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Miriam Akhtar Positive Psychology: Coaching, Courses, Consultancy, Communications |
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What
is Positive
Psychology
Personal Coaching: A positive alternative to therapy Short Courses in Positive Psychology The Happiness Training Plan CD
Mob: 07973 742739 |
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Strengths-based Coaching In the business of life we spend far more time on fixing our weaknesses than we do on developing our strengths. But (and it's a 'but' worth highlighting) research from positive psychology shows that much better results are to be had from playing to our strengths than focusing on our weaknesses. Developing strengths - in business and education - leads to improved performance, greater productivity and increased well-being. When you enable someone to play to their strengths, you're creating the circumstances for them to excel - with ease, as they're doing something that comes naturally. On the other hand when you focus on developing weaknesses (the path of most resistance), research shows that the best you can expect is mediocrity. And yet fixing weaknesses is the focus of much training and development in the workplace and education in schools. Of course we do need to manage our weaknesses and gain basic skills, but beyond that the route to success lies in identifying and using your strengths. That represents a paradigm shift in the way we do business and education but in these recessionary times, structuring a workplace around playing to individual strengths is the sustainable way to success. Studies show that people who have the opportunity to focus on their strengths everyday are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having a good quality of life. Using your strengths
There are two parts to strengths coaching. Firstly identifying your strengths and secondly finding new ways of using your strengths. I work with individuals on a one-to-one basis using the Values in Action (VIA) classification of signature strengths. An alternative - the Gallup classification of strengths - which is more focused on strengths related to the workplace. I also create strengths development programmes including one for teachers in a school in Hampshire. Their ambition is to become Britain's first 'school of strengths' with staff and students developing their talents and playing to those strengths. Strengths coaching is particularly effective for disaffected and excluded youngsters who have dropped out of education and older NEETS. Many of these young people have very little sense of having natural talents and it comes as a surprise to them when they recognise their strengths. This helps them to feel good about themselves and provides them with motivation to channel their strengths into a career aspiration. Strengths-based coaching can turn around the lives of disaffected young people, engaging the disengaged. Miriam's top strengths VIA - Emotional & Social Intelligence, Curiosity & Interest in the World, Appreciation of Excellence, Creativity & Originality, Love of Learning Gallup - Intellection, Input, Strategic, Activator, Futuristic |
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