: Get clear on your strengths

Your strengths are those activities that you do consistently well at a very high level. These are usually a unique combination of your talents (what you find naturally find easy to do), your skills (what you have learned to do well) and your know-how.

There are four SIGNs of a strength:

1. Success: you find success wherever you use this trait.
2. Instinct: you feel drawn to do this activity on a regular basis.
3. Growth: you learn how to do it better very rapidly.
4. Needs: doing this seems to fulfill a need in your life.

In sum, your strengths are those things that make you feel strong and fulfilled when you do them. Conversely, you'll feel weak when you are doing things that are weaknesses.

However, most people are not in the habit of noticing whether or not an activity feels like a strength or a weakness.

So, for the next week or so, keep track of the activities that make you feel strong, and the activities that make you feel weak. Be as detailed as possible, especially when documenting the things that make you feel strong.

Once you've built up a good list of things that make you feel strong, look for connections between them to see if a theme comes out.

As an example, I feel strong when I learn something new that I think can help other people, and I teach it to them in a way they can understand quickly.

Once you understand what your strengths are, try and start structuring your weekly schedule to fit in as many of your strong activities as possible.

Step #3: Find ways to free your strengths

Now that you've identified your strengths, it's time to move on to applying them to your job.

Here, Buckingham suggests that we take a week to focus on activities that make you feel strong, and avoid the activities that make you feel weak.

As we go through the week, keep in mind the four sequential strategies we can use to FREE our strengths.

Focus: this step is to identify a specific strength, and how it helps us in our current role. Think about how you can use this strength more during your week.

Release: this step is about finding opportunities to apply your strengths in your current role. There are almost certainly places and times where you could apply your strengths, but you didn't see before because you weren't looking.

Educate: this step is about learning new skills and techniques that will make each of your strengths stronger.

Expand: this step is about building your job around your strengths. Luckily, most organizations are open to people doing their job more efficiently and effectively, which you can do by utilizing your strengths more often.

Once you've done this for a week, take stock and figure out how to integrate your strengths into your weekly routine moving forward.

This will most likely require you to spend some of your time planning your week. Find at least two strengths-based activities to put in your calendar so that they can't be pushed down the priority list.

This 15 minutes you'll spend each week planning to implement your strengths will be time well spent.

Step #4: Stop Your Weaknesses

Just like you need to be intentional about bringing more strength-based activities into your day, you also need to be intentional about getting rid of weakness-based activities.

There are 4 strategies you can use to STOP your weaknesses from getting in the way of your success.

Stop: First, you should consider stopping the activity from happening at all. If nobody seems to notice or care, you are off the hook.

Team Up: Second, partner up with somebody who likes doing the activity you hate. This is a classic win-win. One person's trash is another's treasure.

Offer: Third, use your strengths so regularly that you are seen as somebody who can offer those skills to the team rather than being known for your weaknesses.

Perceive: Fourth, if there are an weakness-based actives remaining, work on changing your perspective about them. Can you connect the work to a strength? Can you try doing it at a different time of day?

Step #5: Speak up

This section focusses on talking to others about your strengths and weaknesses.

The main idea in this step is that you should script the conversations you have in advance so that you can get the outcome you are looking for - in this case, allowing you to work more on your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

There are four conversions that you should consider having.

The Strengths Chat

This is a causal conversation designed to sharpen your conclusions about what your strengths are. It can be with your manager, or with a co-worker.

Here is a script you can use:

• Articulate a strength;
• Give a couple of examples of you applying the strength;
• Explain how the strength helps your performance.

Then, repeat those steps for another strength or two.

"The “How I Can Help You” Discussion"

This is a conversation that you will have with your manager.

Choose one of your strengths and tell your manager how you could utilize it on a specific project so that your team gets better results.

Then, ask for permission if you can increase the amount of time you spend working with that strength so you can improve your performance.

The Weakness Chat

This is a conversation you have with somebody who wants to see you succeed. In most cases that should include your manager, but not always.

• Articulate a weakness;
• Give a couple of examples of the weakness in action;
• Explain how the weakness decreases your performance.

Then, repeat those steps for another weakness or two.

The "How You Can Help Me” Discussion

This is a discussion you'll have with your manager, for the purpose of minimizing the work you do around your weaknesses.

Explain that you'd like to find a way to spend less time doing weakness-based activities so that you can find more time to do the strengths-based activities you identified in your previous discussion.

Make your suggestions, and then ask for your manager's feedback on them. Then, come up with a workable plan together to put your suggestions into action.

Step #6: Build Strong Habits

Once you've put yourself in the position to better utilize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses, you are in a much better place then when you started.

Now your job is to figure out how to keep making progress in that direction instead of slipping back into your old routine. There are five habits you can develop in order to get there.

Habit #1: Daily

Make it a daily habit to read through your strengths statements and your weakness statements. Keeping them fresh in your mind will ensure that you don't let weakness-based activities creep back in, and look for even more opportunities to utilize your strengths.

Habit #2: Weekly

Make it a weekly habit to create a "strong week" plan. Identify two ways you'll maximize your strengths in the coming week, and two ways you'll minimize your weaknesses.

Habit #3: Quarterly

Make it a quarterly habit to schedule a meeting with your boss and review the ways you've maximized your strengths in the previous quarter.

Identify three tangible achievements where you either harnessed a strength or minimized a weakness.

Just like a company "closes the books" on financial performance, you'll be doing the same for your strengths journey.

Habit #4: Twice Yearly

Make it a twice-yearly habit to go over your strengths in detail. Update your strengths and weaknesses statements. Seek out new assignments where you can apply your strengths.

Habit #5: Yearly

Finally, make it a yearly habit to evaluate your strengths systematically. Toss out your old strengths and weaknesses and start the process from scratch so that you get a fresh start every year.

You can use your old ones as a starting point, but there will likely be some clarifications as your understanding of your strengths and your weaknesses grow.

Conclusion

As we discussed at the beginning of the summary, this is a process you should do yourself.

And if you lead a team of people at work, encourage them to do the same.

Having a team of people who are all harnessing their strengths in the name of producing the results your team needs to produce is the only way to achieve peak performance.

This is your roadmap to get there.