Linda Rowley 'Personal Strength Improves Business Outcomes'

[Barbara Gabogrecan]

Today I am most fortunate in being able to introduce and welcome Linda Rowley to the Forum as a Guest Expert.

Linda is a speaker and presenter on topics relating to business success from a small / home based business perspective. Research shows that identifying and leveraging personal strengths in the workplace (and life) improves business outcomes and productivity and Linda believes that if you can identify and harness your strengths you can leverage off them to improve your business success. You will be more engaged, passionate, resilient and more likely to stay for the ‘long haul’.

Linda will share 7 hints, tips and gems of ideas that will be both relevant and practical and will enable you to gain insight while accessing practical tools to achieve maximum performance. This, in turn, will allow you to focus on strategies for success and motivation while promoting positive mental health and wellbeing through happiness, meaning and purpose.

Read what Linda is prepared to share with us and join in the discussion and ask questions. As you probably know, the public can read the posts but only members can write posts.
Barb

[Linda Rowley]

Thanks Barbara for the warm welcome!

Hi Everyone.

Managing your own performance and creating happiness (both personally and in your business) is critical to your overall success.
Whilst there are as many reasons for starting a business as there are business owners, behind the initial catalyst generally lays the desire for greater happiness and success.

A business may provide circumstances to enable you to create happiness and success, or just as easily thwart your efforts toward a fulfilling life.
Over the next 7 days, I will be sharing hints and tips to maximise your performance, maintain your motivation and increase your happiness and wellbeing. Let’s dive in...

1. Maximise Your Strengths
Most business people have, at some time done a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis for their business. Yet, a lot of people I meet struggle to tell me what their personal strengths are.

When you are so busy running the business, doing everything (sometimes all at once) and racing against the clock, even the very activities you love can seem like a chore. It is important to maintain your passion for the activities you love and create opportunities to use your strengths by doing what you do best every day.

Research shows that people (and teams) who do this are more productive and generate increased business outcomes across a range of metrics. View the business case: http://www.tmbc.com/whystrengths/businesscase

What are strengths?

The traditional view of a strength is an activity or task that you are good at (you have a certain level of skill or competence); however this definition is somewhat limited. According to Marcus Buckingham (researcher, speaker, author and strengths “guru”) in addition to being something you are good at, a strength is also identified by the way you feel about the activity:

• You look forward to it with a sense of anticipation
• When you are doing the activity, you are “in the zone”, engaged and focussed while time fly’s by un-noticed.
• When you have completed the activity, you feel energised and, well... strong.

How often does this happen for you in your business?

Research indicates that people are more productive and successful when they get the opportunity to play to their strengths (do what they do best) most of the time.

[b]Benefits of maximising your strengths

If you are spending your days doing activities that you are good at, but aren’t energising or engaging for you, you may not be giving your business your best. Just “going through the motions” is rarely enough to make you want to leap out of bed every morning, pour your best into your business and go the extra mile to delight your customers.

Worse still, if you are squandering your days on activities you dread, procrastinating on getting certain things done, or feeling bored and drained, you and your business will suffer.

Irrespective of how good you are at certain activities, if you dread the thought of them, time seems to stand still when you are doing them, and when you are finished you feel drained and de-motivated (apart from the initial –“thank goodness, it’s over” sense of relief that it’s finally done), it is not a strength – it is a weakness.

Specific ways that maximising your strengths can help you and your business are:

• Improved productivity (you get more done when you are motivated and engaged)
• Increased Resilience (doing what you do best builds your capacity to bounce back when things get tough)
• Perseverance (you are more likely to stick with a business that you love and are passionate about)
• Enhanced performance (you do your best, learn and grow the most in your areas of strengths)
• Superior customer service (customers notice when you are engaged and passionate about what you do, or when “your heart is just not in it”)
• Happiness and wellbeing (emerging research indicates that you will be happier and more fulfilled when you do what you love).
• Confidence and authenticity (using your strengths helps to increase your sense of confidence, be authentic and true to yourself)

While we can’t engage our strengths all the time, you can deliberately focus your work days more toward activities which strengthen you, and away from weakening activities. Even a 5% shift toward your strengths will make a difference.

Based on Marcus Buckingham’s SimplyStrengths™ process, the following is a guide to maximising your strengths.

Spot your strengths.

The easiest way to spot your strengths is to take notice of how you feel about the activities you are doing.
The first step is to give up multi-tasking and only do one thing at a time!

Be “present” to what you are doing, and take note of how you feel before, during and after the activity. Which activities make you feel energised and strong, and which bore you to tears?

Once you have separated the wheat from the chaff, it’s time to get specific and identify what particular elements of the activity strengthen you.

Ask yourself clarifying questions – does it matter why you do the activity, what circumstances you do it in, who you do it for? Nut out the specific aspects of the activity that strengthen you and create a concise statement about your strength. Do this for each activity which strengthens you.

Do more of what you do best.

Now you have identified your strengths, how can you use them more in your business? While it is often not possible (or practical) to spend all your time doing what you do best, developing a plan will enable you to gradually tilt your activities toward more of the things you enjoy.

This might involve delegating those activities that weaken you to others (whom? I hear you say). As the saying goes, no man (or woman) is an island, so even if you are a sole business operator, think broadly and creatively about who you know that is strengthened by the activities which weaken you. For example, two of my friends / colleagues excel at proof reading - they have an eagle eye for typo’s, which is a weakness for me - I can stare at the page all day and still not see them.

Alternatively, you might consider:
• contracting a professional to help you (e.g. getting a bookkeeper or a virtual assistant),
• partnering with another small business owner who has complementary strengths, or
• realigning your business and the services you provide toward your strengths.

Do your cost benefit analysis - the cost of contracting someone else to do the activities which weaken you may not be as high as the cost of you doing them yourself in the long run (in terms of lower productivity, decreased motivation, missed opportunity cost).

Focussing on your strengths doesn’t mean ignoring your weaknesses. Acknowledge your weaknesses for what they are, and in playing to your strengths, develop ways to mitigate or minimise your weaknesses and the impact they have on your business.

Simple Steps can help you and your business to thrive.

For more information on Strengths visit my website or: The Marcus Buckingham Company http://www.tmbc.com/

[Barbara Gabogrecan]

What a great start to this discussion Linda.
I have always lived by my philosophy of 'build on your strengths and let others look after your weaknesses'. I am terrible with numbers and bookkeeeping - so, true to my philosophy, I have been married twice and each time married an accountant (I'm not silly - eh!) What I didn't realise was that plumbers have leaking taps in their houses, mechanics have cars that grind to a halt and accountants don't always do the bookwork on time!

However, to be fair - it was great to have an accountant to guide me in this area. Even though I am an artist and have a good eye for colour and design - I still use a graphic artist to do the specialised work for me. But as I am an author - I do not easily let other people write for me - as this is my perceived strength.

What I have discovered, is what you are saying - many people just do not know what their strengths are. I was a teacher and my last school went 'under' (with he recession we were meant to have) and I remember the teachers crying in the staff room, as they did not know what was going to happen to them as they were 'teachers' and there were not that many teaching jobs around at the time. I gave them all a piece of paper and asked them to write down all the skills they had as a teacher e.g. organisers, communicators, presenters, motivational skills, budgeting, researching...the list was quite extensive with individual teachers having extra skills like artist, writer, language etc.

Next I had them hand the lists around the table so that other teachers could read a list in front of them that was not their own. I then asked "if you wanted to employ someone, would you employ this person from the skills that are listed in front of you?" They all said "YES" - I have never forgotten how valuable a task this was for all of us worried sick about our future - perhaps it is a task we should all undertake, particularly those about to start a business.

Thanks for the valuable info Linda.
Barb

[Linda Rowley]

Hi Barbara

What a terrific way to coach your colleagues through a tough time. I agree with your suggestion that reflecting on and writing out a list of skills and strengths is a valuable exercise, particularly for those about to start a business.

We are often blind to our own skills and strengths – we tend to overlook and under value what we have to offer. Either you assume that if you can do a specific activity well and enjoy doing it (have a strength) everyone else has it too, or conversely if you don’t like doing a particular activity, you think no one else likes it either!

Our beliefs about ourselves and about strengths can either propel us forward or hold us back. Some people I meet get stuck in a rut due to beliefs like:

• I can’t delegate a job I don’t like doing – that wouldn’t be fair (to lump it on the other person)
• I can’t charge my clients for doing something I love (it doesn’t feel like work)
• It wouldn’t be right to just do what I like doing most of the time (or to stop doing what I don’t like) – after all, there is a reason why it’s called “work”
• I would be shirking my responsibilities /other important aspects of my business.

I must admit, I was plagued by similar thoughts in the past. But here’s the thing: research shows you will be more successful, productive in your business and make your greatest contribution over the longest period of time when you maximise the amount of time you use your strengths and minimise the amount of time you spend doing weakening activities.

That is not to say that you ignore your weaknesses; acknowledge them, spend some time on them but then redirect your focus (time and energy) toward your strengths. You can also use your strengths to mitigate your weaknesses.

Think back to a time when you knew you had to tackle a task that you loathe. Maybe it was one you procrastinated on, continually put to the bottom of your pile whenever it raised its head, you did everything else you could think of before tackling it (in the past, I have been known to get down on my hands and knees to scrub the floor in order to avoid some activities...). Notice the way you are feeling as you think about that dreaded task...

Chances are your shoulders have dropped a little, and you are feeling de-motivated, or “heavy”. We often spend time thinking about the activity (dreading it) and the de-motivated feeling can stay with us for some time even after we have finished the activity. When you feel this way it is difficult to perform at your best.

Now, think of a time when you were excited about a task or activity. You looked forward to it, and when you did it – you were totally in the moment, everything was going well; you were in the zone and kicking goals. Notice how you feel now. This is how you feel when you play to your strengths. Energised, motivated and engaged. You are more likely to perform better when you feel this way.

An exercise I use with some of my clients is to dig deep and reveal their beliefs (often they are unconscious - we don't tend to think about them in the course of our everyday life). I ask them to consider the following questions:

What beliefs do you have that might be holding you back?
How can you let them go so that you can play to your strengths more often?
Identify one strengthening activity, and write down how you can use that strength today.
identify one weakness. How you can either mitigate or minimise that weakness (e.g. is it something that you can just stop? If not, who can you delegate it to? Is there a way you can achieve the same outcome with a different approach (one that strengthens you?)

Even if you do one (extra) activity which energises you today,it is a great start.

[Linda Rowley]

i again Everyone

How you view your business has a significant outcome on your enjoyment and success at work.
How do you view your business?

According to Tal Ben-Shahar PhD (Positive Psychology lecturer at Harvard), there are three ways we generally view our work.
• Job
• Career
• Calling

If you view your business as a “job”, your focus is on earning money to live / pay the bills – generally just to “get by”.

Viewing your business in the same way as a career, your focus will be on striving for “bigger” projects / clients, power, prestige and having “made it”.

When you view your business as a “calling” – you are internally motivated by your passion, making a difference, and the sense of meaning it gives your life. It’s almost as if you would do it even if you didn’t get paid. Using your strengths (as we have discussed in the last two posts) can move you toward creating your “calling”.

The type of business or role you have doesn’t predict how you view it; however your perception of it does.

I have heard Dr Ben-Shahar talk about a cleaner in hospital wards who viewed her job as a calling and approached it with gusto. When the cleaner was interviewed about her job and attitude toward it, she told the interviewer of how her cleaning made a difference to the patients.

My recollection is that she saw her role every bit as important as the medical staff. She personally was contributing to the patients’ wellbeing by ensuring the environment was the best possible environment for the patient to heal and convalesce.

She not only cleaned the rooms, she also got to know the patients, chatting away to them as she cleaned. She asked about their favourite things (for example: did they like the outdoors – rainforests or desert country, were they an antique buff etc...) and then she would scour the hospital walls for a painting that matched the patients’ interests. She would change the paintings around based on the likes and interests of the patient, as she felt that having things they loved (or paintings representing those things) would help in their healing.

She was intrinsically motivated, felt her work made a difference to the people she served and drew meaning and fulfilment from her role.

I think this is a fantastic example of going the extra mile in what you do, and doing it because you genuinely believe you make a difference in what you do (not because business is slow, or you are trying to compete with the guy down the road).

How do you view your business: as a “job”, “career” or “calling”? How does this affect the way you serve your customers or clients? If you do not feel you are living your “calling”, what concrete step can you take today to inch toward it?

There may be a way you can look at it a little differently which could make all the difference!

“Attitude is the mind's paintbrush;
it can colour any situation.”
Barbara Johnson

[Peter O'Connor]

Hi Linda

I have been reading your posts with interest.

One point you make on building your strengths, is not to multi task, but to concentrate one one thing at a time. Being a male, that suits me fine. But, what happens when things keep going pear-shaped for you all day - you have to be able to deal with a miriad of problems all at once, or you drown in the quagmire.

I would love to be able to sit down and complete one task at a time - but life isn't like that when you work from home with limited resources.

Regards

Peter

[Tina Blackmur]

Hi Linda
Thank you for your extremely insightful words. I agree that it's highly valuable to be able to recognise your strengths and weaknesses. Besides deriving great pleasure from interviewing people, I recognise that it's one of my strengths, and have been able to translate that into conducting telephone interviews and writing case studies for a company in Sydney. Being a trained counsellor also allows me to be supportive as a mentor, something that I find very motivating. The enthusiasm and energy that is projected by someone who loves what they do is certainly a drawcard when it comes to doing business, in fact it can be downright contagious! Recognising what we're not so good at doing is also useful. although can be costly, such as debt collection from clients who don't pay their bills. These types of situations can cause a lot of stress, and as you say, it's often better just to pay someone else to deal with the situation.

I loved the story about the cleaner who derived such positive enjoyment from her job at the hospital.

[Linda Rowley]

Hi Everyone.

Tina & Peter - Thank you both for your posts.

Tina – It’s terrific that you have recognised one of your strengths and use it in a way that you enjoy, and is lucrative. I agree with you that enthusiasm and energy is contagious, and it is a wonderful thing to spread!

Peter – thanks for raising such a great point. Things do go pear shaped for all of us at some time or another, which can result in dealing with a myriad of problems all at once, or drowning in the quagmire.

In response, I’d like to dig a little deeper into the pitfalls of multitasking, and then offer some suggestions for dealing with those situations and keeping your head above water.

Multitasking.

Contrary to the rhetoric about multitasking, research shows that you do not perform at your best when you are dividing your attention between multiple tasks (irrespective of whether you are male or female). You are in a minority if you do truly excel at doing two things at once without a drop in quality or increase in stress. You can ‘get by” doing multiple things at once, but you can’t do them well.

Research presented by Tal Ben-Shahar PhD, indicates that multitasking has roughly the same effect as missing out on a night’s sleep. If you have ever missed out on a night’s sleep for whatever reason (partying, parenting or shift working) you know what it can be like to drag yourself through the next day.

This is backed by a study conducted by Harvard University, (cited by Marcus Buckingham – Find Your Strongest Life) which indicates that the average workers functional IQ drops by 10 points when multitasking – which is more than double the 4 point drop which occurs when someone smokes marijuana (hmmm. ... that would have been interesting to get past the ethics committee...)

So while we think we are going faster, getting more done in less time when we are multitasking, in reality it actually slows you down.
It also increases your stress, which can have negative effects in the short and long term.

Positivity to deal with pear shaped days.
So, if multitasking isn’t as good as it seems, how do you get through those pear shaped days?

We all have them, no matter how well planned and organised we are. There are always things that can go wrong – your child gets sick, computer “crashes”, orders go missing, clients cancel, deadlines suddenly leap forward....

These are the days when your “why” really needs to be strong. Your purpose for being in your business needs to be compelling and motivating to get you through.

Using your strengths on a regular basis, doing what you do (and enjoy) the best help to build your resilience and your capacity to deal with setbacks and those pear shaped days.

Barbara Frederickson PhD. is doing groundbreaking research into positivity, and how it impacts our lives. Positivity refers to a range of emotions such as joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, awe, inspiration and love.

Frederickson has developed a “broaden and build’ theory and research has shown that when we are in a positive mood, we are more likely to be creative, think “big picture”, find solutions and be innovative. By comparison, when you are in a negative mood, you are more likely to narrow your focus, be critiquing, find errors, and hone in on the detail.

In using your strengths in your business – doing activities you love, are passionate about and which energise you enables you to find solutions easier and deal with those pear shaped days better. In comparison, when you are stressed or negative, it may be more of a struggle to find solutions to your problems.

Strategies for dealing with pear shaped days

Be positive
Keep your mood positive - it’s important to keep a level head when dealing with adverse situations so that you are better able to deal with them (easier said than done, I hear you say...).

Put on your favourite music, do the funky chicken, talk with your partner, call a colleague, or have a quick scan of the comic’s page in the daily paper – whatever you do to get in a “good” mood.

Counterintuitive, I know (I can hear you thinking “yeah, right... as if I’d have time to do anything like that”...) however, managing your emotions are critical when things go pear shaped - and 5 minutes to maintain your positivity may save you more time in the long run if it means that you are able to think creatively and find a solution to your problems.

Separate the urgent from the important

Stephen Covey (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) makes the distinction between “urgency” and “importance” in the activities we do. If an activity is urgent but not important, perhaps you can reconsider whether it needs to be done. Irrespective of how urgent something is, if it not important, why would you do it anyway?

Renegotiate
Can you renegotiate any of the tasks or activities to give yourself some breathing space?

Call in the troops.
Ok, so if everything is urgent and important, can you delegate any of the tasks to someone else? As a home based business, I appreciate that often you are on your own. However there may be people you can call on – family, past colleagues, sub-contractors to help get the job done.

Breathe
You’ve tried it all – remained positive, reprioritised on the basis of urgency and importance, renegotiated what you could, looked for support / someone to delegate to... and come up empty handed.

Breathe. Work your way through it one step at a time, and know that, as the proverb says “this too shall pass”

[Susan Gianevsky]

Hi Linda, enjoyed reading your post and totally agree that we need to concentrate on our strengths...I find that in running our own business we feel we need to do everything and do away with concentrating on our key strengths...this is where the problem lies...our confidence grows when we engage in what we know we can accomplish and our confidence is greatly challenged when we engage in areas we are not so confident in...being in small business does not mean you need to do it all...delegating is part of business survival where expert advice can increase business in the long run..

Regards, Susan Gianevsky - Be Free Now

[Linda Rowley]

Hi Susan,

Thanks for your post. I agree with you wholeheartedly. The interesting thing is that as children, we know what our strengths are and use then by having a natural inclination toward the activities we love to do, and leave us feeling energised.

As we get older we can fall into the trap of doing what we think we are "supposed" to do, and wanting to please the people we look up to (teachers, parents, church group members, sporting team mates - and then our boss, partner etc...).

It can take conviction and courage in yourself to stick to your strengths. A good example is people who have been were promoted into management positions because they were good at their "trade" (the technical aspect of their job). The recognition of their work, better pay, more senior position lures them into "climbing the ranks". However the management role is often very different to their technical role. The activities and tasks required on a day to day basis of a manager may not enable them to play to their strengths.

As a result, their enjoyment at work suffers along with their performance and productivity (and sometimes the productivity of the team.)

Have you ever put your hand up and volunteered to do something and then it's all gone pear shaped? (In business or in life) Sometimes saying "no" is the better option for everyone, especially if you know the acitivity is weakening for you.

Being true to your strengths requires a sound knoweldge of your strengths and belief in yourself - especially in those situations when it may mean turning down a job or contract for your business which isn't the right "fit" for you.