“We cannot become an expert at what we do until we become an expert at who we are.”
Sandy Geyer, Founder of EnQ
There's one question that drives engagement higher than any other metric.
“At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best EVERY SINGLE DAY?”
It’s a question that Gallup first came up with in 2006 in their book 12: The Elements of Great Managing. It’s the question that formed the basis for why Marcus Buckingham founded his self-named company - to focus on that one question and how to get team leaders to deliver on it.
But at the risk of sounding trite (not clichéd), how can you know what to do, and how to do it, unless you know who you really are?
I was (and still am!) an assessment junkie. From the time I discovered DiSC (High D/i, Creative/Inspirational) and MBTI (ENTJ – E & T off the charts, N & J borderline) back in the early 90’s, anytime a new profiling tool came out, I took it. RPI, SGI, HBDI, you name it, I was on it.
Not of out any sense of insecurity, but an insatiable drive to know myself better so I could be more true to myself.
So when I found a tool that “named” me better than I could name myself (the (Cliftons StrengthsFinder), I was like an explorer lost in the desert who stumbled into an oasis. I started to drink it all up.
What I learned shocked me.
I learned that this assessment I’d just taken had so many unique combinations that the odds of someone having the same “Green Zone” of talent combination was 1:12.2 TRILLION. Given we’re only just over 7 Billion people in the world, this meant that I was genuinely one of a kind.
I found two more assessments – the VIA and StandOut – which gave me another myriad of combinations in two key areas of strengths themes (character and team leader roles) that further reinforced that there would never be anyone else just like me.
I also learned that these assessments were grounded in positive psychology – which wasn’t any kind of hyped up mumbo jumbo, but used hard science to identify what was RIGHT about me, not where my “weaknesses” were that needed fixing.
Your Opportunity
You see, the first and fundamental problem you need to tackle on the intrapreneurial journey is to discover, develop and deploy those themes of talent – the innate, raw potential that you were born with – in the context of your current role.
Why? Because if you can do that, you’ll not only move into the 13% of people who report that they’re highly engaged in their work – there’s a less than 1 per cent chance that you’ll become dis-engaged. You’ll also be almost 40% more productive, be 44% more likely to be giving high customer satisfaction, and 50% more likely to want to stick around.
If you can take a strengths-based focus with yourself and your team, you’re also likely to see almost a 13% gain in productivity, and almost a 9% increase in profits.
And if you have that sense of high engagement, it’s far more likely that the other areas of Well Being as defined by Martin Seligman, the grandfather of positive psychology – Positive Emotions, Positive Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment (what he calls PERMA) will also start to fire up.
Brene Brown puts it well in her book Daring Greatly:
"We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be - a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process... - with courage and the willingness to engage. Rather than sitting on the sidelines...we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen."
One of the first problems budding intrapreneurs face is how to "show up" - which goes far beyond dressing well - and how to let the best parts of themselves be seen.
DeAnna Murphy, President and Founder of Strengths Strategy, Inc, calls this "Confident Vulnerability".
It's the confidence that you can allow your true self to be seen because you know you have inherent worth.
But before diving into the world of strengths to discover the real you, there are a couple of warnings you need to take heed of.
First (and foremost): Everyone is talented – but not everyone is strong.
I can’t emphasise the following few sentences enough, or repeat them often enough to high potential people – especially those who are consciously competent and extremely professional in their work.
A Talent is RAW POTENTIAL. Largely unconscious. Valuable, but with lots of rough edges.
A Strength is FLAWLESS EXECUTION. It’s mastery of that theme of talent, character attribute or role in EVERY sphere of life, not just the ones that bring the applause and recognition.
Because for every Roger Federer, there is a Tiger Woods.
Knowing who you are at your best and BEING who you are at your best most of the time is the work of a lifetime of showing up and growing up.
Second: identifying your themes of talent, character strengths and greatest value to the team is only the master key to the doors of opportunity. Once you know them, grow them and show them in your current roles in life, you will be given the opportunity to move further along your unique career trajectory and find roles that are increasingly a better “fit” for your unique purpose.
Third: This is a journey that involves you as a whole person. Your head, your heart and your hands all need to line up for your talents to be able to seize the opportunities that will be presented to you and you alone to turn into areas of strength.
And Last (but by no means least): The path you’re on is almost NEVER linear. The lines may smooth out the further you grow and go, but expect there to be peaks and troughs in both your working and personal worlds.
When you bring your best version of you, your engagement (energy and performance) goes through the roof, because you're able to do what you do best every day. You progressively begin to be able to shape your role so that it plays more to what you uniquely bring to the table. And you'll begin to experience high levels of both performance and energy that means you'll stand out as a leader worth following.
And let’s never forget that it’s all about performance. Performance is always the point, as far as your employer is concerned.
What you need to do will always have a stronger focus than why you need to do it and who you are as a unique individual. It needs to be said up front – you will NEVER find the “perfect” job. That’s a myth. What you can do is find out what your unique strengths are, as well as learning what your weaknesses are (the things that drain you, not the things you’re “bad at”). Then week by week, quarter by quarter and year by year gradually shape your role so it plays more into your own personal “strengths zone”.
Because contrary to popular thinking, you will never turn your weaknesses into strengths. If you can let your employer know what your weaknesses are by first demonstrating how effective you are in using your strengths, then you have the chance to stop doing them.
You can partner up with people whose strengths compliment yours when working on those great projects. Ideally, you will be able to stop doing the things that drain you. But at the very least you can use your strengths to face your weaknesses by combining your strengths so that they can come close to doing what the weakness requires of you.
So if you're convinced of the benefits of strengths based approach, stick around!
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Nathanael Small is passionate about the world of the intrapreneur - the team leader or leader of leaders within the organisation - helping them move their career from high potential to peak performance.
Nathanael has over 25 years of acquired wisdom in leadership development. His unique perspective and combination of skills allows him to work with intrapreneurs to realise their ambition to be deeply engaged and leading with their strengths.