Strengths & Training: How We Do It At McKonly & Asbury, LLP
In 2001, McKonly & Asbury began its first executive book study group, reviewing First, Break All the Rules. In this groundbreaking book, the Gallup Organization discusses its extensive research in the field of management, specifically asking “What do talented employees need from their workplace?”
This research resulted in many discoveries. The greatest of these is that no matter how talented the employees, without a great manager they would leave an organization. This myth shattered conventional wisdom that if organizations offered great benefits, a competitive salary and first-rate training—employees would remain loyal. This also led Gallup researchers to start asking different questions, including the one that became the basis for the book—“What do the world’s greatest managers do differently?”
When answering that question, researchers discovered that the world’s greatest managers encouraged employees to work in areas of greatest strength instead of focusing on areas of greatest weakness—as conventional wisdom often suggests. This one key discovery has led to the integration of a strengths-based focus in the firm. Listed below are a few key areas demonstrating strength-based concepts.
Assessments
Now, Discover Your Strengths (the sequel to First, Break All the Rules) is a summation of its theories, as well as an assessment tool. Readers use a unique code located on the inside jacket cover to participate in a 77-question assessment—the Clifton Strengths Finder Profile—which identifies the reader’s top five strengths.
New employees
M&A holds introductory training during new employees’ first three months. This training discusses what it means to work in a strengths-based culture and the advantages that focusing on their strengths offers them as staff. The firm provides each employee with a copy of the book, Now, Discover Your Strengths, and encourages new employees to read and complete the assessment.
Book discussions
M&A has held book discussions on both First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths. These discussions were essential to introducing the books and their discoveries to firm leaders.
Performance evaluations
In First, Break All the Rules, the authors refer to research that shows staff members grow most in their areas of greatest strength. In support of this finding, managers and staff discuss opportunities to manage their weaknesses as well as opportunities to develop strengths during performance appraisals. M&A schedules learning or related functions as needed to support these opportunities. In addition, all employees complete Q12 surveys on their direct supervisors. These surveys are an assessment tool that Gallup developed to measure employee engagement. Based on their findings, engaged employees are more productive, will remain more loyal to their managers and will in turn increase firm profitability.
Team Building
Segments within M&A hold team-building activities annually. The segments integrate strengths concepts as appropriate to reinforce firm culture. For example, in January the consulting segment held a team-building exercise. During this exercise, participants split into teams based on their strengths and received envelopes containing instructions. The instructions assigned one team member to be blind-folded while using tools to put a project together. Another team member was assigned to sit under a draped table with the instruction manual.
One team member’s assignment was to retrieve the tools necessary to work on the project, and the last team member was assigned to guide the blindfolded person as he or she worked on the project. The goal? To put together bikes that the firm donated to various local nonprofit agencies. The results: many teams had difficulty putting the bikes together because everyone had the same strengths. The lesson: team members realized that everyone has something to add, and without distinct strengths the team does not function at its highest capacity.
Great Manager training
Last year, McKonly & Asbury engaged the Gallup Organization to conduct its Great Manager program on site. Participants included senior managers, principals, and partners. Gallup conducted the training over the course of two days and held it off-site to keep distractions to a minimum. This program focused on many of the findings from Gallup’s research including Focus on Strengths—a Q12 assessment—and the Four Keys Coaching Guide. To begin the training, Gallup conducted a Focus on Strengths exercise that forced participants to reflect on their strengths and how they use them daily.
The Q12 is a survey tool along the lines of upward evaluation to measure employee engagement. The survey literally asks respondents 12 questions such as, “Do you know what is expected of you at work” and “Have you received praise in the last seven days?” Respondents rank their feelings to each question on a scale of one to five with five indicating “strongly agree”. This score averaged to give participants a score for each question.
Prior to the session, between five and ten employees were asked to take the online assessment. During the Four Keys Coaching session, managers coached an employee via phone using the questions provided. These questions laid the foundation for future conversations and included queries like “What do you get paid to do and what motivates you?”
The Four Keys Coaching Guide enables managers to begin a dialogue with staff members and develop relationships with them. As Gallup states, employees don’t leave firms—they leave managers
With a reported 70 percent of American employees disengaged in their work, quality of leadership and management is critical to sustaining a vital and productive organization.
Organizations can define this in a number of ways, including managers building relationships with employees, motivating them, encouraging the development of their strengths, providing them with continued opportunities to learn and grow, and respecting their voices within the organization.
Encouraging managers and leaders to use these skills in their day-to-day activities, M&A has developed a strength-based culture that helps us stand apart from local competitors. We hear it every day from our employees and clients. This difference continues to drive the desire to engage our employees, focus on their strengths, and build a better firm for today and tomorrow!
About Cindy K. Thatcher
Cindy K. Thatcher is McKonly & Asbury’s Training Manager. Cindy previously worked for the Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill as its Staff Recruitment Coordinator for almost three years where her duties included training, orientation, and recruitment. Prior to that, Cindy was a General Store Manager for Gap Stores for almost 12 years, where she oversaw all aspects of the business including recruiting, hiring, and training. She oversees training and career development for McKonly & Asbury, a 100+ professional accounting and consulting firm based in Harrisburg, PA. Cindy obtained her Bachelor’s Degree from Marywood University and is currently working on her Master’s degree in Training and Development from Capella University.
