• Employers should give employees the chance to contribute unique skills and talents, and then recognize those contributions.
• Identify employee strengths and utilize specific people for solutions.
• Help employees develop professional skills and strengths to further an employee’s career goals.

Focusing on strengths means providing challenges. This does not mean challenges that frustrate employees. It means providing an opportunity for employees to stand out.

When the skills of an employee are used, that employee can then contribute to the company’s success. With a system in place for rewards and recognition, achievements can be highlighted. The company should point out how the abilities of an employee contributed to success.

Examples of performance that show highly developed skills might include:

• A forklift operator with an exemplary safety record;
• An assembly worker who taught herself to make minor equipment repairs to save production time; and
• An office worker who wrote a computer program to improve efficiency.

Each employee has many unique skills to use daily to keep the company running. These skill sets are strengths. Taking time to recognize and highlight these achievements does not require an award ceremony. Simply pointing out the employee at a safety or staff meeting will show appreciation.

Once these strengths are identified, managers will know which employees to go to for solutions. Using the special skills of a particular employee puts that employee in the spotlight, and lets him or her know that the company recognizes and appreciates those abilities. Do not wait until an annual performance review to highlight strengths. Appreciation should be shown as needed. However, the performance review allows the supervisor not only to point out strengths, but also to learn about previously unknown skills and issues in the workplace.

A review that includes a discussion of what the employee enjoys about work, what is not enjoyable, and what the company can do to challenge the employee might allow for better job placement or task assignment to try out different jobs based on the individual’s strengths.

To help an employee focus on strengths:

• Identify strengths. Don’t assume that employees know what to call strengths. It is common to be unaware of our greatest skills. Meet individually with team members to discuss core talents and abilities. Some questions to consider when determining strengths are: What is the individual good at? What skills do people regularly compliment? What types of tasks does the employee most enjoy doing? What is the person doing at work when the hours seem to melt away? For example, an employee may be good at data entry, but the actual strength may be close attention to detail.
• Coordinate strengths with roles. In the best-case scenario, a team member’s strengths will match the expectations and responsibilities of the role. Discuss with employees how each person can best apply strengths to job duties. Take into consideration that the employee may not currently be in the role the person is best suited to perform. Is there an opportunity for the employee to be closer aligned with another task or duty within the team?
• Collaborate strengths to achieve team goals. Openly refer to the strengths of individual team members in the presence of the entire team. Discuss how the team might take advantage of each other’s strengths to complete specific projects. Encourage team members to act as advocates to help others use talents and skills more fully.
• Consider cross-training among teammates. Form mentoring partnerships by matching strong employees with teammates who show a weakness in a corresponding area. This type of cross-training lets strong employees develop coaching abilities, while the mentees receive a chance to strengthen skills. It also has the added benefit of deepening the bench when employees are out during vacation or other types of leave.
• Support individual development. Encourage employees to actively discover strengths and start taking steps to develop professional skills. Allow employees to seek career opportunities through special assignments or off-site activities that are within the budget.