Everyone has a unique mix of personal strengths. Some people are excellent at verbal communication and planning. Other individuals are sensational at mentoring and training others. There truly is no superior or sub-par combination of strengths. Each and every person brings something to his or her world that is desperately needed.
Underdeveloped Strengths are Bad for Business
Just as everyone has obvious strengths, they also have strengths that are somewhat hidden. Oftentimes these strengths remain weak or dormant because they are never given the chance to grow, or their owner is not exposed to an atmosphere conducive to their discovery and development. Underdeveloped strengths not only weaken employees; they also weaken companies.
There’s a good chance that many of your employees have underdeveloped strengths. Simply put, this is bad for business. For example, if you have an employee who has a bent toward innovation but isn’t given the place to develop that talent, just imagine the amount of income-producing ideas your company will forfeit. In addition to being terrible for business, unused strengths are also bad for employee engagement.
Unused Strengths Result in Employee Disengagement
Are you frustrated because your employees are about as engaged at work as the average 8th grader is in math class? If so, you are in the company of about two-thirds of all employers. Amy Adkins, author of the article Majority of U.S. Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014 wrote, “Less than one-third (31.5%) of U.S. workers were engaged in their jobs in 2014.” This is in the U.S. alone, mind you.
Employee disengagement is widespread and deadly to companies. The good news is there is a way to get employees engaged in and excited about their work. The solution lies in their strengths. Susan Sorenson, writer for Gallup, says, “People who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job.” Let that sink in for a moment. Employees who use their strengths at work are six times more likely to be engaged on the job. That is incredible. It looks like a key to increasing employee engagement is ensuring workers are operating in their personal strengths every day.
An LMS Encourages Employees to Discover and Use Their Strengths
Do your employees use their strengths to the utmost? One way to ensure they do is to implement a social learning management system (LMS). An LMS, or eLearning platform, is a tool designed primarily to provide corporate training solutions. However, an eLearning system also encourages employees to maximize their strengths. Here’s how:
- An LMS creates atmospheres conducive to personal growth – It is the rare person who is told what his or her strengths are. More often than not, people stumble over their strengths as they work and interact with others. An LMS’s social learning tools such as realtime chat, personal profiles and video conferencing encourage employee connection and informal learning. They also help to create atmospheres in which personal strengths can be discovered and developed.
- eLearning courses are customizable – There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter eLearning course. On the contrary, online courses are highly customizable. LMS-based courses can be personalized to develop the strengths of individual learners or groups of learners. Are there specific employees who you’d love to see grow in the area of leadership? Would others benefit from being better trained in customer service? With an LMS, it is easy to affordably provide a limitless number of trainings. Cloud-based LMSs make training materials accessible from any device, at any time, from any location.
- LMSs cater to all types of learners – Most people are familiar with Albert Einstein’s quote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” The article What’s the Deal with Personalized eLearning? reveals that this quote was uttered in reference “to the public educational system and the one-size-fits-all approach to teaching.” Einstein probably would have loved eLearning due to the simple fact that it caters to all types of learners—visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Make sure your LMS courses feature vivid colors and engaging videos and simulations that meet the needs of visual learners. For auditory learners, online courses should allow for replay of lectures. To satisfy kinesthetic learners with an LMS, “Try using group work, activities that encourage trainees to turn their webcam on, or timed online activities that appeal to kinesthetic learners in your presentations.”
Joyce C. Lock said, “Build upon your strengths, and weaknesses will gradually take care of themselves.” Begin amplifying your employees’ strengths today with the help of a social learning management system.
