HR - Innovative staff insights on HR

Knowing Your Employees' Strengths

Self-Directed Learning

In today's highly competitive and rapidly changing workforce, self-directed learning is an excellent tool that creates a win-win for the organization, the supervisor and the employee. Full article

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At D.A. Smith & Associates, we have a different take on leadership. Leadership is "one who motivates, trains, and develops". Easy to understand, and more importantly it is easy to follow. Full article

Effective Training is more than a Shot in the Arm

This primer serves two purposes: to introduce some security strategies and to provide helpful insights into those organizations with existing security strategies. Full article

HR Thursday | February 16th, 2011 - Maya Crane

In Tom Rath's book Strength Finder 2.0, he begins with a reference to the 1993 movie Rudy. The movie depicts a young man with the dedication and will to become a Notre Dame football player; yet, the truth is that he does not possess the talent or strengths to actually be one. While the movie will make you feel good and motivate you to take on challenges in your career or organization, be mindful that they align with the strengths that you own.

Gallup defines strength as, "the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in a specific task". Strengths are composed of the skills, knowledge and talents that one possesses.

Organizations often fail to recognize their employees' talents and strengths, putting valuable time and energy into their inadequacies. This has a negative effect on the quality of work that employees will produce. Organizations need to encourage and applaud the success and strengths of their employees while finding ways to better leverage these skills in the organization. Letting go of managing employees' weaknesses will create efficient and effective use of their workday while creating an improved work environment for all. Managers may need to take into consideration the advantages gained from switching staff into roles that better suit their strengths, allowing for movement and possible promotions to take place within the organization, while alleviating turnover and the costs that can come from it.

Once strengths have been identified, we find that many employees will benefit from Leadership Coaching. Coaching focuses in on these newfound talents and utilizes a non-bias professional to support and prepare upcoming managers and executives. For more information on Leadership Coaching, please contact us at info@dasmithassociates.com