— By Sean Luster, Career Track MBA Student
The Dean’s Forum, part of COBE Speaker Series Presented by Keybank, hosted Marcus Buckingham March 31 in the Stueckle Sky Center. Buckingham inspired students, faculty and community members with his charisma and interpersonal expertise during his presentation titled, “A Case for Strengths.”
Every business wants its team of employees to be motivated and productive on a daily basis, maximizing efficiency and making a difference in some way. It is a difficult challenge for leaders to keep employees engaged and energized every day throughout the year. Marcus Buckingham, a best-selling author and consultant for major corporations such as Facebook and Coca-Cola, has worked to pinpoint ways for leaders to be more effective, specifically by cultivating strengths rather than spending time improving weaknesses.
From the start of the presentation, Buckingham noted that the scope of the presentation would be to provide one piece of data, one concept, and one tool that leaders could use in the workplace. The data component involved providing survey answers to see what was important to employees when it came to being lead. The results show that workers want to feel like they are part of the team and also feel special for the work that they produce. In addition, workers want leaders to know their strengths and focus their efforts on what they should be accomplishing. Buckingham suggested that having weekly check-ins was necessary for the leaders to be able to establish good working relationships with their teams.
The conceptual piece of the presentation was the importance of cultivating strengths rather than focusing on weaknesses. Buckingham argued that a person’s strengths are his or her areas of opportunity and development whereas weaknesses are not. He stated that companies spend too much time trying to fix failure rather than trying cultivating strengths, which is key for one to grow and excel.
“I liked the perspective of resisting the temptation to funnel all your effort into areas of weakness, and instead place a high value on your identified strengths,” stated Boise State University MBA Candidate Suzie Day. “Hearing Marcus Buckingham share with our learning community encouraged me in my studies.”
The final aspect of Buckingham’s presentation was the StandOut Assessment tool, which reveals the user’s leadership type. Knowing this information can help make a leader more effective when it comes to facilitating business activities in the workplace. As Buckingham noted, “There is no perfect leader profile,” and every leader is different. Regardless, Buckingham believes that a leader with constant communication with other team members and with the ability to cultivate strengths will have the opportunity to be more successful.