Newsletter December 2006
Strengths
A message from Lance Pederson,
Founder &CEO
Card Carrying Members of the Strengths Revolution
Convergence Networks is now a part of the Strengths Revolution. I suppose you’re wondering, “What is the Strengths Revolution?” Well, up until a few weeks ago I didn’t know what it was either. I attended a Growth Summit in Houston, and a guy by the name of Marcus Buckingham was the keynote speaker. It turns out that the revolution that he is attempting to lead is one that will enable people to spend the majority of their day at work playing to their strengths, and that the results of having these people playing to their strengths has a huge correlation with the overall success of the organization they are a part of.
What Makes People Tick?
Over the past few months I have really learned a lot about myself in terms of how I look at people in general. Through several circumstances I came to the conclusion that I don’t really understand people as much as I thought I did. This was actually quite liberating for me, but I didn’t know what to do about it. Finally, I decided that I just needed to admit to all the people that report to me that I didn’t have a clue as to what makes them tick, and that they would have to be patient with me while I figured out what to do about fixing it.
Capture the Hearts and Minds of the People
I also had been working on clarifying the vision and mission for everyone. This is a process I’m assuming most entrepreneurs have to go through. So you’ve got it trapped in your mind, and it’s perfectly clear, but for some reason it comes out hazy. While I was working on this I kept hearing my conscious say, “You need to capture the hearts and minds of the people.” Being the visionary that I am and armed with this new information that “I don’t really understand people in general,” I’m thinking to myself: “How can I capture the hearts and minds of people? This made no sense to me.
Over the course of the next month or so, I had three different people (all of whom were complete strangers) use the exact same phrase. The third time I heard it chills went up my spine. I could not get it out of my mind. I ended up addressing the company at our six year anniversary party, and I told them that we were somehow going to “capture the hearts and minds of the people” in 2007 by both creating more formal training opportunities and implementing a performance management system. At that moment that is all I could really think of.
Marcus Buckingham at Growth Summit
A week or so later I received a newsletter about the growth summit in Houston where Marcus Buckingham would be speaking. At that moment I knew in my own heart that I needed to attend. I remembered from reading his first book that he was a proponent of playing to people’s strengths. That seemed to be the connection to capturing the hearts and minds of people, so I decided to attend the conference. It was an excellent lecture and workshop. So allow me to tell you about some of the things I learned at the conference.
Twenty Percenters and the Strengths Revolution
The highlights of his three hour presentation included some eye opening facts. First, approximately 30% of people worldwide believe that playing to your strengths is better than fixing your weaknesses. Second, only two out of every ten (20%) people actually spend the majority of their day playing to their strengths. Amazing! The interesting thing is that Buckingham started the “Strengths Revolution” over seven years ago, and he performed that survey before writing his first book. Earlier this year he conducted the survey again to see how far he had moved the needle with his three books. The results came back with a lower number. Distraught, he did what anyone in his position would do; furthermore, he re-ran the survey six months later and procured the identical results from earlier in the year. He came to the conclusion that not everyone is interested in reading a book, so he created a short film series called, “Trombone Player Wanted.” The film cost over $1 million to produce. He also covered the differences between a manager and a leader, along with how you sustain individual success, which is the topic of his third book.
Discovered My Strengths
After hearing him speak and seeing the statistics, I was pretty much convinced that this was the key to “capturing the hearts and minds” of our people. I ended up taking the Strengths Finder survey online that spits out your top five strength themes. (There is a code that comes with his second book called, “Now Discover Your Strengths,” that gives you access to take the survey.) I could go on and on about how liberating an experience this was for me. All five of my strengths (competition, learner, intellection, achiever, and self-assurance) are dead-on, and I was able to understand why I am the way I am. I’m assuming this is the similar experience most people will have as they spend time thinking about this
At that point I immediately ordered thirty-two copies of the book, one for each of our employees. Once they arrived I distributed them, had everyone take the Strengths Finder survey, and then post the results near their desk. We did this a couple of days ago, and I have already had numerous conversations with people about their strengths. And for the first time in my life, I actually feel like I understand what makes our people tick.
Discover Your Strengths
I felt very compelled to share this story with all of you because of the impact it is having on me as a person and a leader, as well as the impact it is and will have on our organization. By building a strengths-based organization, I believe that we will always be leveraging the strongest assets of the individuals that work at Convergence Networks. Further, because we have found ways to spend the majority of each and every day doing the things that we were designed to do, each of us will experience a sense of overall happiness and fulfillment from our jobs. My hope is that each of you will take the time to discover your strengths, and that you will use this information to better position yourself within your organization to utilize those strengths.
If you would like to receive more information simply contact us.
What People Are Saying
- “The staff at Converge Networks has helped our organization become more efficient and effective. Whenever there is a network question, the Convergence service team is thorough and thoughtful about the support they provide. Convergence Networks is an excellent IT solution and is a part of what makes our organization successful.”
- Terri Sorensen, Executive Director, Friends of the Children – Portland