Strengthscope™, developed and published in the UK by Strength Partnership, is one of the leading strengths assessment tools that creates awareness for individuals, teams and organisations to build, use and optimise performance and engagement at work. JvR distributes the instrument and offer accreditation training to psychology professional, HR specialists and coaches.
The assessment can be used in various settings, i.e. coaching, mentoring and individual and team development. Strength focused human resources delivers measurable return on investments in terms of hard results and increased revenues and reduced costs as well as “lead” indicators of future success such as customer engagement, improved morale, discretionary effort and wellness. In 2009, management consultant, Marcus Buckingham, commented that: “Years of research prove that individuals and teams playing to their strengths significantly outperform those who don’t in almost every business metric” Outlined below are but a few of the results of major published studies of which highlight the importance of strengths focused human resources and positive behaviour.
Inspiring, Transformational Leadership
Studies have found that leaders who exhibit more positive emotion and behaviour are more likely to be rated as demonstrating transformational leadership behaviours including inspiring others and demonstrating more consideration and empathy for followers. Leaders’ expressions of position emotions have been found to arouse positive emotions in others; followers tend to emulate their leaders’ positive energy and enthusiasm. Similarly, leaders’ displays of negative emotion can cause followers to feel and display negative emotions, undermining morale and motivation. Source: Barsade and Gibson, 2007
Stronger teamwork and supportive behaviour
In a research project undertaken at Toyota's North American Parts Centre in California involving over 400 employees of 54 work teams, a strengths-based team intervention with the objective of building effective work teams contributed a 6-9% increase in productivity per employee over a one year period. This was achieved against a backdrop of productivity improvements of less than 1% over the previous three years. Researchers have also found that employees who experience positive moods at work are more likely to be helpful and supportive towards their colleagues. They are not only willing to put in extra effort to get their own job done to a higher standard, but are also more likely to help others out, going beyond the requirements of their job description. Source: Connelly, 2002; Barsade and Gibson, 2007
Improved health, lower illness and absenteeism
Studies show that people who are more optimistic and find positive meaning in adverse events live longer, overcome problems in less time, are half as likely to become depressed and have more successful relationships/marriages. Personal resilience, or the ability to bounce-back from setbacks and cope with day-to-day hassles/stressors, has also been found to contribute significantly to psychological well-being and health. Source: Frederickson, 2003; Gottman, 1994; Jit-Ho, 2007
Please feel free to contact Sandra to find out more about Strengthscope™ and related products.
