What do you do when you got no “Woo”?
How I build high-performing teams using Clifton’s Strengthsfinder
[This article is the first in a series about using Clifton’s Strengths Finder to develop and lead teams.]
The other day one of my colleagues asked: “How do you do it? How do you consistently build diverse, high-performing teams?” My answer was: “because I build my teams based on the strengths of the individual team members.”
Over the course of my career, I’ve had the privilege of assembling several UX Design/UX Research teams. When I started building the UXR team at Chegg in 2014, I thoughtfully specified the various levels of experience and educational backgrounds I wanted the UXR team members to have. It was easy pulling that list together. However, when it came to balancing and developing the soft skills I wanted on my team, I needed help.
An a-ha moment
After working with my group of new hires for six months, I read an article about strengths-based leadership using the Clifton Strengths Assessment. This was a turning point in my experience as a people manager. Leading a team this way made so much sense! Manage to people’s strengths, and you’ll get the best out of them. They’ll be happy employees and you’ll have a healthy and productive team to manage.
I’d already hired a diverse group of people for my UXR team based on their backgrounds — the strengths assessment would tell me how diverse their individual strengths were.
The Clifton Strengths Assessment
The Clifton Strengths Assessment* is a simple, inexpensive way to uncover and learn about people’s individual strengths. Everyone on my team completed the assessment, including myself.
Comparing strengths across the team: the team spreadsheet
The team’s results looked like a giant grid (see below). The spreadsheet laid out what our individual strengths were, how they overlapped, and how they contributed to the overall foundational strengths of the team.
As a group, we talked about our roles as UX Researchers and how our individual strengths were reflected in our approaches to work. We also aligned on the characteristics required for our roles as individuals and as a team. Then we did a gap analysis looking at which strengths we had as a team — and which ones we were lacking.
We noticed that no one on the team had “woo” as a strength. Yet “woo” was something we felt UX Researchers should have.
What is “woo” and why did I want it on my team?
According to Clifton**, WOO stands for winning others over. People strong in woo like meeting new folks and striking up conversations with them. They enjoy the challenge of asking people questions and finding an area of common interest so they can build rapport.
As UX Researchers, we frequently talk one-on-one with strangers (research participants). We work to quickly build rapport with these people so that they feel at ease during research sessions. When participants feel connected to a researcher even in a small way, it’s easier for them to share openly.
We researchers also have to woo our product partners, especially the ones who are skeptical about the value of UX research. I needed woo on my team because our jobs require a lot of wooing!
What do you do when you got no woo?
As a team, we agreed that the next researcher we hired would be strong in woo. But until that person was hired, the rest of the team would have to strengthen their woo.
We knew that we wouldn’t excel at woo — after all, it wasn’t on anyone’s strengths list. However, as a group we could develop and increase our competency around woo.
The team made a list of colleagues who exhibited strength in woo at work. We wanted to learn from the “woo masters.” Our mission was to reach out to our work peers and talk to them about woo.
Learning from the masters: our plan to be better wooers
We stepped out of our introverted comfort zones, and each met with one woo master. These meetings were incredibly valuable. Woo masters were passionate and excited to talk about how they embraced the challenge of winning people over. One of the secrets to their success was all about perspective: many of them framed woo as simply building connections with people.
After our individual meetings with woo masters, we debriefed as a group and aligned on key takeaways. As introverts and non-woo people, we would probably never feel excited about meeting strangers. However, with practice we could feel more at ease when connecting with new people.
Practicing woo
Everyone on my team set personal woo goals for themselves. For example, one researcher made it a point to strike up conversations at work with people they didn’t know:
When I was in the kitchen area and saw someone I didn’t know; I’d say something like “Hi — I don’t think we’ve met yet, I’m Rikki. What’s your name?” Then I asked them about their role in the company. It was actually pretty easy to make a connection in these situations because we already worked at the same place, and with practice, it got even easier for me to woo people I didn’t know.
Strengthen your team by playing to their strengths
I continue to use Clifton Strengths as a tool to identify areas of opportunity for my team. Although finding our woo was a valuable exercise, when I see significant strengths gaps now, I can address them even more effectively through hiring. In fact, I currently have two UX Researchers on my team who are strong in woo. They’re wonderful woo models for the rest of us. Best of all, this framework has helped me to better support my team. Knowing where each person excels helps me guide their efforts in a way that plays to their strengths.
[ Stay tuned! Part 2 of the series will be published early next year. ]
Source(s)
*Information about Clifton Strengths
**Rath, Tom. “The 34 Themes and Ideas for Action.” Strengths Finder 2.0, Gallup Press, New York, NY, 2007, p. 169.
