Masterclass & MastermindClasses are ongoing.
Join me for this exclusive high-performance workplace training and coaching program, what I refer to as my Strengths Champion Certified Coach® Masterclass. I promise to help you and your organization lower employee turnover, drive value, boost collaboration between managers, and increase profits.
A tall order, you might think, but I’ll let you in on a secret:
And that is to know your individual strengths (and those of the managers and employees around you) and to actively encourage everyone in your organization to leverage those strengths.
Have your people taken their eye off the ball? I’m a tennis player, so I like the clarity of this expression. The ball is a metaphor, of course. In the strengths world, the ball has another name: Employee engagement.
I know what you’re thinking. Engagement sounds like a buzz word created by high-priced consultants. On the contrary, you can measure engagement with a researched tool like the Q12. I’ll teach your organization how to measure engagement and do action planning with the Q12 tool. Employee Engagement influences many factors, including your sales, customer loyalty ratings, productivity reports, turnover trends, safety incidents, theft, and absenteeism, I could go on.
Workplaces that consistently measure low in engagement—or any of the metrics I just mentioned—are routinely and systematically squandering profits.
The fix is simpler than you might think. In short, the most direct route to increased profits is to reengage your employees. By that, I mean creating ways to encourage your people to work with passion and feel a profound connection to your business. And the ONLY way I know you can achieve such a profound connection is to create a culture where every employee is using his God-given talents—his strengths—at work each and every day.
You may be an Executive Leader, HR Leader, Management Leader, Organizational Development & Talent Leader, Non-Profit Leader, Learning & Development Leader, Ministry Leader, or an Independent Professional Coach.
My Strengths Champion Certified Coach® Masterclass and Mastermind is intended to turn a great leader into a Strengths Champion by giving her the tools to build a strengths-based culture within your workplace.
Let me take a moment to talk about why I’ve chosen the word “champion.”
A champion implies winning. If you want to improve employee engagement and thus win over your workforce, win new customers, and win entirely new markets, then my Strengths Champion™ Program is exactly the training and coaching program your company needs.
I could list a bunch of features and benefits, but instead, how about I tell you a story?
In 2014, the Triad Group, an injection molding and machine company, faced runaway turnover caused by a series of leadership changes, lack of strategic direction, and poor communication with the production teams.
At this point, company owners Russ and Nancy took on the role of Strengths Champions. They began a sustained effort to turn the company around by creating a strengths-based organization and thus reengaging managers and employees.
First, they gave each employee the StrengthsFinder assessment and issued jerseys with the employee’s top strengths stitched in bold letters on the back. They then developed a six-week training and coaching program for all employees, handed out strengths calendars to help their people focus on their strengths every day, and created a bucket wall to remind everyone the power of strengths in promoting positive interactions. Russ and Nancy even posted team strengths grids on the shop walls to show off the diverse talents of each team.
Russ and Nancy did other things, but what’s most important are the results they achieved.
There’s no question that throughout this process Russ and Nancy transformed from average leaders to two of the world’s greatest leaders. Their work as Strengths Champions empowered their team to build a deeper connection with the company, increasing morale, accountability, productivity and more.
Download the case studies below to understand the effectiveness of CliftonStrengths and the benefits you can achieve by championing your team.
Reducing Turnover by Focusing on Employee’s Strengths & Engagement
Becoming the World’s First Strengths Based Airline
I’m a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation and the World’s 1st GALLUP-Certified Strengths Coach. I’ve been coaching leaders, managers and executives for more than twenty years now. In that time, I’ve also facilitated more than 27,000 coaching sessions and spoken to more than 350 organizations across the globe in such far flung places as Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, and China.
That’s my public bio and often all you’ll get out of me.
And while I often focus on others, for those interested, I’m willing to share my own story, or at least a part of it.
Here goes.
I mentioned that I’m a tennis player and have been for much of my life. I picked up my first tennis racquet at thirteen and intuitively knew the sport fit my body and personality.
The next day, I quit football—no easy task for a kid from East Texas where football rules—and committed my efforts solely to tennis.
I took lessons and practiced hard. In fact, long before I was allowed behind the wheel of my father’s truck, I drove our old tractor to town to the high school courts where I hit balls against a wall for hours.
Problem was few people in my small town of Grand Saline played tennis, and even fewer were any good at it.
Thereafter, Coach Slayton became my coach and mentor.
He quickly saw something in me I didn’t see in myself. Above all, he saw a mix of raw talent and drive that if focused might mature into greatness.
In his own way, Coach Slayton was a pioneer in strengths philosophy.
First, he thought long term, a challenge for any high school coach pressured to get results now, this match, this tournament, this season. In spite of the pressures, he suggested small changes to my game that if repeated over and over would reap massive benefits months or even years in the future.
Second, within days of working together, it seemed, Coach Slayton had identified my core strengths—quickness, sharp reflexes, aggressive play at the net—all the skills of an exceptional doubles player. He pushed me hard to improve the things I was already good at, and in doing so, gave me the confidence to make shots I had previously given up on.
I recall how he didn’t spend a second fixing my weaknesses, and instead drilled me on ways to enhance my natural talents until they overpowered any shortcomings in my game.
My junior year in high school, he selected me and a partner to play first team doubles. By year-end, we had advanced to the Texas Tennis State Championship tournament.
Throughout the tournament, my partner and I played our game—quick, aggressive play at the net—and we didn’t lose a single match. That year, 1981, we won the Texas AAA Doubles Tennis State Championship, a dream come true.
I share this story not as an example of tennis prowess, or even the magic of dreaming big, but instead as an illustration of how an effective and consistent focus on individual strengths can lead to tangible, almost miraculous, outcomes.
To get the most out of my program, I recommend the 5 Star Package! Here’s what it comes with, in a nutshell:
Really, it’s that simple. And if you’re looking for something a little more cost effective or less time consuming I have two other packages to help you on your journey towards becoming a Strengths Champion!
This training material is an array of successful strategies for helping leaders maximize individual and collective talents to reach desired performance outcomes. The videos, workbooks and guides include everything you and I need to address specific team-related issues and challenges using strengths-based development.
These resources focus on the following four areas:
I mentioned Coach Slayton before, a powerful coach and mentor in my early life. Since then, I’ve had other business and professional coaches who played an equally influential role.
Just a few years ago, in October 2012, I got a phone call from Gallup CIO Phil Ruhlman who, along with Gallup Senior Consultant Curt Liesveld, invited me to join Gallup’s groundbreaking Coaching Certification class. I accepted his invitation and became the first Gallup certified strengths coach in history.
Thereafter, Curt Liesveld became my mentor offering advice on coaching and occasionally sharing insights into Gallup’s latest management research projects.
My point: I believe in coaching and you should too.
So, let me make you an offer.
A level higher than anything you could achieve on your own. A level so high with outcomes so lofty you may not believe you’re up for the challenge.
You certainly are.
If you are genuinely interested in introducing a strengths-based culture to your workplace, then I’m your coach.
Seriously, do this and put the odds in your favor.