If you missed part 1 highlighting traction and driving strengths, be sure to read that blog first.
Seeing strengths – ensuring projects align with the mission, vision, and values
The third category of strengths that Partner2Learn teaches, after Traction and Driving, is Seeing. Individuals with Seeing strengths have the innate ability to see either forward or backward in order to always inform the present to lead to the future. Be sure to leverage your Seeing strengths to ensure your team is engaged and your team is working on the right initiatives at the right time.
Deliberative* strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They take great care in decision making. They enjoy collecting 99% of the information before making an informed decision. This helps the team avoid the potholes and the cliffs when moving forward. If you have a lot of traction on your team, it is imperative that you check in with Deliberative strengths to ensure you have considered all the information. This strength provides both sight and problem-solving capabilities to the team.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: What details do we need to consider before moving forward? What else do we need to do to ensure this project avoids calamity or failure?
- Where this strength might struggle: Especially when events are critical, Deliberative may not have the time or resources to get 99% of the information and can become bogged down on data collection and analysis over action. A great partner for them is someone with traction strengths, like Focus, Command, or Activator, to help them get started and gain momentum.
Analytical* strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They enjoy analyzing the data and searching for reasons and causes to provide sight and solve problems in any situation. With so much new information to constantly review, they can help weed through all the disparate data and make sense of it for the team. They enjoy the day-to-day details that lead to long term goals.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: What trends are you uncovering from the data? Do we have enough data to support our decisions? What decision is the data suggesting we implement?
- Where this strength might struggle: They need to understand why. If they do not see the value initially in a new project or initiative, they need their questions answers for understanding. A great partner for them is Strategic, who can quickly see the why and communicate that with them and the team.
Context strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They love to study and look to the past to help inform the present to shape the future. The Context individuals know what was done historically that could apply to today’s situation.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: What has been done in the past that we could try again? What did not work in the past that we should avoid? Is there something we did in the past that could be adjusted to work better in this situation?
- Where this strength might struggle: Context can provide a rich history lesson, but a great partner up opportunity for them is Futuristic. Futuristic provides a broader perspective to help Context see the future implications of decisions made today.
Connectedness strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They see the big picture as well as the web-like structure connecting everything. Connectedness believes everything has meaning and one small change can have a ripple effect. Tap into this strength to understand current and potential challenges that may occur as a result of yesterday’s actions and today’s decisions. Connectedness wants to connect people, programs, and ideas.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Does the team seem disjointed now that we are working remotely? Can you help bring the team together? What else can we do to eliminate the silos we are working in?
- Where this strength might struggle: Connectedness will struggle in a “siloed” environment. If finance is not talking to human resources, and human resources is not talking with executive management, and management is not speaking with front line employees, Connectedness will struggle. Connectedness wants to bring everyone and everything together and break down all barriers. A great partner-up opportunity is someone with Context, who can provide broader bandwidth to consider past events to flavor current situations to tie into the future sight.
Strategic* strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They are quick at spotting patterns and issues and identifying the best option, along with creative alternatives. They easily see out six months to three years and can identify problems that may arise. Tap into this strength to review and adjust your strategic plan with the latest data. Strategic can help realign the direction of your team.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: What is the most important step to take at this point? How can we adjust our plans to meet our goals?
- Where this strength might struggle: Strategic is so fast at seeing all the options and knowing the best one. It may require some additional explanation to get the team up to speed. Great partner-up opportunities are with Futuristic, Analytical, and Restorative. Futuristic helps to see the long-term vision. Analytical handles the daily tasks and details to begin momentum. Restorative quickly puts together the solution to bring the team back to its original or healthy state.
Ideation* strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They love to brainstorm ideas and are able to find connection between all the ideas to provide sight and identify problems. In chaos, they are energized by thinking of and sharing ideas that lead to identifying the root issue versus a symptom.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: What ideas do you have based on the latest information? What do you see as the primary problem we need to address?
- Where this strength might struggle: They may overwhelm individuals with Responsibility and Achiever who are concerned they may have to implement every idea they share. It is important to communicate they are simply ideas and not everything must be completed. Great partner-up opportunities are with Focus, Strategic, and Restorative. Focus will help the team to concentrate on just one or two ideas and get those started. Strategic will help evaluate and prioritize all options. Restorative will help provide solutions to the identified solutions.
Futuristic strength on your team
- How to leverage this strength: They love to cast the vision for the future, whether it’s 5, 10, or 20 years. They can see over the mountains and current obstacles. They are inspired by what could be and can energize others by sharing this vision.
- Questions to ask to keep them engaged: Do you see a need to adjust our vision based on current circumstances? Is our vision bold enough or do we need to stretch further?
- Where this strength might struggle: They could get too caught up in the future and lose sight of the details needed to make the future a reality. They may come across so visionary and may lose people struggling to understand the current realities. Great partner-up opportunities are with Analytical and Strategic. Analytical helps set daily and weekly goals to gain momentum toward the vision. Strategic helps set the strategic plan with annual goals to reach the vision.
Engage with Partner2Learn for support
Stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn how the rest of the strength categories complement traction, driving, and seeing strengths. A high-performing team needs to have all strengths, all categories, all people engaged for maximum results. Are you doing any of this right now? What new ideas are you going to implement today? How can we help you be more successful? We’re here to guide you, help elevate your performance, resulting in a transformation you never imagined.
*Asterisk means that this strength is in more than one of the eight categories.
Original research on the 8 categories conducted by Dr. Mark McKloskey and Jim Louwsma.