Before the book, Now Discover Your Strengths, was published, I discovered first hand the second reason why training of new supervisors or managers fails to be as successful as originally planned. During the first facilitation session for some incoming supervisors and managers, I conducted the following exercise.

• On the sheet of paper in front of the participants, I asked them to quickly write down in 3 minutes all the strengths that they bring in their new role as supervisor or manager. Very few pencils were in action except for the President of the firm.

• After the time was up, I asked them to quickly write down in 3 minutes all the weaknesses that they bring in their new role as supervisor or manager. For most of the participants, the pens literally flew off the table.

• During the debriefing of this activity, the group discussed their responses. Most of the participants didn't believe that they had any strengths and if they did have strengths to list them would be bragging.

• I then asked the following question: Why do winning teams win because of their strengths or because of their weaknesses? Everyone agreed winning teams win because of their strengths. All of a sudden, I could see the participants having the light bulb click on over their heads. Collectively as a group, they realized that the success of the company depended upon their strengths and how to leverage or focus those strengths toward the task or goal at hand.

This experience confirmed that the negative conditioning that we receive in early childhood and that is reinforced through the educational process continues to follow us into the workplace. The collective beliefs that our weaknesses take first place in our psyche while our strengths take second place is another reason why change in management is not as successful even when the incoming management team have excellent credentials.

If you wish to improve the outcomes from your management leadership team, you may wish to conduct this exercise to see where their internal focus or locus is. This activity may also help to explain why training and development are not as successful as they should be. Training is about learning a new skill. However, development is about improving the quality of that skill and to do so may require more reflection and introspection. By remembering that winning teams win because of their strengths may help your company improve their change management process and to take the organization to that next level of success.

P.S.Read the second article in this series How to Improve the Management Teams Wins for Winning More Business Part 2: Focus on People Skills