Strength Based Mentoring

Ally and I were at Norris earlier this week for their first strength day. We were meeting with the younger Strengths Explorer students, helping to facilitate the survey and talk through their results. There was one student who had to come from another building, so he had to wait until all students were done with their surveys so that the Coordinator could walk him back to his class. He finished his survey quickly and his Top 3 were Competing, Achieving, and Confidence. While he was waiting, I saw him messing around, looking a bit bored. He started stacking markers together making a tower, like most kids (and many adults) do. So, I went over to him and asked him if he wanted to do a fun activity. I said, "I wonder if you could make a marker sculpture to depict your strengths." He quickly took on the challenge and we gathered all the markers to one table. He got to work. I didn't make one full lap around the room before he declared, "I'm done". I went over t...

Yesterday, Ally and I were in Plattsmouth, NE for their Strengths Day. I kicked off the morning with a training at 7am with 10 mentors. As I walk talking about strengths, I was explaining the Student Success Model from Gallup. Since it was Boss's Day, an example came to me regarding the parallel to the workplace. I talked about the difference between two bosses I have had. One boss, from a previous job I had in college who was very laid back and aloof. He was concerned with his own work and outcomes. My work contributed to that, so every once in a while, I would have interactions that were not that  negative, but also not encouraging. He would say things such as "where are you at with this project, would you be able to get it to me quicker?" Beyond checking in and asking about my work, our interactions did not go very far. I wanted to have further conversations, but it did not seem like he had the time nor the desire to do so. He was not a bad   boss at all, but rather ...

The activity I wish to share with you all today is one of the TeamMates Strengths Team's favorites! Strengths is more about simply identifying talent; when done well, it reaches the core of who you are. What you love is an activity that guides you there. The activity it simple: it is a set of questions based around the Five Clues to Talent that Don Clifton discussed in the first strengths book, Soar with your Strengths. Here is a link to an article from Gallup that explains these Five Clues for those wishing to learn more. This activity involves mulling over this set of questions:  Who are you?  What do you love?  What do you need?  In the best of all worlds, I would spend more time doing ___________. What is the best form of support you can receive?  At TeamMates we do this activity in true artistic fashion, by asking for participants to somehow depict the answers to these questions. We have had pictures of hammocks, mountain ranges, stick figu...

Today, we are rewinding to our sixth installment of Genn and Millie .  These recorded conversations are intended to help spark strengths spotting and communication within the mentoring relationship and beyond.  Video #6 came together after we had attended an academy session at Grief’s Journey and learned more about the instrumental and intuitive style of processing grief and transition.  Although our session started out with some ridiculous Allyson Clumsy humor, it became a more serious conversation about self care and taking time to pause in our busy lives.  This is one of our favorites so far, and we hope it leads to meaningful conversations on your end as well.  Questions for Reflection:  What are your moments of joy?  What are your moments of pause?