The latest thoughts from David…

In Tom Rath’s book, Strengths Finder 2.0, he quotes some research on the chances of employees being actively disengaged based on their managers’ focus.  I found it startling and obvious at the same time.  Where a manager’s primary focus is on weaknesses this leads to a 22% chance that his/her employees will be actively disengaged.  Ignoring employees altogether leads to a 40% chance which makes sense when you consider the basic human need for attention (anyone with children will be nodding at this point).

BUT (I hope that you noticed how big that but was) when the manager’s focus is primarily on his/her team’s strengths the figure drops to a mere 1%.

At Rambutan, we have helped lots of companies improve their employee engagement but we have never considered that it could be as simple as getting managers to go round noticing and commenting on what people are good at.  I had better stop now before I put us out of business!  On a serious note I would thoroughly recommend Tom’s book.  It includes a unique code that you use to fill in a web based questionnaire that generates a personalised strengths report that I found very insightful.  In case you’re wondering I am not on commission but, as the research states, I did find the experience of someone (or more specifically something) commenting on my strengths very engaging.