The definition of strength in this article is when a person is producing consistent positive outcomes in a task and feels strong doing it. When you feel strong doing a task, it means that you are utilizing unique combination of talents that innately fire up in your brain. Doing those tasks give you sense that you are in the zone and loose track of time because you simply love doing what you are doing!

To become strong, you must develop those talents and invest in learning knowledge and skills that support your development in doing that task. You also invest in repeating the task and becoming more and more consistent in bringing positive outcomes.

The strengths-based development approach is unique and powerful. A person’s most direct path to individual growth and improvement begins with a primary investment in his or her greatest talents.

Strength coaching is a focus on the client’s combination of dominant talents and developing them to become strong in all the tasks and activities that matter most to them.

The strength-based methodology requires a unique mindset from the coach. This most effective coaches have:

1. An intense, intentional focus on the positive, natural potential and tendencies of their client.
2. Know that their clients do not have to change who they are to be successful. Instead, they strive to help their clients become better at being who they naturally are.
3. Spend more time studying success than failure.
4. Understand that focusing on strengths does not mean ignoring a person’s weaknesses.

To achieve performance, you begin with talents and move towards strengths. The coaching process includes:
1. Clarify what the client needs or wants to accomplish.

2. Partner to create a plan for how he or she will get there.
3. Check and chart progress.
4. Course correct as needed.
5. Celebrate successes.

Decades of research have proven that when employees are given the opportunity to do what they do best every day, the effect on individual, team, and organizational performance is powerful. The problem is that most people aren’t able to accurately identify their own strengths and therefore can’t intentionally use them.

Over the years, there has been numerous research projects that delve into the issues and challenges teams face, the techniques managers, teams, and organizations use to create highly engaged teams, and most importantly, the things that high-performing teams do that distinguish them from others.

Members of a strength-based team rely on each other to get work done. Their modus operandi is to position team members so that each can do what he or she does best. They focus on each person’s strengths and manage around his or her weaknesses.

A truly strengths-based team is a group of imperfect but talented contributors valued for their strengths, who need one another to realize individual and team excellence. Every team has a lot of talent to draw on and leverage. Strengths-based teams consciously take advantage of this talent.

They share a common mission and purpose. The team is aware of their unique talents and how they can help the team respond to or achieve the performance challenge or goal. They also know how other team members can best contribute. As such, they act interdependently.

The team is also aware of each other’s talent filters. They have an understanding of how each person is inclined to think, act, and feel. This awareness helps the team navigate the issues all teams’ encounter.

A strengths-based team is a group of imperfect but talented contributors valued for their strengths, who need one another to realize individual and team excellence.

Teams that focus on strengths have:

1. Higher levels of energy and vitality:
   Decades of research have shown that when people are able to use their strengths, they have higher levels of psychological vitality. When people use their strengths, they experience positive energy and buzz. The more hours per day adults believe they use their strengths, the more likely they are to report having ample energy, feeling rested, being happy, smiling or laughing a lot, and being treated with respect.
2. Are more confident
   Recent research found that people who use their strengths report higher levels of self-efficacy and believe they are capable of achieving the things they want to achieve.
3. Are more engaged at work
   The opportunity to do what you do best each day — that is, use your strengths — is a core predictor of workplace engagement.
4. Are more likely to achieve their goals
   People who intentionally use their strengths to accomplish their goals are far more likely to achieve them. When they achieve their goals, they satisfy their psychological needs and are happier and more fulfilled as a result.

5. Perform better at work
   When managers emphasize strengths, performance is significantly higher; conversely, when managers emphasize weaknesses, performance declines.
6. Are more effective at developing themselves and growing as individuals
   When focusing on self-development, people improve faster in areas where they are already strong, compared with areas where they are weak. The more hours per day adults believe they use their strengths, the more likely they are to report having learned something interesting.
7. Experience less stress
   People who use their strengths are less likely to report experiencing worry, stress, anger, or sadness.

Taymour Miri is an ICF master coach and a Gallup certified strengths coach and more recently one of the first 136 coaches world wide to be awarded an Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching. He has 30 years’ experience in leadership roles and 20 years of experince in coaching. Taymour has trained over 1,500 coaches across five continents and is the founder of International Coaching Education (ICE).