|
by
Nan Henderson, M.S.W.
Gallup
has been researching what leads to human success for the past
30 years, surveying almost 200,000 people working in thousands
of "business units" around the world. The research
has also involved conducting more than two million interviews
with "the best" of the world's professions–including
teachers, doctors, lawyers, salespeople, soldiers, nurses,
housekeepers, pastors, and executives.
Gallup's
results challenge common assumptions about what contributes
to life success.
Key
findings are:
•Success
occurs in individuals' lives because they grow in the areas
of their strengths, rather than obsessing about and trying
to repair their weaknesses. While it may be necessary at times
to "manage" a weakness, most of our attention should
be focused on growing strengths.
•People
develop their strengths by first identifying their natural
"talents", then learning information and building
skills to maximize them.
•In
all countries where individuals were surveyed, strengths were
overlooked, taken for granted, and underestimated.
•The
most productive, satisfied employees are those who report
they have "an opportunity to do what I do best"
every day. But only 20 percent of those surveyed said they
have this opportunity.
These
findings are reported in a new book, Now, Discover Your
Strengths by Gallup Executives Marcus Buckingham and Donald
Clifton.
What
relevance does this research have for educators, parents,
and social service providers? The authors state that strengths
are more powerful than weaknesses–a finding very connected
to the research on human resiliency. School, they suggest,
should be "a focused hunt for a child's areas of greatest
potential" (p.31).
"The
keystone of high achievement and happiness is exercising your
strengths" rather than obsessing on weaknesses, notes
resiliency researcher Martin Seligmann, Ph.D., past president
of the American Psychological Association, (on the back cover
of the book).
However,
as the letter in the next column so pointedly illustrates,
focusing on strengths is not the norm today in education.
|
|
Buckingham
and Clifton note this "building-on-strengths" focus
is also not the norm in most corporations. They report that
it is, however, something "the most successful managers"
do.
Though
the book was written primarily for a business audience, most
teachers, parents, and counselors can also benefit from the
suggestions on how to use a strengths approach to maximize
life success. These are summarized on page 2.
A
LETTER OF THANKS
How the Resiliency Approach Transformed
My 6th Graders
January 21, 2002
I
was teaching a very difficult group of sixth graders last
year and was running out of energy and hope. [I attended your
resiliency] training, which gave me some new inspiration,
and I took the tools from that day and trained my whole class.
I had them go through the list of personal resiliency factors
from the training [see list at bottom of page
2] looking for their top three. We discussed them beforehand,
and talked about how each might play a factor in helping them
to bounce back from difficulties in their lives.
I
teach in a low-income neighborhood with many gang involvement
opportunities. I was unsure of the impact this little exercise
would have. I had several students whose initial response
was, "Ya, right. I don't have any of these!" However,
after a few days of class discussion, assignments to share
with parents, and one-on-one time, every student had chosen
at least two that they already had. We then discussed how
to make them stronger, and to choose one or two more to work
on in the coming year.
My
classroom became a much different place. I firmly believe
that looking at resiliency had a huge part in that. Before
the training, I was focusing on what was wrong with my class.
After our work together, each student had at least two "strengths"
or as one student put it, "I have two things I do right!"
This
same student was a huge behavioral challenge for me. I was
so fearful of her entering Middle School. As of the last time
we spoke, she was each of her teacher's favorite students!
She sits right in front, and is getting high marks. Her SAT9
scores (that ever important academic component) went up 259
points overall! Another student who was always getting in
fights is the student who is welcoming new students to school,
and is taking all her friends to church!
[CONTINUED
ON THE NEXT PAGE]
|