Standard Chartered Bank's Business case for focussing on employees strengths

According to Debbie Whitaker, Standard Chartered’s Head of Sustainability, ‘everyone has talents that we wish to leverage’.

This is a bold statement, considering Standard Chartered is a bank with over 60,000 employees in 56 countries. Their reasons for focusing on talent are fourfold:

i) greater growth potential
ii) better people performance
iii) increased employee engagement and
iv) attracting and retaining talent.

Many big organisations are sceptical of applying Strengths at work, yet Standard Chartered’s experience shows that it can make sound business sense.

A strengths-based approach to management has been operating in the organisation for the past 7 years, using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool. Whitaker describes a strength as the combination of talent, skill and knowledge, which motivation can transform into world-class performance. In her words, given equal skills and knowledge, talent is what differentiates superior performance from the rest.

So what does Standard Chartered actually do differently to other organisations? Well StrengthsFinder wasn’t designed for recruitment purposes, but it can be used to ensure good role fit and that’s exactly what has contributed to Standard Chartered’s success.The essentials for a salesperson, for example, are good product knowledge and to be able to negotiate and close a deal. But if the salesperson has the additional talents of competitiveness and building rapport with customers, they can become a world-class performer. Not only does Standard Chartered look for specific skills and knowledge, they take innate talents into account too.

It has to be said that there are several definitions of a strength, and the one used here is based on Gallup’s research. The VIA-IS or CAPP definitions are different; as always you need to be clear what you are trying to measure.

Standard Chartered also focuses on building employee engagement, and like Royal & SunAlliance which we featured here, they take volunteering seriously, offering two days paid leave for staff to contribute to voluntary organisations.

What the Standard Chartered story shows is that focusing on strengths can make a big difference to the business and to the people who work there. And applying Positive Psychology at work shouldn’t be something you do in addition to everything else. Look at your existing people-related processes (e.g. recruitment, development, coaching, mentoring and so on) and see how a strengths-approach would make a positive contribution.


As published on http://www.workmad.co.uk/blog/2007/10/standard-chartereds-business-case-for-focusing-on-employee-strengths/

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The case for why you need to spend your day killing products and creating platforms

Have you recently considered the concept of the platform?

Everywhere we turn, products are on the decline, while platforms are gaining momentum, creating change and making money.

Pushing a product is about a one-directional delivery of what I think you need to improve your life, business or service. Building and maintaining a platform is about everybody contributing to the greater good, all the time acknowledging that not one single opinion, person or product has it all figured out, and that we are at our best when we are together.

The phone with all the applications already installed failed, while the phone that was a platform for third party developers to create their own apps prospered. The website that pushed informational products became boring instantly, while the website that created a platform for user-generated content grew to a billion dollar business overnight. The restaurant that served fixed meals from a traditional menu declined, while the eatery who supplied the ingredients and the opportunity to create your own dishes exploded. The television show that featured established musicians did okay, while the show that featured no-name artists and called on its audience to vote for who gets to be famous created a sensation. The teacher who prepared in isolation and taught without feedback never actually taught, while the facilitator who led with questions and closed with a discussion changed his audience forever.

Are you getting it already?

Are you doing the parallel thinking of how this applies to you, your organisation and what you're doing on a daily basis?

A product has potential, while a platform recognises potential in others. A product is a created something, while a platform creates a space for something to be. A product is fixed, a platform remains flexible.

In short, a product is always about me and my plans for you, while a platform is about you and your contribution to the world.

We need less products, and more platforms.

By Mynhardt van Pletsen
http://mynhardtvanpletsen.me

Mynhardt van Pletsen is a Creative Artist and Media Specialist from Pretoria, SA

Visit our Website at www.africanmosaic.com