What To Do If Your Team Is Missing Strengths

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In the best case scenario, you’d have a strong team, comprised of individuals who covered the gamut of the 34 Strengthsfinder Strengths. In real life, this rarely happens, particularly with smaller teams.

Let’s take a look at what you should do if your team is missing strengths…

Start By Assessing Your Team’s Strengths
This might seem like a given, but many managers skip this step: Start by assessing the strengths of each of your team members and charting them. Have all of your team members take the StrengthsFinder® test, and chart their top 5 strengths.

Chart Strengths By Domain
When you chart the top strengths of your team members, separate them into the 4 domains of StrengthsFinder®.

Relationship Building Strengths: Relationship Builders® make people connections, hold teams together and create groups that are much greater than the sum of their parts.

Influencing Strengths: Influencers® take charge, speak up, make sure the team is heard, help the team reach a broader audience, and sell the team’s ideas inside and outside the organization.

Executing Strengths: Executers® implement solutions, make things happen, and turn ideas into reality.

Strategic Thinking Strengths: Strategic Thinkers® expand the team’s thinking about what could be and analyze and synthesize information to help the team make better decisions.

Hopefully, even if your team is some of the 34 strengths, they won’t be missing any domains.

Reach Out To Other Teams Or Managers
If you are missing specific strengths (or domains) that are vital to the successful completion of a project or task, consider reaching out to colleagues or managers from other departments. You can repay the favor in future collaborations by lending one of your team members to another project.

Bring In Help From Outside The Organization
You could also bring in a contractor, advisor, or consultant to fill a missing strengths gap – temporarily or permanently. It’s better to address the shortfall proactively, rather than struggle throughout the project. Bringing in someone with a key strength early on in the project could mean the difference between success and failure.

Hire New Team Members
If your team is missing a strength that would be helpful for a variety of projects, you could hire a new team member that excels at what you need. It’s important to note, however, that if you plan to use StrengthsFinder® for pre-employment screening, you need to give the test to all candidates, at the same point in the hiring process.

Plan Ahead By Considering Strengths
As a final tip, to consistently ensure success, it’s helpful to plan ahead before each project. By assessing the strengths of each of your team members as they relate to the project, you’ll be less likely to be caught off-guard midway through completion.

For more information about how to effectively use StrengthsFinder® when your team is missing strengths, call Ann Strong at (720) 312-8737 or e-mail contact@strengthscoachingandtraining.com.

Ann Strong has more than 25 years of coaching and training experience and 14 years experience with StrengthsFinder®. She works from Denver, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico and remotely with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Check out these resources for team building with StrengthsFinder®:
Team Building For Remote Teams: How To Use StrengthsFinder®
How To Build A Team Around Strengths
What Are The Top Strengths That Make A Good Team
How To Resolve Team Conflict With StrengthsFinder®
What To Do If Your Team Doesn’t Want To Take StrengthsFinder®
How To Use StrengthsFinder® To Assign Projects And Roles
How To Use StrengthsFinder® For Pre-Employment Screening
How To Onboard New Team Members Using StrengthsFinder®
Why Hire A StrengthsFinder® Trainer For Team Building
StrengthsFinder®: Train The Trainer

Gallup®, CliftonStrengths®, StrengthsFinder® and each of the 34 CliftonStrengths® are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.