Empowering True Strengths | @KingfisherCoach on The #SocialRecruiting Show

Equipping people to be managers using their strengths

This week’s Guest, Ian Pettigrew, is from the world of Leadership Development and Coaching and he joins us to talk about “empowering true strength”. In his opinion, the foundations of good Management and Leadership start with, “some basic skills in management” which are, 1). “making sure people know what’s expected of them” 2). “making sure you support people” 3). “trusting and empowering them” and “getting out of their way”.

Ian tells us “I don’t like job titles” and having worked in “lots of change and strategic roles” and having “been a Developer”, he realised

“I was far more interested in the people side”.

Fast forward to the present day and he is CEO of Kingfisher Coaching which has been established for over 10-years.

To open the show, we discuss the challenges of Management and he hits us with a stat from a recent Gallop poll based on high and low performing teams which says, “70% of the variation was explained by one factor, the Manager”. 

“Managers should be that absolute magic that in a workplace, help people be what they can be, however, it doesn’t always happen”.

Quite a challenging statement for Managers! – Ian acknowledges “Managers are people too” and need continual support with their own development.

Our strengths are obvious to others

Ian provides us with a definition and says, “strengths can be defined as patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviour” and that “they are how we succeed”; interestingly though,

“One of the challenges of strengths, is that we don’t always spot them in ourselves”.

He does make another distinction that’s important to consider; “our strengths don’t define what we can do, they give insight into how we do”.

Katrina poses the question, ‘what’s in it for companies?” if they help their people identify their strengths and Ian’s tells us “if we can help people be more of who they are, thrive and be happy – people perform, people stay” – higher retention rates anyone!

Ian’s guidance for Managers and Leaders is “feedback is speaking the truth with positive intent” and don’t shy away from “pointing out what’s gone right” and create a culture and environment where you are “getting people telling more empowering stories to themselves and others”.

If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Ian talk about:

• Change the focus from development to your strengths
• Managing a person is different to managing a team
• When does a strength become a derailer 
• The three ‘E’s’ of strengths 
• Redefine your weaknesses  
• Invest time in developing yourself and your team