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EmailLinked Development: Applying a Strengths-Based Approach to Career Development
- Virtual Instructor-led: 3-hour session
This program is designed to give you a step-by-step approach to creating a development plan that aligns an individual’s strengths with your organization’s priorities and needed skillsets. The StrengthsFinder philosophy is based on 40 years of research by the Gallup Organization.
The most significant finding was that most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions about people:
- They can learn to be competent in almost anything.
- Their greatest room for growth is in their areas of greatest weaknesses.
Gallup worked with the Corporate Leadership Council to identify key drivers that impact performance. The research indicates that when we focus on strengths, productivity can increase by up to 40%. The approach is based on the assumptions that each person's talents are enduring and unique, and that each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength. This is quite a different way to look at things. The research also shows that people who aren’t in their “strengths zone,” or who don’t build on the strengths they possess are six times less likely to be engaged in their job.
Target Audience
Individuals who will benefit from this course include:
- Individuals seeking to learn how to create a strengths-based development plan and have a career conversation with their manager
- Managers and leaders interested in an approach that simplifies development conversations with their associates and aligns their strengths and skillsets with the needs of their organization
Learning Objectives
- Explore best practices for career development.
- Apply a three-pronged approach for career development.
- Build self-awareness through assessments.
- Create a meaningful development plan.
- Learn how to have an effective development conversation.
- Make career development part of everyday work.
Pre-Course Work
CliftonStrengths® Strengths Finder Assessment — 30 min.
Course Outline
Module 1: Set Your Course
- Career Development Best Practices
- Three-Pronged Approach for Career Development
- Assess
- Who am I now (skills, values, interests)?
- How do I show up? — Large Group Activity
- How am I seen by others (performance feedback)?
- Where do I want to be? What’s my next career move?
- Growing in Place
- Lateral/Vertical Moves
- Exploration
- Realignment (Moving into Different Role)
- Relocation (Moving out of Org.)
- Linked Development Concept
- Myths and Truths About Strengths
- Strength Based Career Development
Module 2: Chart Your Direction
- Discuss
- Aligning Your Values, Talents, and Skills
- Where Do Your Natural Talents Align
- Identifying and Understanding Your Personal Uniqueness
- Act
- Shifting a Talent to a Strength
- Investing in Skills and Experience
- How to Have a Career Based Conversation with Your Manager
- A Framework for Owning the Conversation
- Build Your Career Plan
- Seek Support Based on Where You are on the Job Curve
- Focus Your Career Plan on Four Areas
- Incorporate SMART Goals
- Session Wrap-Up: Other Resources You Can Access/Utilize — Large Group Discussion
- The Importance of Creating and Sustaining Your Personal Board of Directors (PBOD)
- Networking, Mentoring, and Coaching in Pursuit of Getting to a Different Place in Career
- Appendix: List of Additional Resources, Websites, and Professional Organizations
MDV1538-3 Course Code
For more information on this topic, as well as how Corporate Education Group can help power your organization’s performance, contact us via email or call 1.800.288.7246 (US only) or +1.978.649.8200. You can also use our Information Request Form!
