StrengthscopeTeam™

StrengthscopeTeam™ shows you the collective strengths and performance risks of a team. The report assesses and describes the team’s current behaviour and where this can be enhanced, to help build a strong and sustainable team culture.

Our tools focus on the team’s strengths, performance risks and potential gaps, and the productive behaviours needed to help build a strong and sustainable team culture.

FAQ

• What is the definition of strengths?

We define strengths as ‘underlying qualities that energise you and that you are great at or have the potential to become great at’.

• What model is Strengthscope® based on?

It’s built on a wide range of research in the fields of personality, ability, positive psychology and strengths. We drilled down to identify the essence of strengths at work; finally selecting 24 strengths which best captured performance-critical strengths in the workplace. These strengths are broken down into four ‘clusters’ of strengths, as follows:
• Emotional: these strengths relate to how you manage and express your emotions in relation to circumstances and people around you.
• Relational: these strengths relate to establishing and maintaining productive relations with others.
• Thinking: these strengths relate to the areas in which you prefer to apply your intellect, as well as how you go about gathering and using information to make decisions at work.
• Execution: these strengths relate to delivering results, in terms of content and delivery.

• Is it possible that I might have a strength that I am not good at?

Yes, this is possible, but doesn’t occur very often. This is because we tend to build skill and competence in areas we are naturally more drawn to. However, a person might not have had the opportunity to develop skills and experience in an area of strength, meaning that it has remained an under-developed strength. Of course, this area offers lots of potential for development and learning for the person and could over time become a fully optimised strength.

• What can I do about the areas where I don’t have a strength?

The first question you need to ask is, “What is the impact of this non-strength/weaker area on my performance?” If there is little or no impact on your current work or future aspirations, then you probably shouldn’t invest too much time trying to develop in this area. However, if there is a negative impact on your performance or potential as a result of this area, or if there is the risk of such impact, you should consider ways to make your non-strength/weaker area less relevant by mitigating or improving it. Possible approaches include:

1. Using other strengths you have to compensate for the effect of the weaker area. For example, someone with low Common Sense might use their Leading or Collaboration strength to bring in others who have Common Sense during problem- solving tasks.
2. Finding someone else in the team or organisation who can compensate for your weaker areas to partner with you to perform the work.
3. Being more intentional about learning and putting in place daily habits that don’t come naturally to you. We call this “Going to the gym when you really don’t want to”.
4. Using support mechanisms (including technology) as a substitute for the lack of a strength in a particular area. For example, someone who is low on ‘Efficiency’ might use an online diary application to ensure they assume a more methodical approach to managing their time and tasks in future.
5. Finding a new role which enables you to play to your strengths more of the time.

• If I am a manager or leader, is it better for me to have particular strengths?

No, since management and leadership roles tend to vary significantly from organisation to organisation, there is no one set of strengths that make up a ‘good manager’. Also, research has found that similar managers and leaders call on vastly different strengths to undertake their role, with equally impactful outcomes. What is important to the success of a manager or leader is knowing one’s strengths and applying these as optimally as possible, whilst managing or minimising performance risks to make them less relevant.

• Do strengths change over time, i.e. will my strengths be the same in 5 or 10 years’ time?

Research has shown that an individual’s strengths tend to be fairly stable over time, as they are a core part of who we are as individuals. However, important life events (marriage, divorce, major job change, childbirth, etc.) may bring strengths into the foreground or push them into the background for a period of time.

• What is different about Strengthscope® from a normal personality questionnaire?

Strengthscope® identifies the things that ‘strengthen’ or energise you – this is a critical distinction between Strengthscope® and a general personality measure, such as OPQ or Insights, for example. Strengthscope® does not describe behavioural preference (as personality questionnaires do) but instead identifies the behaviours and activities which make us feel strong, powerful and energised.

• How is Strengthscope® different from other strengths assessments?

Strengthscope® differs in several important ways from other strengths assessments:

1. Strengthscope® is the only strengths-based assessment to have achieved ‘Registered Test’ status with the British Psychological Society, the global gold standard for psychometric testing. 
2. If the multi-rater/360º option is chosen, the user receives multi-rater feedback from work colleagues and other key stakeholders on how effectively they are applying their strengths at work.
3. The model is intentionally more straightforward than those of other tools to make it more practical and usable.

• What differences are there between strengths and competencies? 

Competencies are typically defined as characteristics and behaviours that predict successful organisational outcomes. Most organisations using competencies have focused their efforts on defining skills, knowledge and behaviours associated with success in a particular role, function or at a particular level in the organisation (e.g. leadership). Unlike competencies, strengths are related to the person and not the role, function or level. They have a strong emotional element as well as leading to valued outcomes; the best signpost of a strength is when something energises or strengthens you. Strengths are also part of your character – things that are core to you and are fairly consistently expressed across situations. Unlike surface characteristics such as skills and knowledge, strengths are relatively ‘hardwired’ in our teens and are difficult to develop and fundamentally change beyond this point. We believe it is at the point where skills and knowledge (competencies) and energisers (or strengths) overlap, that productive habits can be developed, which lead to sustainable peak performance.

• What about Strengthscope®’s reliability and validity – is it ‘fit for purpose’?

Strengthscope® is one of the very few assessments to have achieved registered-test status with the British Psychological Society, which represents the global gold standard for psychometric design. Strengthscope® is the only strengths assessment available globally to have achieved this standard. In practice, this means that it has been built with rigour and has a substantial amount of test data to support it.

• Do I need practitioner training to use Strengthscope®? 

Yes, practitioner trainings run throughout the year and and the foundational training takes 2 days. Experience has shown us that it is very important that prospective users of the instrument have the opportunity to watch demonstrations, use Strengthscope® in a live setting, and receive feedback on their approach. This is because the approach and emphasis in using Strengthscope® is different to more standard assessment tools. Strengthscope® Practitioner training includes:
• The background and psychometric properties of Strengthscope®.
• How to develop people to realise their full potential.
• How to translate awareness and knowledge of your own and others’ strengths into success.
• How to provide constructive and appreciative feedback and coaching based on the Strengthscope® report.
• How to translate learning into practical, business-relevant outcomes.

• Is there a continuing professional development pathway if I want to become an expert in strengths-based coaching, development and talent management?

Yes, we have an excellent pathway beyond the initial accreditation training for those wanting to learn how to apply Strengthscope® and strengths-based concepts, tools and techniques to improve employees’ passion, performance and positivity. This culminates in a Master Practitioner Certification providing valued recognition of your status as an expert in the strengths-based talent and development field.