Step Two: Start With Common Organizational Practices.

Begin by reviewing the ongoing practices in your organization for ways to increase a focus on strengths and assets first:

Look at questions you ask of potential employees, as well as performance review criteria of current staff. Focus on the strengths and assets first. It's more engaging, less threatening and gets quicker buy-in and ownership by all the parties.

Practical Examples

• Job Interviews – Ask applicants to talk about their strengths, passions and accomplishments. What would your best friend or your last supervisor say about you? What are you most proud of accomplishing? If you get to individual weaknesses, make sure you get to strengths first.

• Job Descriptions and Team Building – Job descriptions can be built around people's strengths. You can add or remove responsibilities based on these. You can develop teams that complement each other rather than trying to force people into roles where their strengths may not be optimally utilized.

• Performance Reviews – Start with questions about what the employee is most proud of accomplishing in the past year, and how you can build on that strength together rather than focusing on areas where the employee fell short.

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