Chapter 13
Strength
We really like the concept of strength. It’s admired in athletics, communications, business, relationships, and certainly in Wi-Fi signals. When we have access to strength, we are empowered to be more focused and fulfilled. When we lack strength, frustration can find an easy foothold. Strength represents the best of what is available and often compensates for what is lacking. So shouldn’t strength be a high priority in what we seek to develop within ourselves? The greatest performers know this. They know how their talent, training, timing, and treasure all come together to allow them the ability to accomplish great feats through their strengths.
Upgrading Strength
By defining strength as the ability to make a positive contribution greater than what is expected in return, we highlight the difference between simply performing a task and contributing value. This distinction is what separates membership from stewardship and should be an unquestionable qualification of anyone in a leadership role. Contributing more than what is expected in return is what helps teams win games, groups make progress, performers wow audiences, and businesses become profitable. For instance, the need for young employees to see they must contribute more than they expect to receive in pay is a recurring conversation I have with business owners. After all, this is a fundamental requirement of any company seeking to gain and maintain profitability while staying in business.
Likewise, what upgrades a strength to a valued strength has a lot to do with supply and demand. If a person’s specific strength is in high demand yet low supply, it will be valued more. When that same specific strength becomes common, it becomes less valuable. The strength a second-string college pitcher brings to the team becomes far more valuable when the starting pitcher breaks their throwing hand. The strength of being a welder becomes a valued strength when certified Robotic Arc Welding is added to a résumé. The strength a soldier brings to the military becomes a valued strength when she advances to the role of platoon leader.
Think back to the story about the conversation I had with the university faculty member while flying cross-country. As you will recall, she was headed to a conference to present about the talent crisis we face in America. Remember how she said America is really facing a strengths crisis? I’d like to expand her statement to include the proposition that we are facing a valued strengths crisis in America. In many ways, it’s a crisis of our own making caused by a softening of the financial return on the investment in a bachelor’s degree, the skyrocketing cost of schooling and school-related debt, and an oversupply of young college graduates with generic degrees all vying for careers that are in low demand.
Once upon a time, simply gaining a four-year degree from a reputable institution of higher learning presented graduates with a diploma, or strength credentials, adequate to land them a good job. The common perception of Gen X and Boomers included going to college as the pinnacle of their preparation for success. Some would argue this is because the training a four-year education provided was more valuable than other options of the time. For those of us who “adulted” in an era when a phone book was a necessary job-hunting tool, I will agree. Yet I’ll dare you to try that argument today on employers who can’t find enough qualified applicants with valued strengths to fill their well-paying job openings that don’t require a bachelor’s degree. In response, they’ll say something to you about the value of a low-tuition education that lands career and technology education grads in satisfying, high-paying jobs while so many college grads are in debt up to their eyeballs, unemployed, and moving back home.
Let’s be honest. College isn’t for everyone, and it’s time we stop stigmatizing those who choose not to go. Most parents and grandparents of Millennials and Generation Z remember high school voc-ed classes as options for kids who were more suited for blue-collar work after graduation. With or without a diploma, those who attended vocational training often stepped into lower-wage occupations while four-year-college-educated professionals earned higher salaries and a better shot at living the increasingly expensive American dream.
Again, the cultural norm has shifted. A college degree is no longer the grand aspiration for all young people today. Former “dirty jobs” have cleaned up and now demand a high degree of technical training that can be gained at a vocational school. Zap, Moore’s Law strikes again. The benefits of more tech power, requiring less space, for a fraction of the cost have found its way into the careers that may only require a certificate or associate’s degree. Still, old habits, or perspectives, die hard as we continue to stress to almost all high school students the importance of pursuing a four-year college or university education over shorter, less expensive, nontraditional training options. This has resulted in more than 600,000 skilled jobs remaining unfilled in the United States, and with an estimated 10 million new skilled workers needed in the next few years, companies are wondering who possesses the valued strengths they are looking to hire.1
Vocational, certified, associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, or military ranks . . . it doesn’t matter so long as the strength brought to the organization is valued. By rethinking the importance of transforming raw talents into valued strengths, does that mean the crisis is averted? Yes and no. Yes for those who identify their talents, seek quality training, commit themselves to the practice and patience timing requires, and steward their treasure well. They will live in their strengths. Their valued strengths. For all others, no. Life is going to be a heavy lift. Sure, on talent alone, they will get noticed. But it is because of their valued strengths that the best get recruited and hired, advance and perform, and are celebrated.
From Raw Talents to Valued Strengths
The following are examples of the multiyear process individuals have gone through to transform their raw talents into valued strengths. Inspired by students I’ve mentored over the years, each is a testament of their commitment to finding and fulfilling their greatest potential.
The Athlete
Talents: Physical coordination, competitiveness, determination, strategy.
Training: School and club soccer teams. Personal trainer.
Timing: Two years club soccer, four years select team, four years high school team, four years college soccer, off-the-field training in nutrition and strength, and an undergraduate degree in sports management.
Treasure: Family, friends, and teammate relationships. Only uplifting social media posts. Strong credit score and minimal debt. Attended sponsored clinics to meet professional players, coaches, and management.
Valued strength: Professional women’s soccer, striker/center forward.
The Musician
Talents: Vocal tone, creativity, entertainment, passion.
Training: Vocal lessons, school of the arts.
Timing: Six years private vocal lessons, four years guitar lessons, two hours daily guitar and singing practice, five high school musical productions, three community theater musical productions, ear training and development, vocal methods, acoustic training, and a bachelor of arts in music.
Treasure: Communicates openly with family. Cares for friends, castmates, and band member relationships. Quality online postings. Structured school loans, checking and savings plan. Trusted career manager.
Valued strength: In-studio music producer.
The Mechanic
Talents: Curiosity, mechanical inclination, patience, coordination.
Training: Vocational-technical school, vocational college, manufacturer certifications.
Timing: Three years high school vocational-technical school, two years vocational college, tech assistant job at local auto dealership, personal car builds, one-year internship with auto race team, summer volunteer repair mechanic with Wheels4Hope, assistant supervisor with teen safety driving school.
Treasure: Close family relationships. Manageable monthly income and expense budget. Regular volunteer with NASCAR Foundation. In a long-term mentorship.
Valued strength: Engine performance technician.
CONSIDER THIS:
Teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5 percent greater productivity.2
YOUR TURN:
- Have you seen one of your strengths increase to become a valued strength as demand for your strength increased? If so, what were the circumstances?
- Have you experienced the opposite—one of your valued strengths decreased in merit as demand decreased?
- Thinking about the young people in your life, how are you helping them see the significance of transforming their raw talents into valued strengths that are or will be in high demand?
- What pathways, both traditional and nontraditional, do the young people you interact with have access to, and how can you support them in pursuing those opportunities?