Getting a Team to Leverage their Strengths to Collaborate

I was asked to enable a team to use their strengths to improve their collaboration as a team with the help of the CliftonStrengths assessment.  

Love that thought - especially since I'm a certified Strengths Strategy Coach.

This team were the leaders of R&D and had teams reporting in. So yes - their average experience per person would between 18 to 20 years.

The challenge - covering a lot of content along with reflection and discussions within a short time.  Specifically I was given a day, after a lot of negotiation. There's many dimensions to CliftonStrengths that have to covered before a participant is able to understand how strengths manifest, as well as how they can be triggered, unconsciously and consciously.  This is true for group settings as well as one-to-one strengths coaching.

The base workshop design was from my Signature Workshop "Decode your Strengths", and I included a lot of pre-work and post work - i.e. articles to read and exercises for self-reflection.

The participants were wonderful and invested their time to complete the pre-work assigned to them, in addition to completing the CliftonStrengths assessment.  Their participation during the workshop definitely enhanced the learning experience for everyone.

We covered the 34 Strengths, Great Wall of Talent, Theme Dynamics, how collaboration happens when weaknesses are negated by complementing strengths, and ended the day with short case studies of how strengths, when understood, can be used to manage different situations at work.

What's next? Practice and Reviews.  Let's see how they go.

Here's some of the action from the day.

Building the Top 5 Great Wall of Talent

The Great Wall of Talent

Creating the Team Domain Map

Do connect with me if you wish to build a Strengths-based Team or Organization that can use their strengths to effectively collaborate with each other.

The Recipe for Effective and Long-term Collaboration

Photo Credit: pexels-alexander-grey-1212407

Have you ever watched a movie with friends, and then later realize that each of you liked and disliked different parts of the same movie that you just saw together, at the same time in the same place?  A similar thing happens with real life people. Have you wondered what causes this difference of opinion? I am sure you noticed that this happens in other areas of life too, including the workplace.  Well, you are not alone in this.  Have a look at this snippet from the world of tennis.

From Facebook - "US Open 1981 final...who thought it would be their last match? McEnroe wrote in his book he could not motivate himself for 2 years after Borg quit. He tried to persuade Borg to comback. When Borg was in Chennai in Feb 2023,he was asked about his rivalry with John in a press meet. Borg recalled the interaction he had with McEnroe in 1982 and 1983. This is what Borg said.

"When I stepped away from the game, I was very young. I played an exhibition in Tokyo. John came to me and said, ‘You cannot stop playing tennis.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘No. Because I need you there!’ ‘But I don’t wanna play!"
“But he was always pushing me because I think, as long as I was there, he was pushing (himself). He liked it, he enjoyed it very much and that was very important for him. And he was very sad, disappointed. And he called me year later and said, ‘You sure you not going to come back to tennis again?’ ‘I’m sure. John. Listen, you do your things. I do my things.’

A similar sentiment was expressed by Freddie Mercury in the movie "Bohemian Rhapsody" when he said that while his solo career was successful, he missed the pushback from the Queen band members when they were writing songs. This pushback helped them deliver some of the best music that has stood the test of time.

If you think about it, this is not unusual at all. You would find this kind of team behaviour mentioned in the Storming, Norming and Performing stages of the Tuckman Stages of Group Development model. Every team tends to go through all the stages. Looking at the Storming stage, team members start to display more of their true selves and their differences while working together, which can lead to conflicts.  In the Norming stage, the team members have worked through their differences and establish some consensus (norms) about what and how things will be done.  There may still be disagreements, but are unlikely to derail the work.  In the Performing stage, the team members understand and accept each other better, enabling them to deliver great performance.  These stages aren't linear and team members are likely to revert to the earlier stages in case of new projects, disagreements or changes in leadership. As the leader or team member, the model will help you understand the stage that your team is in, thus enabling you to make relevant adjustments in your behaviour. You can read more details about the model here - https://hr.mit.edu/learning-topics/teams/articles/stages-development

I have seen this kind of scenario in other situations too. I've learnt that it's important because if you don't have someone who is good enough or better than you to work with, then you cannot improve more than what your mind comes up with.  We know that the seven colours of the rainbow combine to give us many more colours. Similarly, the mind gets it's ideas and inspiration from the points of view that are different / unique / contrary more than the homogeneous.

This absolutely drives home the need for interacting and being with people from diverse  ways of thinking.  We have diverse ways looking at the world and making our strengths come to life (i.e. using them) because we come from different homes, cultures, education, experiences and upbringing which have combined to give us a unique worldview.  This is a practice followed by masters through the ages. Most of the time, however, we're not fully aware that we're doing this.

Could this be because we tend to see things as we are, not as they exist in reality?

So, we must first accept that there are things we prefer to do and things we prefer to NOT do - not try to do everything.  NEXT we have to identify them. If we are able to identify and filter out some of the censorship that is invariably there (fear-driven, cautious behaviour from our Imposter Syndrome being a key culprit) that exists in our minds, we give ourselves the opportunity of asking "why not" or "how about" and exploring possibilities while experimenting with different ways of doing things.  You will find your tasks / work sparking into experiences filled with fresh learning and success.

As a strengths strategy coach, I help teams understand each other's strengths and weaknesses and enable them to build the necessary synergy (and engagement) for creating magic at work.  I use PRISM Brainmapping Inventory or the CliftonStrengths assessment as a primary aid for this.

If you want to know how to get your team to collaborate by complementing each other's weaknesses with their strengths, write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call on +91982155778.

 

Leadership Authenticity Starts With Knowing Yourself

Here's a must read article if you want to develop yourself as an "Authentic Leader".

From the article - "Authentic leaders are always investing in strengths -- their own strengths as well as those of their followers." 

When you think about it, you realize that trying to fix weaknesses wastes time, causes unhappiness, dissatisfaction and disengagement, and building on strengths can accelerate growth while having a positive energy experience.

Read the rest of the article here

Vigilant Leaders: Paying Attention to What Matters Most

Fascinating read on how leaders have to be vigilant.

From the article- "What manager has not said at some point, “My plate is full” and proceeded to ignore a signal of a potential problem that they later regret."

Read the article here

Who are you, really?

I came across this superb song on YouTube some years ago.  It made me reflect a lot on what I was doing, why, for whom, and so on. 

Recently, it showed up again on my playlist.  The reflection started again.  These lines made me rethink what I am focusing on in my life and my work.  I gave some focused thought to my strengths and whether I was actually using them at work and at home. How am I being perceived when I do this? Am I fully aware of myself? Is there something for me to let go? Add on? Continue doing? 

What next for me? Perhaps a little more clarity on who I am, what I do....

You can listen to it here.

Leave a comment and let me know what you came up for you after you heard the song, or maybe just read these words on the picture.

Don’t bother working on weaknesses. Success lies in playing to strengths

This article is why I use Strengths in my work as a career transition coach and as a trainer / facilitator. 

Here's a line from that article:

"Encouraging a focus on knowing and building strengths is the route to a vibrant, happy workforce giving their best."

On a personal note:

Too often I have seen talented people stuck in roles that are not aligned with their strengths.  They are in their current career / job, because they were guided by someone who had their best interests and safety at hear. They are not at their most liveliest during the interview.  They seem to be going through the motions at work.  They're reluctant to make a transition to the career that is better aligned with their strengths, perhaps because of loans to pay, fear of the unknown, or fear of what people will say.

You might say - but we all have weaknesses, and we can't really say no if our work involves that.  

That's true.  What you can do is understand the weaknesses they have that matter in relation to the job in hand, and see how it can be complemented by a colleague's strengths - AND vice-versa.

Read the details in article here.

To know more how to leverage your strengths, please view my articles:

Strengths-based Career Conversations

Setting Your Goalsetting Conversation

9 Critical Aspects to consider when setting goals

How do I develop my Strengths?

And I am NOT! - How to leverage your strengths for Resilience?

Why 'Any Job' will not be appropriate for you?

Article: Moving from Powerlessness to Possibility

 If you’re feeling powerless and just a little helpless right now, join the crowd!  It’s a normal human response to a globally impacting, life-altering situation you have never before encountered.  Especially one that involves so much loss of life and so many unknowns.

The good news, however, is that just because you’re feeling powerless, it doesn’t mean you are.  You can shift from powerlessness to possibility.  Here is the simplest way to make such a monumental shift.

The Grand Canyon leap starts the moment you realize that focusing on what’s happening will only get you more frustrated and more stuck.  That’s because what you see creates your feelings, actions, and outcomes, including your way of being.  As you can see from the figure shown here, blaming your negativity on what’s happening means giving away the biggest power you have available to you: to choose the vantage point from which you will respond. 

Psychologists call this “framing.” It’s is a fancy way of saying that you can change the way you look at something.  After all, whatever you look for you will find.

Paul Dunn puts it another way.  He says:

“Only the view from where you sit will make you fear defeat –

Life is full of many aisles, why don’t you change your seat?”

His words are amusing, but you might appreciate a little help translating them to something a bit more concrete.  To this end, here are three possible frames you might consider as you search for a new “seat” from which to take in this COVID-19 crisis:

1. Gratitude frame.  Rather than being worried about what is happening, every day look for one or two things to be appreciative of: “I’m so inspired by the way people of all backgrounds are coming together to try to make a difference.”  Or, “What are the gifts that seem to be coming from this?”
2. Learning frame.  Instead of getting caught up with what isn’t happening, or what someone else should do, ask yourself: “What can I learn from what’s happening?”  Or, “How might this help me in the future?”
3. Service frame.  When you get wrapped up in yourself, you just get more uptight and anxious.  However, the moment you find someone else to serve, your feelings, actions and outcomes turn on a dime.  Start with: “Who can I encourage today?”  Or, “What needs am I aware of and can help with?”

When you shift your attention from what’s wrong to what’s possible you will turn powerlessness into possibility, and frustration into fulfillment.  Even when the situation hasn’t changed, you will have. 

This article has been written by DeAnna Murphy – the founder and CEO of People Acuity and principal author of Shift Up! Strengths Strategies for Optimal Living and Choose to See You – in collaboration with co-thought leaders, Lisa Gregory and Steve Jeffs. It includes information about Interdependent Leadership, which starts with helping leaders lead themselves more effectively.  DeAnna is a Top 100 Global Coaching Leader who has provided keynotes and leadership development experiences in 32 countries.  For more information about how you can lead yourself (and others) out of powerlessness and into proactive possibilities, click here.

For the more curious folk, DeAnna was the one who taught me about Strengths philosophy and CliftonStrengths

9 Critical Aspects to consider when Setting Goals in the Organization.

Goal Photo by Markus Winkler from pexels-markus-winkler-4052198

We're nearing the end of the calendar year. New Years Resolutions and new goals are going to be set.  These goals will hopefully make us happy and improve the quality of our life - conditions apply.

I have just finished reading the book 'Flow' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which is about how to achieve happiness (Is Happiness on your Goalsheet?). One of the essential requirements is to set goals for yourself that test and stretch your skills, strengths and talents (psst... not your weaknesses).  I am not benefiting from the book sales in any way, but please do read it, as it will give you really good insights.

You have to set goals to get ahead in life.  This is true enough, but really no one tells you how to do this.

Then you are also told to find your passion or purpose. Again, no one can really say exactly how this is to be done.

Sometimes, goals get confused with purpose.  Here's a superbly lucid distinction I found by Prof. David Clutterbuck, who said

"The difference between Purpose and Goals is as follows: 

    Purpose  = envisaging the world we want to live in and our role in bringing it about.
    Goals      = the actions and decisions that will help to create that world."

So effectively, there are three challenges about setting goals:

1. How to define and set goals.
2. How to ensure that your goals serve (align with) your purpose.
3. How to ensure that working on your goals will give you satisfaction and joy.

This is a bigger problem if you happen to be a manager or leader and have to set goals for others.  When it comes to setting goals for others, especially in the corporate world, goals are handed down because you hold a particular position that is based on your  job description.  There is little, if any, discussion about the 'how' of the goal.

Here are my thoughts about setting goals (whether setting them for yourself or your team / organization):

	Question	Why this matters?
1)	What is the "why" for the goal to exist?	You are committing scarce and expensive resources to an activity that is expected to bring some benefit to the organization.
2)	How exactly is the goal being defined?	Will the goal be understood in the same clarity and context as when it was set?
3)	How is the goal being measured?  How will we all know when or if the goal is achieved?  Where and what do we have to look at in order to know this?	These are critical for course correction during our journey to the goal, otherwise there is a strong chance that we will miss our goal. We don't really want to be like Christopher Columbus.
4)	What are the various steps required to accomplish the goal?  How much control does the employee have on these steps?	Goals are comprised of complex tasks and sub-tasks.  To execute each task successfully and within deadlines means supporting the employee a great deal, especially in the areas where they don’t have control on outcomes.   An awareness of this helps us understand whether the goal being assigned is realistic (particularly under stringent timelines) or not.
5)	Are these steps / sub-tasks of the goals aligned with the employee's strengths?	Let’s take an example – if an employee is assigned a customer interfacing role, but has great skills in analytics and doesn't enjoy people interactions very much, that employee is doomed to both failure and frustration on the job.  Because of this, the manager will also fail in achieving his goals, along with a host of other complications, not to mention possible loss of customers.   When the tasks are aligned to the employee’s strengths, there is research showing that there will be superlative performance and the employee will be more engaged at work.
6)	How much impact / influence is expected from external factors (current and future), including business & political environment, on the accomplishment of these goals?	This is about awareness of market sensitivities and their possible impact on your customers (current and potential) or suppliers / vendors or both. If we can anticipate these correctly, how flexible are we / can we be to take advantage and ride these waves towards meeting our goals?
7)	Does the employee have any control on        these factors?  If so, to what degree can they influence or impact these factors to get an effective outcome?	Here's another example: If the employees requires some software upgrades or some approvals which would improve their productivity, then the longer they are without it, the longer it will take them work effectively to reach their goals. When you make an employee responsible for achieving goals where they have no control on the factors affecting the goals, then you end up creating frustrated employees. These employees will either leave the organization, which is not a good situation, or will stay and turn toxic, which is terrible for the other employees.
8)	What support can the immediate manager and the leadership team provide to the employee to achieve these zero-target goals?  How will they ensure that they will provide     the support sufficiently in time?	This follows from the above question especially since it is unlikely that all employees have control on their budgets. As a leader / manager, your success is tied to your teams successes and the same applies to failures - yours and theirs.  It would be strange to get a high rating for yourself as the HOD and rate people in the team as low.  This is your best opportunity to build trust with your team.
9)	Will this support be included in the         immediate manager and leadership teams' goalsheets? What will be the criteria for measuring this goal here?	This tends to get missed out in many leaders and managers.  If asked, you can be told that it is implied and doesn't need to be explicitly stated.  Also, just stating it without saying how it will be evaluated is ineffective.  This needs to jointly brainstormed for clear articulation.  I think articulation of this will help to develop a robust organization and department, else why make that person manage a team?

As you can see, these questions can be used to analyze and review any types of goals, including zero-target goals.

You might say "aside from the time involved, I'm not fully sure how to go about doing this". Here's the thing - to really do this well, we're going to need other skills like 

• Research, 
• Analysis, 
• Teamworking,
• Articulation, 
• Influencing.  

You may also need a coach or a consultant along with some of your colleagues to help you walk this journey.

The bad news - you may not have all these skills up to the required ability within yourself.  

The good news - you may find them within your team members.  

This is how you get your weaknesses to complement your colleague's strengths.  

When you use your strengths to support someone who has a weakness where you have a strength; and they do the same for you, then you are collaborating effectively while engaging as a well-knit team.

By the way, I'm sure you realize that these skills are required on the personal front, whether you are buying a house, making weekend plans, vacation, hosting a party, and so on.  I'll be happy to assist you in setting your goals and making 2022 your year to shine. Write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com to set up a meeting or call me +91-9820155778 for an appointment.

I wish you all the best in making 2022 a productive and goal completion year.

Using Clifton Strengths as a Filter / Lens to see the world

Here's an excellent article that will help you gain more clarity about your strengths.  This is also a part of what I learnt during my Strengths Strategy Coach Certification.  My teacher and strengths mentor, DeAnna Murphy, and her team at Strengths Strategy (People Acuity) had created a Strengths Lens tool, among many other tools to help coaches like me work with our clients.

Just another reminder for me about why I chose to become a Strengths Strategy Coach.

Read the article here

Want to understand your unique lens of viewing the world? Contact me here or at +919820155778 for an appointment.

The problem with trying to standardize Performance Methods

 We're not in the Industrial Age anymore.  We're asking people to do much more than operate a machine / desktop / laptop.  We're asking them to use their intelligences (all of them).  

So trying to standardize a performance method is doomed. 

Your thoughts.

Coaching to be HRBP

Does this quote resonate with you?

Want to be coached / mentored into become the best HR Business Partner?

Write to me here or at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call me on +919820155778.

My Igniting Performance Certification

 Another new certification I obtained is the Love Your Work: Igniting Performance and Energy from #PeopleAcuity - A Strengths Strategy Company.  Strengths Strategy Inc is where I studied for my Strengths Strategy Coach Certification.  

It was easy to decide to sign up for this course, because it also ties in with my work to help my clients improve their performance.  I wasn't disappointed.  I liked the course and the exercises of self-reflection were really powerful.

Doing this course has uncovered new insights for me in improving my own performance and the performance of my clients, especially those who want to design a career based on their strengths.  Thanks @DeannaMurphy for this amazing course.

My Interview with TopTalk on Performance Management.

As a Strengths Strategy Coach and trainer who aims to enhance the performance of my clients, I was happy to be interviewed by GroSum's Top Talk for my views and experiences in #performancemanagement .

Have a look. I'd be glad if you leave a comment and share with your network.

https://grosum.com/topTalk/ryan-barretto-strength-strategy-coach-facilitator-situational-leadership-and-corporate-trainer-hr-consultancy/

Talent-based thinking patterns during COVID-19 challenge

I came across this extremely apt and wonderful description by Dries Lombaard of the 34 strengths of the CSF (Clifton Strengthsfinder) - i.e. how each strength will manifest / react during #stress situations, like the current #coronavirus pandemic.

Here's a sample:

Achiever – “There goes my to-do list, at least working from home can be more productive.”

Arranger – “I will simply re-organize myself.”

Belief – “Working from home, closer to my family…yeah!”

Consistency – “Let me check on the policy and procedure regarding working from home.”

Deliberative – “I already prepared for this, I knew the risks.”

Click the link below to read more:

Strengths behaviours during coronavirus

When Top Performers Collaborate

The ability of an organization's employees to collaborate effectively will provide superlative performance for the organization.


Have you wondered how some teams of Top Performers deliver extraordinary performance, and some deliver barely adequate performance?

I have been thinking on this for a long while now.  It started with football (soccer) where I watched a team of stars being shut out by an team of fairly decent players.  This was when Greece won the Euro Cup in 2004 by defeating a much stronger Portugal in the finals.  This was surprising since Greece was not expected to be in the finals in the first place, because they're not a team that's really well known for highly talented football players.  As you may be aware, such cases in sports are deeply analyzed and dissected in order to find out what went right or wrong during said match.  Lots is written about how they won, and why they won, and I won't repeat any of that.

I was also reminded of time when I was playing carrom (click for the rules if you're interested) in college with an extremely accomplished partner.  We were both considered to be among the best players in college.  Whenever we played as partners, we initially lost more often than we won.  We soon realized that these losses were because we waited for each other to pocket the pieces and attempted difficult shots, rather than do it ourselves.  Once we realized this, we quickly ensured that we took care of what was within our range instead of leaving coins for each other to pocket.  It made a tremendous difference to the number of games we won as a team. We reached second place in our college championships.

Both these examples helped me realize that top performers can get in their own way of achieving success, despite executing well-intentioned efforts.

More recently, I came across this video (which blew my mind) on YouTube where a few top rock guitar players did a cover of the Game of Thrones theme song, and actually made me think about writing this article.  Here's the original theme for comparison.

In the corporate world as an HR professional, performance management and people development are of key interest to me. I often wondered why someone did well for a few months, and then was fairly average, sometimes mediocre during others, and bounced back.  I realized that in organizations, there is rarely one single right answer to questions of performance or non-performance. While we tend to laud the individual performer, s/he would be nowhere (or extremely burned out) without a set of teams with whom he collaborates. For eg. even the sales performer needs a team from marketing, operations, finance and HR to help him / her deliver both his / her goals and theirs.  There are also external indirect teams of vendors and franchises that help drive success.  All of them may or may not be top performers

From the examples above, I have tried to dissect what it is that top performers do when they collaborate together so that they create something magical.  Here's what I came up with (I know this formula can work in the corporate world too):

1. They bring their A game to the fore.  They lead with their strengths.
2. They do their homework, and practice regularly (Deliberate Practice).
3. They listen to each other so deeply, that the handover from one person to another is seamless, effortless and hardly noticed by onlookers.
4. They keep newcomers briefed on their purpose as a group and what they expect as a contribution from the newcomer, without telling them what to do, allowing them to improvise and be creative.
5. They keep track of what each other is doing so that they pitch in, adding their own style, and making the entire track sound much better.
6. They are able to do all of this because they know what each one is capable of, what their styles are and are willing to allow each other to shine.  Simply put, they know each others' strengths and weaknesses, because they have shared these things with each other.

What should a leader do to get their top performers to collaborate?

1. Give them a clear brief on outcomes and timelines.
2. Give them necessary resources and listen to their requests.
3. Get out of their way.When you combine employees' strengths with a performance system based on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), the levels of collaboration will accelerate and you will find quality output.

If you want to improve the effectiveness of your team's ability to collaborate or manage conflict, let me know by writing to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or calling at +919820155778 to set up a meeting / call.

Talent = Competence X Commitment X Contribution

This extraordinary equation came from this article by the HR Guru, Mr. Dave Ulrich.

This was extremely intriguing for me because of my work with strengths and the Clifton Strengthsfinder.  I was reminded of this excellent equation from that phenomenal body of work:

This equation shows how talent is converted into a strength.

Mr. Ulrich's equation says that Talent is an outcome of competence, commitment, and contribution of the individual.

We also use a familiar phrase to describe someone's ability in a particular task as "he / she is quite talented in "XYZ".  So we are actually commenting on the outcome of investment (in the form of contribution of deliberate practice & commitment) and raw talent (Competence). The difference is the nomenclature viz. Talent and Strength.

For me personally, a talent is an unrealized strength, which is yet to be developed and applied effectively. Deliberate Practice (the term created by K. Anders Ericsson), over a period of time, are key requirements for converting a talent to a strength. That's my specialty as a Strengths Strategy Coach - helping my clients (career transition and executive coaching) understand how the 34 Strengths from Clifton Strengthsfinder manifest in their everyday lives as behaviours, and thereafter, how to build them up and consciously call them when we need them.

Working with your strengths is a smart choice as it ensures that you have a more satisfied life, especially if your career is built on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses.

In an organizational context, this means that you and your colleagues are able to collaborate better with each other, simply because people know what you are strong and weak at, and you know the same about them. A lot of time, energy and cost is saved in this manner, especially if you link this to the performance management system of OKR (Objectives and Key Results).

What do you think?

P.S. - If you would like to try merging OKRs with Strengths, call me at +919820155778 or write me a note at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com so that we can schedule a discussion.

Book Presentation - Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

Pleased to share some feedback received from the session. Feels really good to receive this especially since I had only 180 minutes time.

I'm happy to be presenting the book hashtag#Strengthsfinder 2.0 at the Book Loversclub at Mumbai. This will be fun. Thanks to Binda Kanayalkar and Arun Vishwanath - CPF, CPC, PCC from The Trainers Forum for this opportunity. hashtag#behaviors hashtag#strengthsstrategy hashtag#books