Employers are keen on recruiting employees who possess extraordinary communication and negotiating skills. Employee strengths refer to those qualities or traits using which they can fulfill their duties and tasks smoothly.

The work strengths required for an employee differ from one position to another. For instance, employee strengths required for a manager may be different from the ones needed for a salesperson. The work-related strengths showcased by employees shape their performance and also motivate others.

Dedication, punctuality, cooperation, helpful nature are some common employee strength examples. However, the strengths required for C-Suite executives can be quite different. Team leaders, project managers, product managers, and other highly qualified professionals play strategic roles in an organization. Therefore, they need to demonstrate higher levels of skills and employee strengths than the other staff members and employees.

The top 15 employee strengths that you must possess to handle managerial job roles are listed below.

Identifying Employee Strengths

A key strength will be to identify the employee strengths and weaknesses of the employees. These weaknesses or strengths at work impact the work culture, performance, productivity, and other key aspects of the organization.

If some employees lack certain skills, the role of a manager would be to groom them and help them acquire those skills. The main priority should be to get the best performance of every team member.

These employee strengths can be unique to each position such as confidence, sunny disposition, organizational skills, communication skills, and so on. Also, the key strengths at work can vary as per the job roles.

Converting Weaknesses to Strengths

After identifying the weaknesses of the employees, managers must also be able to minimize them. They may also convert them into strengths for the benefit of the organization.

For instance, an incredible salesperson might find it hard to manage Microsoft Excel sheets. The manager can enroll them in a training program that will help them hone their record-keeping skills. Instead, they can also be given access to simple tools that are easy to handle but offer the same efficiency as Microsoft Excel like Google Sheets. 

Converting weaknesses into employee strengths is not an easy job. But managers should encourage employees to learn new skills while also providing them positive feedback about this current skill set. You must also provide them with resources that will help them to polish their strengths at work.

Creating a checklist for areas of improvement could help to identify areas in which they lag. It will also help managers evaluate their weaknesses, and make better decisions based on workforce management.

Finding employee strengths and areas of weaknesses is a continuous process. A smart manager should constantly be evaluating employee skill sets and helping them upskill.

Finding Strategies to Improve Productivity

Group meetings, talking over lunch, and conferences can be some ways to maintain a healthy relationship with the employees. If some of your employees are working remotely, connect them via a video conference. Try to understand the things that may be hampering productivity in the team. Try to resolve their issues and ask them to work more on their employee strengths.

For instance, a salesperson might need an enclosed cubicle to pitch deals to potential customers. Programming, marketing, and other job roles involve a lot of stress. Therefore, the individuals recruited for these roles might want to unwind after work. Having a cafeteria, gym, or recreational hub in the organization will boost their motivation levels.

Some employees may need to work a couple of days from home to increase their productivity. Invest ample time and effort to find out the things that influence their productivity. If bringing in new technology and infrastructure or renovating the premises can help them perform better, you should do it. Managers will need to negotiate these changes with upper management.

Sometimes, employee strengths can become their weaknesses. The highly productive employees may be prone to burning out with their large workloads. They might suffer from stress, fatigue, and other mental issues due to excessive work. Responsible and empathetic leaders should be able to recognize the signs of burnout early and prevent high performers from burning too bright.

Finding Strategies to Improve Productivity

Emotional Intelligence 

“Reading minds” can be one of the key strengths at the workplace. However, managers must develop emotional intelligence to do that. They must understand the emotions of the employees and try to grasp their issues while talking to them.

Employers want to hire intelligent leaders due to the same reason. They want their managers and leaders to find solutions to their employees’ problems. It is not possible without effective communication skills and emotional intelligence. Follow these tips to enhance emotional intelligence:

  • Learn from the struggles, lives, and stories of others.
  • Learn from your experiences and commit them to memory.
  • Getting along with others is a key to developing emotional intelligence. Interact with people from different cultures, societies, and statuses. By interacting and collaborating with them, you will understand their pain point, strengths, and shortcomings.
  • Don’t encourage employees to play with each other’s feelings and bully others. Guide them to help and coexist with each other.
  • Examples of strengths like compassion, empathy, kindness, and a friendly attitude need to be cultivated in employees. It will not only improve the workplace culture but will also help to incorporate other strengths in the workplace. These employee strengths can be teamwork, resilience, patience, and honesty.

Top-notch Communication Skills

We have talked about the importance of communication skills while discussing all the employee strengths. However, to cultivate top-notch communication skills, managers will need to put these things into practice:

Most of you might think that communication skills only include verbal communication. However, it is not true. It includes written communication, body language, and other forms of non-verbal communication as well. If you have established a good relationship with your team, they will understand your gestures and signals well. 

Acquaint yourself with all sorts of written communication like letters, emails, notices, text messages, and social media content. After that, you must expand your vocabulary and try to learn new words each day. 

Maintain eye contact during face-to-face interactions. If you are responsible for conducting interviews, try to be cordial with your tone and way of talking. While giving one, be confident and pretend like you are just attending another interview.

To grow communication skills and other strengths at work, try to solve the problems of your employees. Be transparent while talking with your team members and try to win their confidence. Express yourself clearly but don’t dive into unnecessary arguments to prove that you’re smarter. 

Be a Problem Solver

Being a problem solver at work is one of the key employee strengths. It not only establishes managers as helpful but also confirms that they are skilled at what they do. By solving the problems of team members, you gain their trust and create a positive work environment.

Managers don’t have to solve all the problems themselves. Most times, finding the right person to resolve an issue is also good enough. 

Situations can change drastically in the corporate world. Managers will have to be alert and predict issues well in advance to pre-emptively manage them. Forecasting and proactive thinking are essential employee strengths when you play a strategic role in an organization.

For instance, during the COVID-19 lockdown, many companies were forced to wind down or suffered a heavy loss to stay up and running. Those who managed to survive had to cut down on expenses to manage the finances and keep the company afloat. Emergencies like these need confident and wise leaders who thrive in ambiguous and uncertain situations. 

Play-Well with the Team

The managers need to remember that though they are higher on the organization ladder, they aren’t better than their subordinates. Forcing their opinions on team members or chasing credit can alienate them from the team.

Always mention things like “our project”, visions and goals to inspire employee strengths like team spirit and teamwork. Don’t hesitate to share successful projects with upper management and shine the spotlight on team members who helped move the needle. But never single out members for failures. Accept every success and failure gracefully as a team to maintain a healthy environment in the organization.

Play-Well with the Team

Collaboration

Collaboration is one of the essential employee strengths as it evaluates the ability to work with others. Even a simple task or project may need the combined efforts of many team members. Also, managers may need to collaborate with different processes, departments, and workers successfully to enhance leadership skills.

As one of the most important strengths, the art of splitting a task into multiple members comes under collaborative skills. By enhancing collaborative skills, managers will also improve your reputation as a problem solver. It will also establish their ability to delegate tasks efficiently, effectively, and with minimal friction.

Taking Initiative

Before expecting something from your subordinates, you should do it yourself. It will help you understand the work better. Also, it will show that you can apply yourself in difficult times and during tight deadlines.

By being an initiator at the workplace, you can set a high standard in your company. You can also motivate your employees by taking the initiative or by completing a task on your own. You will also need to imbibe these work-related strengths in your employees.

Decision Making

Being decisive is an important quality that will help you while managing a team. Your ability to make correct decisions will be tested on several occasions. Therefore, analyzing what is right or wrong for a particular project or in general can be one of the best employee strengths for your company.

To improve your decision-making skills, you must learn to gauge different situations. Also, sometimes, you might need to take the opinions of your colleagues as well. Don’t hurry things as you will have to take ownership of the outcome of your decisions afterward.

Thinking critically before making any move is one of the best employee strength examples. Awareness of the situation might also serve to be one of the essential employee strengths during emergencies. As a leader, you must know the proceedings or events that are happening in the workplace.

Negotiating Wisely

Negotiating wisely is a part of communication skills. However, having excellent communication skills is not enough to negotiate wisely. You must also be able to assess a situation and negotiate a deal accordingly. For instance, while negotiating a deal with a prospective client, you must understand what their negotiating style is. To do that study their background and needs. Don’t try to win an argument but impress the person or party with whom you are delegating. It will help build long-lasting relationships with your clients that might serve a greater purpose for your firm.

You also will require negotiating skills while dealing with your team members and upper management. Sometimes, you will have to use these skills to stop an employee from resigning. 

Negotiation skills are one of the most important skills for all management levels.

Focus

Leaders with all the above employee strengths can lose track if they aren’t focused on the organization’s goals. Leaders can achieve business goals with a crystal clear focus:

  • Your creative ability increases by many folds if you are focused at work.
  • Analyzing the needs of your clients can be done if your mind is clear and focused.
  • With employee strengths like dedication and focus, you will be able to achieve both personal and professional growth.
  • You can help your company steer ahead of its competition.
  • You can manage multiple teams.
  • With work-related strengths like communication and focus, you can build strong tie-ups with clients/customers.
  • With a sharp focus on the goals of the organization, you can set work priorities with precision.

Honesty

Honesty is perhaps one of the most sought-after employee strengths at work. However, don’t think of it from only one angle. You must not only be honest towards your company but also towards your own goals.

With honesty comes loyalty which is among the commonly expected employee strengths at every workplace. If your work and intention reflect honesty and integrity, you will easily win the trust of your seniors. They will bank on you at difficult times. Also, you will get to manage higher responsibilities. With higher responsibilities, you will also get promotions. All these employee strengths will ultimately help you attain your professional goals.

Also, as a responsible manager, you need to hire only honest and loyal employees. As a manager, you will need to take responsibility for the failures. You will be responsible for the success of your team members as well. Therefore, getting the best work out of every single employee will be one of your top strengths at work.

Self-Awareness

Image-URL: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/friends-trust-friendship-together-1027867/ 

Self-awareness is among the lesser-known employee strengths. However, as a person managing strategic roles, managers must be aware of their strengths at work. Along with employee strengths, they must also focus on the areas where they are lagging.

Self-awareness will inspire them to keep learning and improving on areas that they’re weak in. Also, they will understand their skills and limitations to perfection. As a result, they will be fully aware of whether they can handle a particular situation alone or not.

While being self-aware, they must also keep the organizational goals at top priority. Sometimes, they may need guidance and help from their peers. They must not refrain from taking their advice as it will only help them to grow faster.

Being self-aware also means understanding which leadership quality you need to imbibe in yourself. It will also help them opt for a particular leadership style that may suit their team.

It is also true that a self-aware leader can assess a situation. If you are not aware of your shortcomings, you can lose focus while handling multiple responsibilities. 

Resolving Conflicts is an Employee Strength

Resolving Conflicts

As strategic planners or executors, they need to resolve the conflicts within the organization. They will also need to address the conflicts with various stakeholders like vendors, suppliers, distributors, etc. While resolving conflict, they must give the highest priority to the profit and growth of your company. 

Conflict resolution is one of the toughest employee strengths to learn. However, it is essential for climbing the corporate ladder. They will learn how to resolve issues and conflicts with experience. Also, they must be keen on resolving issues. Keep observation skills among the top employee strengths in their priority list to achieve that.

Many organizations have started adopting agile practices in their processes. However, only implementing agile methodology is not enough. They must also view operational agility as one of the essential employee strengths. It includes the use of the latest Microsoft Team Apps and software applications that make operations simple. By being agile, they will be able to greet new changes in the organization with an open mind. It will also help them to preempt, assess, and resolve conflicts in a quick time.

Parting Thoughts

Upon mastering these employee strengths, you can thrive and grow smoothly in any organization. However, while focussing on your top strengths at work, be open to learning new strengths in the workplace too. We have provided you with some employee strengths examples in this article.

By banking on your employee strengths during opportunities and work crises, businesses will be able to become true market leaders.