Though most of my days are spent in my personal bliss of one-on-one sessions with high-performing executives and managers, I love supporting the work of their teams, including helping their new team members get off to strong starts.
Working with my organizational clients, we're helping individual new team members get off to strong starts through what we refer to in shorthand as 'strengths on-boarding': through this process, new team members get the clarity they need in order to engage, feel equipped and empowered to leverage their respective experience, skills and strengths*, and are set on a course to contribute quickly and to collaborate effectively in their new context with colleagues new to them. The idea for this work came from my Human Resources partner who works internally within the organization in which this approach was piloted.
What new team members gain through the process
Working with my organizational clients, we're helping individual new team members get off to strong starts through what we refer to in shorthand as 'strengths on-boarding': through this process, new team members get the clarity they need in order to engage, feel equipped and empowered to leverage their respective experience, skills and strengths*, and are set on a course to contribute quickly and to collaborate effectively in their new context with colleagues new to them. The idea for this work came from my Human Resources partner who works internally within the organization in which this approach was piloted.
What new team members gain through the process
- Access to a talent and development expert with whom they can talk through their role and set a course to bring the best of themselves to their role
- Clarity about their unique strengths and how they can use them to bring excellence in their role
- Insight into the strengths and proclivities of their new teammates
- Clarity about their own blind spots and weaknesses, with strategies for mitigating them
- Clarity about expectations of their roles that were previously unclear
- Empowerment to pull needed clarity from their managers
- Insight into how to apply their strengths to real-time challenges or goals to get off to a strong start
- Re-framing of the behaviors of their colleagues with positive inference, focusing on what is right about them
- Actionable insight to help them collaborate with their colleagues, using their strengths to complement their colleagues' strengths
The contexts of my organizational clients are familiar to many: the pace is fast, the demands inevitably continue to rise, and stress on people is rampant as the organizations' leaders must continue to align mission, strategy, priorities and objectives, while flexing and pivoting to changing circumstances and challenges wrought by disruption. New team members often describe their on-boarding within these organizations by saying that they feel like they're drinking from a fire hose.
The new team members with whom I work are joining teams that have focused on individual and team development using what is referred to as a strengths-based approach. Existing team members already have taken an assessment from the Gallup Organization called the CliftonStrengths™ assessment. They've been equipped to contribute their unique patterns of strengths toward the team's priorities and their unique roles. The teams previously have seen a map of their individual and team strengths and have discussed the talents in the team and individual team members' potential greatest contributions, quirks, pet peeves and needs. The new team members joining these teams usually have no previous experience with the CliftonStrengths™ assessment. Yet, through a structured process involving two consultation-coaching sessions, we have seen the new team members emerge with clarity and insights about themselves and their teams that equip them to lean in and engage quickly and effectively, individually and in collaboration.
What The Process Looks Like: Two Steps
Step 1: Partner Up to Start the Process
The process is kicked off through a partnership that includes an individual within the organization, who serves as the in-house CliftonStrengths™ liaison, and me in my role as an external consultant to the organization. The liaison introduces the new team member to the assessment, sets the team member up to take the assessment, and provides basic information on the assessment and the team's history with it. The liaison then sends an e-introduction to me and the new team member and attaches the new team member's position description, resume and CliftonStrengths™ results. The new team member and I schedule the first of two one-hour phone or videoconference calls, and I assign homework to be done before the first session so that we can make the most of our use of time.
The process is kicked off through a partnership that includes an individual within the organization, who serves as the in-house CliftonStrengths™ liaison, and me in my role as an external consultant to the organization. The liaison introduces the new team member to the assessment, sets the team member up to take the assessment, and provides basic information on the assessment and the team's history with it. The liaison then sends an e-introduction to me and the new team member and attaches the new team member's position description, resume and CliftonStrengths™ results. The new team member and I schedule the first of two one-hour phone or videoconference calls, and I assign homework to be done before the first session so that we can make the most of our use of time.
Step 2: Strengths Development Consulting-Coaching Sessions
In two separate consulting-coaching sessions, I work with the new team member, wearing the hat of consultant and of a coach. As a consultant I provide expertise about the assessment and insights specific to the new team member and her teammates that are drawn from the richness of Gallup's resources. As a coach, I use a coaching process and questions to help the team member reflect, engage, formulate, and act on plans.
In two separate consulting-coaching sessions, I work with the new team member, wearing the hat of consultant and of a coach. As a consultant I provide expertise about the assessment and insights specific to the new team member and her teammates that are drawn from the richness of Gallup's resources. As a coach, I use a coaching process and questions to help the team member reflect, engage, formulate, and act on plans.
The new team member leaves the first session with additional insight about what is unique and right about her and with thoughts of how she can use what is right to contribute in her role. Sometimes, the team member emerges with clarity about what is unclear about his role or the expectations of him. That team member also emerges with a sense of empowerment and a call to action to ask for the clarity he needs. Typically, the new team members are highly energized by the first session, feel empowered to pull the clarity they need, and have a plan for how they'll approach a challenge they're encountering or a goal they have. Often, they remark spontaneously at the end of the session on their gratitude that their new employer has provided them access to this opportunity. If there was something that was unclear about the role or expectations that we uncovered in the first session, in the second session the new team member brings that increased clarity to our conversation (gained from direct conversation with his manager) as he maps his route forward. The new team member leaves the session with greater insight into his teammates' ways of being and unique strengths. He makes plans for such areas as execution of responsibilities, building relationships, communicating with others, and delivering excellence using the best of himself.
Why I love this strengths on-boarding work
In my long-term work with organizational clients, I have the opportunity to observe the trajectories of new team members with whom I worked in their initial months in the organization. Together with their leaders, I am thrilled to see how they've quickly assimilated into the team, found best approaches for collaborating with their teammates, found ways to bring what they do best to their teams and their work, identified areas where clarity was missing, served as agents for clarity in their teams, and brought new and valuable contributions to already high-performing teams using the best of what they have to give.
Here's to my internal partner in the first organization in which this work was piloted. Her own experience and training in Gallup's work with strengths led her to realize the value of introducing new team members to strengths. This was her vision, and she continues to support the work by serving in the internal liaison role.
Here's to all those whom I've had the privilege of helping get off to strong starts. You inspire me with your talent, heart, passion, potential and impact. And here's to the team leaders who embrace making these opportunities possible. By investing in this process, you are driving engagement, inspiring excellence, increasing retention of employees, bolstering your organization's employer brand and having a lifetime influence on your new team members.
When we focus on what is right with people and equip them with the information and resources they need, great things happen. Our most unlimited resource is our human potential.
