4 Questions To Ask That Will Help You Discover People’s Strengths

Here are a few questions to ask that will help you discover the strengths within an individual taken from my new book Leadology…get the book to find out more about knowing how to get the best out of the people you lead.

1) What Are They Passionate About?

The areas people are most passionate about usually involve their strengths. Simply listening to the ideas that ignite their excitement will give you clues to their unique gifts. Find out what they read about, think about, and ask questions about. These insights will help you know their true passions. When you find someone’s passion, you will find what they will be most productive in. The goal is to connect their passions with their job responsibilities. The larger the gap is between someone’s passion and their work, the less productive they will be. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art.” The less of a gap there is between someone’s passion and their job, the easier it is to activate them. Bridging an individual’s passion to their job self-motivates them to be internally invested in their work.

The less of a gap there is between someone’s passion and their job, the easier it is to activate them.

2) What Have They Succeeded At In The Past?

It doesn’t matter what people have talked about doing; what matters is what they have successfully done. To find someone’s strength, look to his or her achievements. What tasks, events, programs, or opportunities have they excelled in? Success in a particular area indicates an individual’s strength. People do not excel in things they are bad at. This is especially important with new team members. Find out what they have done well in the past and develop those things for the future. As they continue on, make sure you get the stats and keep the stats so that you, as the leader, are aware of individuals’ best performances.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

As they finish tasks and projects you have assigned to them, make sure to take notes on how they did. Be specific about the areas they executed well and the areas they struggled with. Reflecting upon past performance gives you great insight into future possibilities. I would also encourage you to test individuals’ abilities by letting them take on new roles. You never know what hidden strength or talent they may have buried within them just waiting to be unleashed.

3) What Comes Easily To Them?

We are naturally intuitive in the area of our strengths. When someone is able to learn a new skill quickly or accomplish assignments efficiently, it is usually a great indicator of their strengths. Find out what comes easily to others and make note of it. What do they accomplish faster than anyone else? What do they inherently know faster than others? This can be an “x factor” type of characteristic that people have in their strength zone. They just have that “gut feeling” that seems to guide them in their decision making.

Neuroendocrinologist Dr. Deepak Chopra says, “If you say ‘I have a gut feeling about such and such’ you’re not speaking metaphorically, you’re speaking literally. Your gut makes the same chemicals that your brain makes when it thinks.” When someone says, “I have a gut feeling” they are actually referring to the sensation they get as experiences, ideas, and decisions are activating. People have strong gut feelings in their areas of expertise. Know what your team members naturally are gifted with and get them in those areas of expertise.

People have strong gut feelings in their areas of expertise.

4) What Do They Make Better?

When someone has strength in a given skill, they are clearly good at it. If you want to know if they are gifted in an area, give them something to do and see if they make it bigger or smaller. Highly gifted individuals will take a project and add to it rather than subtract from it. They will tend to be more thorough in the execution than average. Though we all need training to grow better, natural strengths lie within each person making them better at certain things.

People talk about the excellence that comes from this person. Others notice their performance. So listen to teammates and those around that particular individual. This may help you identify what areas this person goes above and beyond in. When someone has strength in an area, they make that area better and bigger as a result. Walt Disney said, “Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it they will want to come back and see you do it again and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.” Find the kind of people that do what they do very well and let them do it!