Do You Know Your Strengths? Keynote with Paul Allen

It’s that time of year again! The next two days we’ll be blogging from GovLoop and YGL’s Next Generation of Government Training Summit. Follow along @NextGenGov and read more blog posts here.

Do you know your own strengths? Does your manager know your strengths? How engaged are you in your daily job? These were the questions addressed tin our lunch keynote on Day 1 with Paul Allen, Strengths Evangelist, Gallup.

Gallup’s Strength Finder 2.0 is the best selling book this year. And it was last year. Right behind that was Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, which talks about how Facebook uses Strength Finder to become a strengths-based organization. So what does a strengths-based organization look like? Basically it means employees are focused on maximizing their innate strengths and managers and leaders are focused on developing those strengths to help you grow. As Allen said, “our culture is obsessed with identifying what is wrong with each other.” But why take people from bad to average when you can make them all-starts? Gallup studies show that if people are doing what they are good at, instead of focusing on their weaknesses, they are happier, smile more often, and are more engaged in the workplace.

Engagement shouldn’t be downplayed either — especially in government. Studies show that as people grow older they become less and less engaged with their work. And by the time people reach full employment, they rate their engagement at 30%. Moreover, in a recent poll only 25% of employees said they have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday.

You want to be productive and happy at your job. For many, using identifying your strengths is the first step in determining what you should be doing. Instead of focusing on the one bad grade you get or the one skill you don’t possess, focus on doing what you already do well — and make it better.

Learn more about strengths finder here and become more engaged at work.

More information on NextGen

Today GovLoop and Young Government Leaders are hosting their annual Next Generation of Government Leaders Summit. Throughout the summit, be sure to check GovLoop and our social media sites to keep up with all the latest from the summit. We’re really excited about this year – and hope to share the experience with all of you.

If you’re unfamiliar with NextGen, the annual training summit educates, inspires and promotes innovation for new and rising leaders in government. Since 2010, the two-day summit has enhanced the professional and personal lives of 2,000+ Generation X and Y government employees, who are excited to learn new skills to innovate.