Resource
Build relationships that drive results – before Monday 23 February!
In this email: Our motives and strengths shape how we relate to others at work and also influence the results we achieve – or fail to achieve – when we work together. Below, a limited-time offer for Like Minds readers: take the Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI) diagnostic by Friday 6 March, enjoy a spot coaching session to discuss the results, and then have a check-in after six weeks – all for £750; or £600 if you decide before Monday 23 February.
Everyone brings different values and strengths to their work, which can be either a source of conflict or the energy behind fantastic leadership and strong collaboration.
When we work with people who think or feel differently, with people whose worldview is not the same as our own, it’s easy to get the sense that we are right and they are somehow ‘wrong’. Of course, they usually think they are right, too!
Three main motives
We feel very strongly about our motives or values.
For example, if you’re a person who cares about performance, outcomes, timelines, and rewards, you may struggle with someone who hesitates over process or worries about an action’s impact on other people.
In the same vein, if you love planning and order (process), you may feel that someone’s drive for performance makes them a bull in a china shop. And if you always think first about how to support other people, then you may see the process as mere red tape and deadlines as something other people should worry about.
Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI)
Clearly, the situation is never clear-cut in this way. In reality, we each bring the three motives of performance (red), people (blue) and process (green) to our work.
The Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI) is a proven tool that reveals a person’s (or indeed a team’s) blend of the three motives. Your personalised report offers practical guidance on how to interact with people who see the world in a different way.
The report looks at how your motives play out when everything is going well and, crucially, when you are in conflict – that is, when you feel your values are under threat.
This feedback is useful in conversations with team members and also with other stakeholders such as prospects, customers and partners.
Strengths and ‘overdone’ strengths
The SDI also shows how you use a portfolio of 28 strengths in the workplace. The results do not tell you about capability, but about how frequently you apply the strengths.
Your report is a chance to consider how you might use other strengths in certain contexts: perhaps you want to be quicker-to-act in the sales process, or more trusting with your team.
Crucially, the SDI shows what happens when people ‘overdo’ their strengths – your colleague may think she is being confident, but you see her as arrogant. My risk-taking is, to you, reckless. Jane tries to be methodical, but her colleagues see her as rigid. Michael prides himself on being option-oriented, but others worry he is too indecisive.
Offer to the Like Minds Community
The SDI is a fabulous tool for self-reflection and opens up practical ways to secure results when working alone and especially with others.
Longstanding supporter of Like Minds, Quentin Millington of Marble Brook, is offering you, as a member of our community, a chance to take the diagnostic before Friday, 6 March and then have two conversations to explore the results and any changes you make.
For £750+VAT, or £600+VAT if you decide before Monday 23 February, you can take the diagnostic and will then receive:
° Your personalised SDI report, which includes: (a) Motives when all is going well, (b) Motives when in conflict, (c) Your strengths, (d) Your ‘overdone’ strengths
° Your own account on the SDI system
° Access to the SDI mobile app
° Two coaching sessions (by video): (a) Results review, your action plan, (b) Check-in after six weeks
Click the link below to request a demo report and receive more information, or contact Quentin directly by email.
(*) All prices exclude UK VAT at 20%