The Results From Management Strong Stuff
Strength impoverishment in our workplaces.
by David Zinger
Assessing the poverty of strengths in the workplace. Here are the results from my latest management strength survey.
- 55% of people have had no strength training
- 18% of participants spent less than 1/5 of their day using their strengths
- only 9% of participants spent over 4/5ths of their day using their strengths.
- 28% of respondents report being able to spend beyond 60% of their time using their strengths.
- only 3 out of 10 managers are working from their strengths a majority of the time.
Actual strengths. The list of their greatest strength at work was somewhat vague. Communication, organization, problem solving, and knowledge were most frequently cited strengths. I believe managers would benefit from more detail and a sharper focus on their strengths (see the list of strengths listed at the end of this post).
My two favorite strength responses were: Making complexity comprehensible and sleeping through the noise!
Conclusion. We still have a long way to go to create a strength based workplace.
Here is the data from the the survey composed of 122 responses.
Question 1: Have you ever received training in assessing, knowing, and applying your strengths at work?
- 55.8% of the respondent have not had any training while 44.2% had at least some training in strengths.
Question 2. What percentage of the working day do you use your strengths at work?
- 18% spent less that 1/5 of their day using their strengths
- 18% spent between 1/5 to 2/5ths of their day on strengths
- 36% spent between 2/5ths and 3/5ths of their day using their strengths
- 19% spent 3/5ths to 4/5ths of their day on strengths
- 9% spent over 4/5th of their day using their strengths
Question 3. What is your greatest strength at work? (the list is in alphabetical order as provided by the participants in the survey.
ability to make decisions
Ability to Solve Problems.
Adaptability
analysis
analysis: finding patterns
Analytical Thinking
Analytics
Analyzing
calculations
calm
Calming people down to get to the root of a problem
coding
Commitment to get the job done right
common sense
communicating complex information
communicating requirements
communication
communication
communication
Communication
Communication
Communication skills
communication?
Course of Action Analysis / Planning
Creativity/Problem solving
customer relations
deadline work
decision making
Direct Work
don’t know
Employee Relations
Enabling people to understand their strengths and how to use them
encouragement and leadership
Excel skills
EXPERIENCE
Finding Solutions and Strategic Planning
Focus
Going home on time
Humor
humour
innovation
Integration of Ideas
interpersonal skills
intimidation
justice
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
knowledge
knowledge of product
Lateral Thinking
Leadership
Leadership
leadership
leading groups in short-term goals - and as a musician
listening
Listening
Listening
listening
Logical Analysis
Making complexity comprehensible
Manage by walking around
management
managing
Multi-tasking
My focus on the needs of the customers
Organisation
organization
organization
Organization
Organization
Patience
Patience
patiences
perspective
planning design
positive attitude
Priority Setting
proactivity
problem solving
problem solving
Problem solving
problem solving
problem solving
Problem-solving
Process Improvement
procrastination
promoting other people’s strengths
Relating to people at their level to help them develop
relationship building
relationship mgmt
sales
seeing a problem & starting the process of root cause solution implementation
seeing how things can be done
SEO
SEO
setting priorities
simplifying
sizing up people
sleeping through the noise
speed
Strategy
team building
Technical Depth
Technology
Technology
tenacity
Too many to name
Troubleshooting
Understanding people
unknown
Vision
What conclusions or thoughts do you have after looking at these “strong results?”
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POSTED IN: David Zinger, leadership, management, productivity, self management
8 opinions for The Results From Management Strong Stuff
csbmonkney
Jun 12, 2008 at 6:24 am
Very nice, although I raised my eyebrow at “sizing up people” as a strength. :)
I also liked the two you mentioned, partially because the former is one of my own and I really never had a good, short phrase like that for it.
“Knowledge” is indeed a strength. It is fascinating to me how many people do not put any monetary value of the knowledge of their employees. I am in the middle of a project now to just now get a knowledge base off the ground. Sounds standard, I know, until you realize it is an IT group with 12 Help Desk members spread across a geographical are in a city. Our managers have never thought capturing and then sharing that knowledge with each other is important. Very scary.
Others on the list I like: humor, going home on time, my focus on the needs of the customer [a basic ITIL philosophical position], tenacity, innovation, Analytical Thinking, Calming people down to get to the root of a problem [I bet that an IT worker submitted that], Integration of Ideas.
The ones I don’t like:
*Manage by walking around - If you manage people, let me tell you, they probably hate that and won’t tell you.
*Multi-Tasking - This can be ok, but it can also turn into doing a lot of things in a mediocre manner. I reviewed my own multi-tasking and found I was unhappy with my outcomes, so I have tried harder NOT to do it.
*Too many to name - HA!
Big Think mobile edition
Jun 12, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[…] Manager has linked to a survey on whether people are given ’strength-training’ at work; that is, are trained to improve their strengths and use them more […]
David Zinger
Jun 12, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I appreciated the comments on strength and the various responses.
nicnaimless
Jun 12, 2008 at 7:12 pm
It’s great to see folks noticing the need to focus on strengths in the work place.
I just quit my $50,000/ year management job at Lowe’s for pure entrepreneurship. Much of my ambition came after an in depth study of my strengths. And a layoff from Circuit City.
Two of my top resources were “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Marcus Buckingham and “The 4 Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss. Both incredible books.
I’d predict that the hourly wage model will dramatically decrease in popularity as the days pass. Of the 120+ associates I worked with at Lowe’s, only a hand full truly enjoyed what they were doing day in and day out. The rest were riding the clock doing as little as possible. The amount of sick calls were outrageous.
Well I’m not going to be miserable working for others. I’m going to make it on my own. Better yet, I’m going to flourish on my own. And document the entire process at http://www.BeeMore.com.
Most people think I’m a little crazy. I think they are nuts for allowing themselves to do something they hate everyday for the next forty years.
My Strengths from Strengths Finder:
Adaptability
Connectedness
Woo
Restorative
Activator
Peace and grace to you.
Sincerly,
Nicnaimless
David Zinger
Jun 12, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Nicnaimless:
I appreciate your specific and concrete outline of strengths. I got the buzz to Beemore!
David
Scott
Jun 13, 2008 at 2:53 am
Management in my organization would rather downplay people’s strengths and prey on people’s weaknesses - for the convenance of politics - or in other words “disfunctional.”
From everything that I have read regarding managment and leadership (and that is from 20+ books) my organization does the opposite!
At least when I leave this Bizzarro place I will know what NOT to do as a manager and leader!
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