STRENGTHS BASED APPROACH CAN MEET THE CHALLENGES OF MILLENNIALS

11.   Millennials are the youngest workforce born between 1980 and 1996. The millennial generation is now the largest, most ethnically diverse generation in American history……..Daron/The Washington Post.

22. This is with the reference to two articles one in The Washington Post “How badly companies misunderstand millennials” by Niraj Chokshi and second a post in LinkedIn “Working with Millennials? Gallup Says Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong” by Bill Murphy Jr.

33.Here are the seven leadership changes Gallup came up with:

(a)  The change from “my pay check” to “my purpose.”

(b)  The change from “my satisfaction” to “my development.”

(c)  The change from “my boss” to “my coach.”

(d)  The change from “my annual review” to “my ongoing conversations.”

(e)  The shift from “my weaknesses” to “my strengths.”

(f)   The change from “my job” to “my life.”

(g)  They are constantly looking for “something else.”

Adapt to the Changes

14,Initially, for the survival and subsequently to continue performing, entire concept requires change. Adoption of new concept based on Strengths models requires real and genuine transformational leaders. “Millennials want a workplace that helps them progress, but they also want to see their own value,” said Jim Harter, Chief Scientist for work place management and well-being for Gallup’s workplace management practice. “Giving out toys and entitlements is a leadership mistake, and worse, it’s condescending,” Gallup Chairman and Chief executive Jim Clifton writes in the report. “Purpose and development drive this generation”

 5. The illustrations below amply shows the directions the Universities/Educational Institutions and Industries should take to meet the aspirations of the Millennials.

  

Managers and Leaders Must be Open and Transparent

There are four areas that are significant when the mangers and leaders must be open and transparent. Many leaders and managers think that his or her subordinates do not know and will not know. They are sadly mistaken. One of a very dynamic and successful military leader has said that “One must never make a show of false emotions to one’s men. The ordinary soldier has a surprisingly good nose for what is true and what is false”…… Field Marshal Rommel.  In the corporate world, men and soldiers could be substituted as employees or subordinate staff or members of the team.

How to make the managers and leaders open and transparent?

Acknowledgement. The basic illustration has been taken from the Johari Window from the Gallup Workbook “Coaching Strengths: Accelerated Strengths Coaching: Understand and Guide Support Empower”.  Other illustrations and pictures are self- created.

The scale is of 100: ie the leader has 100 talents/skills/values out of these 100, some are known to him or her and some are known to others.  There are six graphical models illustrated below.

Readers can observe as how the open areas increase gradually. These represent the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that the mangers and leaders know about himself or herself. It includes the talents, strengths, weaknesses and transparent behaviours that are known to her or him and others.  As a coach, it is my endeavour to increase the open and transparent area of managers and leaders. A manager or a leader is most effective and productive when he or she is open and transparent about his or her strengths, weaknesses, emotions and intentions. 

I recommend, that all managers and leaders should strive to reach as illustrated in Model 6.  Beyond this is that known to yourself and known to others will be 100% which may not be feasible due to “need to know principle and competitive nature of environment.

www.satyssparks.com

Strengths Based Recruitment

One of the four roles of a manager is the recruitment/talent selection; other three being employee engagement, performance management and development. All the four are interdependent but it all begins with the recruitment of the right talent.

Mere university qualifications and experiences are not adequate to have dedicated employee engagement resulting in near perfect performance almost every time. It has been found out by the Gallup survey that only 13% of the work force in the world are fully engaged and rest 87% are not.

According to Gallup, the definition of Strengths is the “ability to consistently provide near – perfect performance; ie the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near perfect performance in a specific task. To finish with strengths, start with talents”.

Recruitment of right talent is the first step to get near perfect performance consistently. This will happen only if the employees are working from the strengths zones.

How to go about it?

·        Recruit and select candidates with talents that match those of the best performers in each role.

·        Find employees with the highest potential for excellence.

·        Assess and select job candidates for “Talents” and right “domains” for the workgroup and culture.

ANCIENT LINKS TO STRENGTHS BASED DEVELOPMENT

T It was around 300 BCE when Chanakya discovered the talents of Chandragupta Maurya. Chanakya coached him, skilled him and educated him to propel him to one of the greatest emperor of India.

2

2 The second example is from Ramayan. Please watch the link. It does not require any explanation, when Hanuman was reminded of his forgotten Strengths

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb7yZ681w4A

3 The third one is from the Movie Ten Commandments, when Moses was made to discover his strengths to liberate 40,000 enslaved Jews to the Promised Land. Please watch the link

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUm6rC0o7Po

4  The fourth one is more recent one, is the poem written by famous Urdu poet Iqbal of Sare Jahan se Achha  fame ; he wrote

             खुदी को कर बुलन्द ईतना के हर तक़दीर से पहले
            खुदा बन्दे से पूछे, बता तेरी रजा क्या है।

Khudi Ko Kar Buland Itna Ke Har Taqdeer Se Pehle

Khuda Bande Se Khud Puche, Bata Teri Raza Kya Hai

5.      Means

Develop the self so that before every decree

God will ascertain from you: “What is your wish?”

Above four examples amply prove that we all must know our talents to further develop these into strengths to achieve our desired SMART goals.