Using your strengths to help others

Last weeks HR Happy Hour featured Dave Ulrich talking about his new book, the Why of Work.

Through our work, we seek a sense of purpose, contribution, connection, value, and hope. When we achieve meaning through our work, we succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

As usual, the show included great conversation, giggles and a fun back channel on Twitter (#HRHappyHour).

I found the discussion about strengths very powerful.  I’m sure this is not surprising to anyone who knows me,  I’m all about leveraging strengths.

Dave gave two solid points about strengths to keep in mind, when looking to create meaning in work .

First: As a leader you need to help your team use their strengths to do their jobs better.

Second: As an individual, you need to build your own strengths, that will strengthen others.  If you work on strengths that are not in pursuit of helping others, it will not be sustainable and you will not be developing meaning.

He then talked about how you need to think in terms of using your strengths to serve the company to build a stronger organizational capability.

Great stuff, I think I’m going to have to add this to my* reading list!  Mark…

__________

*It is well known that most of “my” reading is actually done by Mark… I told you, I’m all about Strengths