Strengths Coaching is based on the premise that every human being has a unique set of natural gifts and talents, and that by learning to recognize and leverage this uniqueness, they can make their greatest contribution to others.
The focus of strengths coaching is not on creating something that is not there, but on bringing out the excellence that already lives within. This approach stands in contrast to the “deficit” approach which is so common in many workplaces and schools. Rather than trying to fix what is “wrong” with you, we focus on what is great about you and how you can build and grow your inherent talents and strengths. Just as we don’t learn about health by studying disease, we don’t learn about excellence by studying failure. We learn about excellence by paying attention to what excellence looks like for you in the real world.
This does not mean that you should simply ignore weaknesses and problems. But research shows that the best and fastest way to increase performance is by focusing on the positive, specifically by identifying your unique strengths and intentionally playing to them each day at work and in the world at large.
This is important not only on the individual level, but on the team level as well. A company is only as good as its teams, and research shows that the best teams across industries and countries – those with the highest level of engagement and performance – have one defining feature that stands above the rest. On the best teams, each team member has a chance to use their strengths every day.
Stephen Artinian 