Strengths Based Leadership: Leveraging Talent for Organizational Outcomes

1. Strengths Based Leadership: Leveraging Talent for Organizational Outcomes Laurie K. Baedke, FACHE, CMPE President LIFEworks Healthcare Group, Inc. Nebraska Optometric Association Fall Convention 2011 September 23, 2011

2. Good drivers

3. Good drivers

4. Traditional Business Methods • We can only cut so much • We can only restructure so often • Our competitive advantage will only take us so far The main goal of building a strengths-based organization is to drive higher financial and operational metrics, higher employee engagement, and higher patient loyalty.

5. Leveraging Outcomes from a strengths based model How can knowing your own strengths improve overall performance? • Contributes to your individual engagement • Positively influences your relationships with your peers, direct reports, patients • Creates a common language around people’s strengths • Supports great people staying with the organization For all of these reasons, building on the strengths of those around you creates success for the individual as well as the organization

6. Why Focus on Strengths? The best-led organizations know that the direct path to individual, team, and organizational strengths begins with a primary investment in their employees’ greatest talents. Find what’s naturally right with your people, and build on it.

7. Why Focus on Strengths?

8. Why Focus on Strengths? All organizations seek to perform with strength. To get there, many follow conventional wisdom: Focus on fixing weaknesses. Find what’s wrong with your people, and try to correct it. Unfortunately, that “wisdom” leaves the organization struggling on the path to mediocrity.

9. Why Focus on Strengths? • Speed • People operating from strength learn the role faster and adapt to more variance in the role quicker. • Productivity and Precision • People operating from strength produce significantly more at higher quality. • Sustainability • People operating from strength stay longer, miss less work, and build stronger customer relationships.

10. Matching Strengths to Engagement “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday” …of the 1.7 million workers Gallup asked in 63 countries, what % strongly agree with this statement?

11. Matching Strengths to Engagement “At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday” …of the 1.7 million workers Gallup asked in 63 countries, what % strongly agree with this statement?

12. Matching Strengths to Engagement What happens when a person is not operating from strength? He or she is quite simply less fulfilled and less effective. In the workplace, an employee is SIX times less likely to be engaged in the role.

13. Engagement Effect – Focus on Strengths

14. Engagement Effect – Focus on Strengths My Supervisor Focuses on My Strengths and Positive Characteristics Engaged Not Engaged Actively Disengaged

15. Matching Strengths to Engagement A person not able to use his or her strengths at work probably: • dreads going to work • has more negative than positive interactions with coworkers • treats customers poorly • tells friends he or she works for a miserable organization • achieves less on a daily basis • has fewer positive and creative moments

16. Expectations of Strengths Based Leaders Effective development strategies begin with each individual’s mastery of self and then moves through to others. Drive Business Results By Being A Strengths Based Leader

17. Five Clues to Talent • Yearning • To what kinds of activities are you naturally drawn? • Rapid Learning • What kinds of activities do you seem to pick up quickly? • Flow • In what activities do the “steps” just come naturally to you? When have you gotten so absorbed in a process or activity that you completely lost track of time and surroundings? • Glimpses of Excellence • During what activities have you had moments of subconscious excellence, when you thought, “How did I do that?” • Satisfaction • What activities give you a kick, either while doing them of immediately after finishing them, and you think, “When can I do that again?”

18. Think About It…. Recall a time when someone highlighted your weaknesses. How did you feel? In that moment, what was your capacity to encourage or increase the engagement of another person? Recall a time when someone highlighted one of your strengths. How did you feel? In that moment, what was your capacity to encourage or increase the engagement of another person? Based on your own experiences, what conclusions do you draw about a focus on weaknesses as opposed to a focus on strengths?

19. A new definition of a weakness… A weakness is a lack of knowledge, skill or talent that negatively affects your performance or that of others. Because a weakness will prevent you or others from performing with strength, it must be managed or mitigated. Based on this new definition, by stating “my weakness is golf”, “my weakness is singing”, “my weakness is public speaking”, or “my weakness is delegating”, these only constitute a weakness if your performance | success is dependent on your ability to golf, sing, speak to large groups, or delegate every day. If you must do these things to be successful, they must be managed. This is where one or more of the Seven Strategies may be useful.

20. Seven Ways to Manage Weaknesses and Sharpen Strengths…. • Open communication and transparency • Leverage other talents • Use support systems • Set reasonable expectations and then just do it • Get the right training • Form complementary partnerships • Adjust or change roles | employers | careers

21. Signature Strengths

22. Strengths Based Leadership Research The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team. While the best leaders are not necessarily well-rounded, the best teams are.

23. Potential Return on Investment Retention Employees leave managers, not organizations Strengths-based environments are a catalyst to focus on right vs. wrong

24. Potential Return on Investment Leaders manage to talent Research shows higher performance through focusing on strengths

25. Potential Return on Investment Increased productivity Engagement produces a desire to do more of what I like and with higher degrees of quality

26. Potential Return on Investment Increased awareness of talent in action Recognition on maximizing what is right vs. focus on fixing what is wrong

27. Potential Return on Investment Higher engagement over time Growth from individualized foundation means greater improvement

28. Potential Return on Investment Exceed overall performance expectations and achieve powerful organizational outcomes: • higher productivity and retention • increased patient loyalty • greater physician engagement • positive organizational culture

29. Laurie K. Baedke, FACHE, CMPEPresidentLIFEworks Healthcare Group, Inc.1150 Westridge DriveBlair, NE 68008402.680.3311baedke@elifeworks.com www.lauriebaedke.com/blog