Are You and Your Team Playing to Your Strengths?

At the start of 2021, a senior manager approached me for Coaching. Feeling inadequate in a new role and struggling to engage a new team they were doubting their abilities and ‘not in a good place’.

As part of the coaching program, they undertook a Clifton 34 Strengths Assessment and unpacking this in our early sessions provided some insights which have subsequently helped them transform their team and take control of their role.

What the strengths report revealed was that they were definitely in the right role in terms of the technical aspects. The strengths highlighted why the individual was so passionate, driven, and effective in the technical space and in allocating tasks to the team and mobilising them to achieve the organisation’s vision.

But on further exploration, it also revealed a potential blind spot for establishing more personal relationships with the team. Being aware of this blind spot and subsequent self-reflection provided an ‘aha’ moment for this manager who then made a plan to ask each of the team something about themselves each day.

In two short months, they lifted their team from disengaged, disgruntled and disinterested, to actively engaging, contributing and sharing personal anecdotes and hobbies on a regular basis. “There’s just been a warming” the manager reported to me in one of our sessions, looking visibly much more relaxed than they had in our first two sessions.

As we know in any change, awareness is the first step. By reconfirming the strength areas had them in the right role (something they were doubting) and highlighting a potential blind spot around the relational aspects of the leadership role, a shift in focus occurred which had quick and powerful results.

Understanding your innate strengths and addressing your blind spots enables you to channel your energies in the right direction to maximise your success. Mapping your strengths against the requirements of your role will also help you identify where parts of your role or responsibilities or current actions are incongruent with your innate offerings. We get amazing insights from our strengths reports and subsequent coaching debrief session.

Helping Leaders to increase their self-awareness and personal insights is critical to creating safe and effective teams in our current world of work.

When I liaised with this Leader about writing this case study, they again stated how transforming that ‘aha’ moment was.

“So obvious when you think about it, but with all the chaos it was easy to miss. Thanks again for your guidance and I hope this helps someone else out there trust in themselves, put the doubt aside and be confident to connect with their team.”

About Strengths Coaching

Strengths-based coaching is rooted in positive psychology. The premise is a focus on natural, innate talents and strengths rather than a punitive focus on weakness or failings. Note though – this is not about toxic positivity or not addressing underperformance. More a shift in language and a positive reframe.

In strengths-based coaching, we use the terms ‘blind spots’ or potential areas for development. We focus on individuals’ innate strengths, things that their personality naturally aligns them to. When we work to our strengths we are energised; inflow and more engaged.

If we are working in a role that is incongruent with our strength areas we can feel dis-ease, discomfort and become disengaged. It can also impact on emotional wellbeing.

In teams, understanding the uniqueness of individual strengths reduces conflict and tension and increases team effectiveness and outcomes. Undertaking a strengths-based coaching instrument and coaching debrief session helps individuals and teams understand how they ‘tick’ and alerts them to potential potholes they need to watch out for.

We can overplay our strengths too! So we talk about these risks in the program and how to avoid doing this. Strengths-based coaching helps make teams psychologically safer, by fostering inclusion and learning, the two fundamental stages of psychological safety.

You can find out more about the Teams Strengths Coaching Program here or email for details and pricing for your team/s.

Tan x

Tanya Heaney-Voogt

Director & Principal Consultant
MBA, ICFACC, MAHRI, Dip Mgt, Dip Coaching, Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner
E: tanya@tanyaheaneyvoogt.com

Recent Blogs

Leaders Are Crying Out For Support

Leaders Are Crying Out For Support Only 48% of managers strongly agreeing that they currently have the skills needed to be exceptional at their jobs (Gallup). The work environment continues to shift and evolve with Leaders assuming more and more responsibility and...

What To Do If An Employee Tells You They’re “Stressed”

What To Do If An Employee Tells You They're "Stressed" I once had a frustrated leader bark at me "How am I supposed to know if my team member really is stressed or not?" It was in the middle of a workshop with 50 other leaders in the room. His frustration was...

New Data Reveals New Insights

Traditionally, data showed that people left leaders not workplaces. New data received this month shows that the most frequent reason for employees to leave their organisation is excessive workload. Sure, there's potentially a correlation if concerns aren't being...

The Real Cost of Interruptions

The Real Cost of Interruptions How long does it take to get back into the ‘zone’ after an interruption? By the “zone” I mean that sense of flow, where you are productive and totally absorbed in the task at hand. Researchers at the University of California found it...

Navigating the Blind Spots of the ‘Empathy’ Clifton Strengths Talent

Sophie always knew she felt things more deeply than others.In meetings, she could sense tension before anyone spoke a word. When a team member was struggling, she was the first to notice. People gravitated to her when they needed someone to confide in. And as a...

Navigating the Blind Spots of the ‘Responsibility’ Clifton Strength

Victoria was the person everyone relied on at work. If a deadline was in jeopardy, she stepped in. If a team member was struggling, she picked up the slack. She prided herself on being dependable, always delivering on promises, and ensuring everything ran smoothly....

Bringing the Outside In – Using Nature in the Office to Boost Mood

There is no end of evidence that proves nature is good for our mental and physical wellbeing. What we have often felt has now been proven as fact, that sense of soul restoration, of mental clarity we get if we lose ourselves in a forest for a while for example. Or...

The Importance of Post-Incident Support for Minor OVA in the Workplace

Written By: Alexandra Heaney As a Mental Health Nurse who spent many years working in a large metropolitan public mental health facility, I have seen my fair share of OVA. It’s interesting when I reflect on some of the things that occurred in my time there, and I...

Struggling to Activate Your Psychosocial Safety Initiatives? Understand the WHY

I caught up with a legal colleague recently and we spent some time discussing how psychosocial safety initiatives still lack traction in many Australian workplaces. We mused over the fact that workplaces are change saturated, resource lean and struggling to CREATE...

Is Change Resistance Taking Up Space? How I finally embraced AI to create space

It’s 2025 and hasn’t the year has gotten off to a cracking pace? Those I was meeting with in mid-January were talking about the lack of "ease back in" time this year. Of course, in many ways we perpetuate this. It’s helpful to now and again stop and ask: How might I...