4 Questions To Ask That Will Help You Discover People’s Strengths - John Barrett Leadership

It doesn’t matter what people have talked about doing; what matters is what they have successfully done. To find someone’s strength, look to his or her achievements. What tasks, events, programs, or opportunities have they excelled in? Success in a particular area indicates an individual’s strength. People do not excel in things they are bad at. This is especially important with new team members. Find out what they have done well in the past and develop those things for the future. As they continue on, make sure you get the stats and keep the stats so that you, as the leader, are aware of individuals’ best performances.

As they finish tasks and projects you have assigned to them, make sure to take notes on how they did. Be specific about the areas they executed well and the areas they struggled with. Reflecting upon past performance gives you great insight into future possibilities. I would also encourage you to test individuals’ abilities by letting them take on new roles. You never know what hidden strength or talent they may have buried within them just waiting to be unleashed.

We are naturally intuitive in the area of our strengths. When someone is able to learn a new skill quickly or accomplish assignments efficiently, it is usually a great indicator of their strengths. Find out what comes easily to others and make note of it. What do they accomplish faster than anyone else? What do they inherently know faster than others? This can be an “x factor” type of characteristic that people have in their strength zone. They just have that “gut feeling” that seems to guide them in their decision making.

When someone has strength in a given skill, they are clearly good at it. If you want to know if they are gifted in an area, give them something to do and see if they make it bigger or smaller. Highly gifted individuals will take a project and add to it rather than subtract from it. They will tend to be more thorough in the execution than average. Though we all need training to grow better, natural strengths lie within each person making them better at certain things.