More can happen and better if each individual focuses on what they are good at. This brings joy as well as better team productivity.

At the end of a busy day do you feel tired and drained or do you feel charged up? The difference between the two experiences is not how productive you were but whether you were doing what is in your flow - what you are strong at.

Productivity typically focuses on how to get more done in the same time. Flow focuses on what you are naturally good at doing. Geet Sethi the Billiards World Champion makes a similar distinction in the book "Success vs. Joy", where he mentions that he can keep on playing billiards for hours without becoming tired or bored.

Discovering what makes you tick however is not that easy, The author Marcus Buckingham in his book "Go Put Your Strengths to Work" has some tools to help one do this. Here is what he has to say "Conventional wisdom tells us that we learn from our mistakes. The strengths movement says that all we learn from mistakes are the characteristics of mistakes. If we want to learn about our successes , we must study successes."  He says that each person must discover his own strengths and this is something unique for each person.

He suggests a simple technique; keep a track of all the activities that you do during a week, and note down whether you "Loved It" or "Loathed It" at the end of the activity. Strengths make you feel powerful. After this is done look at the list and seek out a patern to discover your strengths.

Marcus Buckingham says that three ingredients combine to create a strength:-

* Talents. Because you are so close to your own talents, they are most effectively measured by personality profiles, such as the Clifton StrengthsFinder, Myers-Briggs, and the klobe Conative Index. Talents are innate. Talents do not change with time.

* Skills. Skills are learned.

* Knowledge. Knowledge is learned.

So how do you know your strengths? "When you do it you feel effective, before you do it you actively look forward to it, while you are doing it you feel inquisitive and focused.  After you've done it, you feel fulfilled and authentic." says Marcus Buckingham. After one has discovered ones strengths one needs to spend more time on areas one feels strong and keep reducing or keep delegating to others, activities one is not strong in and where others are strong.

It follows then that this approach is good for the team as well. Peter Drucker the management guru says that, "The effective executive builds on strengths- their own strengths, the strengths of superiors, colleagues, subordinates; and on the strengths of the situation." and Marcus Buckingham himself in his earlier book "First Break all the Rules" says that one of the keys for excellent managers is "Finding the right fit for employees by getting their strengths in proper alignment with the tasks for which they are responsible."

It is important to note that "Strengths" are not the same as "Profession". Profession is more to do with Knowledge and Skills, and is only one part of Strength which includes Talent. A Chartered accountant friend of mine shared a similar dilemma while planning the growth of his firm. He never really enjoyed Tax Audits, and regular compliance work. What really gave him satisfaction was Tax advice and structuring companies for better tax planning. This realisation helped him completely delegate aspects he did not enjoy to his team and focus on his strengths. A couple of years later he says his business is doing very well. His team takes care almost independently Tax Audits and regular accounting functions for his clients while he focuses only on consulting.

Verne Harnish "the guru of fast growth companies" suggests that the CEO should on a weekly basis make a list of activities that he is not comfortable doing and delegate it to people who are naturally inclined towards doing these tasks.

Making this list for each member of the team and realigning tasks to people who actually look forward to doing the tasks can make the whole team energised, time does not really matter any more since everyone is doing what they like to be doing.

Geet Sethi puts it simply  "Chip Away what is not joy."

The author is the Chief Catalyst of Businessgyan, His areas of interest are business strategy and innovation. For feedback & more information send mail to thespark@ businessgyan.com

Issue BG88 July 08

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Comments (1)

	1. 24-08-2008 20:26
	ideas are put across very well... Registered Report

Rima Joshi

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