Content provided by: Cappfinity

There are many ways that strengths can be used to make the most of work and life, Cappfinity explains.

Over the last 16 months, we’ve probably all experienced the value of strengths. During a crisis, when our resilience is being truly tested, our strengths can play a vital role in enabling us to overcome the difficulties we’re faced with. 

Earlier this year Cappfinity analysed more than 21,000 Strengths Profiles to explore how our strengths had helped us to cope with the challenges created by the pandemic. 

We saw an increase in growth, gratitude and adherence as we learned new skills, appreciated what we had and saw a positive side to rule following. We also increased our unrealised strengths in humour and change agent, showing our willingness to adapt and see the lighter side of our challenges.

Now, as we move from crisis to recovery, we continue to see the benefits of strengths helping us to bounce back. 

The latest strengths data shows us that service – helping people wherever we can – and unconditionality – never judging others – have seen increases as we support each other to rebuild and recover.

Putting strengths to work

Over two decades of positive psychology and strengths research has taught us that when people know their strengths and actively use those strengths, good things happen. They are more fulfilled, more engaged, more resilient and better able to bounce back after difficult times.

People often think a strength is something that you’re good at, but really, that’s just half the answer. The other half is that strengths are also the things that you enjoy doing.

It’s this combination of being good at doing something and enjoying doing it that makes strengths so impactful and rewarding. This combination is at the heart of performance, productivity and engagement. We’re naturally motivated to want to do it and we do it better. This is the essence of why strengths work.

People who use their strengths more are happier, more confident and have higher self-esteem. They experience more vitality, are more resilient and they experience less stress. They learn faster, are more engaged and perform better at work. They make more progress in achieving their goals. These are not opinions – they are the consistent results of peer-reviewed, empirical research.

There are many reasons why individuals, coaches, educators and businesses are now putting strengths to work:

• For individuals, strengths is the ideal way to start your self-awareness journey to expand your confidence and give you the language to explore what you love to do. Using the strengths language and free resources such as Best SELF will help you understand strengths and guide your actions. 
• For organisations, strengths-based hiring can help recruiters to look past CVs and level the playing field for candidates. Recruiting on strengths is great for the individual by doing work they love, and great for the employer in having team members who love what they do.A strengths-based approach in work can help businesses maximise team as well as individual performance. No one is good at everything. The strengths approach is about making the best of what each person has to offer in what they do best. When we collaborate on our strengths, it supports greater diversity across the organisation.
• For educators, using strengths can help students find a fulfilling and rewarding career, and prepare for the world of work. Strengths help students to talk about themselves authentically and find a career path that is a natural fit for them and that they will love.
• Coaches use strengths to bring out the best in others by giving them the language, confidence and action plan to achieve their life or career goals, helping them to unlock their hidden potential. The biggest transformation can often happen when clients learn that what they thought were their strengths are in fact their learned behaviours. Many of us have been trapped in a role where we were good at something but didn’t really enjoy it. Strengths puts the ownership back on the individual to have a more conscious career.

Finding out more about strengths

Putting strengths to work is at the foundation of our Strengths Profile product and at the heart of Cappfinity’s founding purpose of Strengthening the World. We help people discover what their strengths are and help them to make the most of them in work and life. 

You can take a Strengths Profile here to introduce you, your clients and your employees to the strengths approach and begin your strengths journey.