Buckingham: nurture employees' strengths to build successful teams

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 3, 2008 by Robin Lee Allen

WASHINGTON -- Too many businesspeople focus on shoring up their weaknesses, when the more effective strategy is to build on their strengths, said best-selling author Marcus Buckingham during his keynote speech at the Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators conference here.

For years we have studied depression to understand happiness, disease to understand health and divorce to understand happy marriages, Buckingham pointed out in his speech titled "Leading from Your Strengths." "Now we realize that if you flip it, you don't get excellence, you get not bad," he said.

For optimal performance you should "build on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses," he said.

Successful companies recognize the range of skills present in employees and place them on teams where they have an opportunity to do what they do best and they are partnered with people with different strengths, said Buckingham during a humor-filled presentation that was sponsored by the Women's Foodservice Forum.

"A great company is a deliberate accumulation of lots and lots of great teams," he said.

But too often employees are placed into roles that don't take advantage of their strengths or they work for managers who deplete rather than buoy them, said Buckingham, who spent nearly two decades conducting polls for the Gallup Organization. He noted that the percentage of people who believe they spend most of their day playing to their strengths has declined steadily from 17 percent in 2005 to 14 percent in late 2008.

"Most of us, as leaders, are pretty ineffective at getting the most out of our people," he said, adding that is because leaders need to focus on themselves before turning their attention to those who report to them.

"Like the airlines say: 'You have to put your own oxygen mask on first before charging about helping others,'" he said.

To help leaders get a clear idea of their strengths, Buckingham debunked some myths he said hold many people back. First, he said, although many people believe that as you grow your personality changes, the reality is that as you grow you become more of who you are. Personality traits should be accepted and harnessed to the person's advantage.

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Next, he added, many people believe they will grow most in their areas of weakness. The truth, however, is that they will grow most in their areas of strength because when people feel good about what they are doing, their dedication grows.

Finally, while many people believe that a good team member does whatever it takes to help the team, the truth is that a good team member volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time and deliberately partners with people who have different strengths, he said.

More people in the United States are focusing on their strengths, but the progress is still lacking, Buckingham said. In 2000, 41 percent of U.S. respondents said they worked on building on their strengths, versus 59 percent who said they worked on fixing their weaknesses. Today, 45 percent of respondents said they are building on their strengths, versus 55 percent who are focused on fixing their weaknesses.

In comparison, 70 percent of respondents in China, where the economic engines are at full throttle, said they were building on their strengths, versus 30 percent who said they worked on fixing their weaknesses.

"You need a spirit of entrepreneurship if you are going to win today," he said. "You have to think more like China."

Pointing to investor Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as someone who knows his strengths, Buckingham noted that Buffett gave $31 million to be dispersed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation because charity was not his strength.

"Everyone has strengths; no one has the same strengths," he said. "When yon win, everyone will win."

After the speech, Buckingham signed copies of his most recent book, "The Truth About You."

rallen@nrn.com