Do You Develop Managers Using a “Strengths” Approach?

The StrengthsFinder approach has gained quite a bit of (deserved) traction in the corporate arena – in fact, it was the “Now, Discover Your Strengths” book that has shaped my entire approach to business and career consulting.

But some companies seem to take a “one-and-done” approach – an assessment and/or workshop to identify strengths, but little or no pull-through shaping how people understand their own styles, and manage their teams.

In particular, first line sales managers often struggle to effectively build teams, coach their reps, and increase overall engagement. We provide the standard coaching and management training – but does it work well?

In my mind, strengths assessment joined to a long-term, personalized, sustained leadership approach seems optimal – but is anyone actually doing this? This gets beyond isolated training events, into strategic culture change (see Gallup article on 12 Elements of Engagement).

If you’re using StrengthFinders (effectively, or maybe NOT effectively yet!) for management/leadership development in a biopharma company, I’d love to discuss it with you. Shoot me an e-mail at AskSteve@impactiviti.com and let’s compare notes.