Identifying the Strengths of Your Staff

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

An important strategy to engage staff is to know and encourage staff to use their strengths in their work. Investing in strengths can have a huge payback in the level of staff engagement. Gallup research indicates that seven in 10 employees (67%) who strongly agree that their manager focuses on their strengths are engaged in their work. When employees strongly disagree with this statement, the percentage of workers who are engaged in their work plummets to 2%. High engagement translates into higher profitability, better customer satisfaction, and lower turnover. When employees use their strengths, they have been shown to be 6x more engaged in their work and 7.8% more productive in their role.

Historically, performance management models and most managers have focused on fixing staff weaknesses or deficits. While managing weaknesses to meet role expectations does matter, part of the joy of being human is the recognition that we are all different and have unique gifts. Everyone has strengths and weakness. When coaching employees, Gallup research has found that the world’s greatest managers report that they don’t waste their time focusing on employee weaknesses but instead draw out their talents. This is counter-intuitive to what most managers believe when they have the same expectations in every area for all their staff. As an example, some or your staff may be naturally gifted teachers and make excellent preceptors while others are not.

Ideally, organizations would use talent assessments such as the Clifton Strength Finders ® to learn about the unique gifts of their staff. If this is not available, nurse leaders can observe their staff to learn about their natural talents and ask questions some good open-ended questions such as:

What do you do best in your role?
What do you enjoy most about the work you do every day?
What comes naturally to you in your work that others struggle with?
What are some of the things you do in your work that you receive compliments about?
What do you look forward to doing each day at work?
What hobbies do you have outside of work?

These questions will give the nurse leaders insight into the natural talents of staff. When you know the strengths of a nurse, you can individualize your approach in assignments and other activities to enhance the work experience.

Read Rose Sherman’s new book available now – The Nurse Leader Coach: Become the Boss No One Wants to Leave