The Power of Strengths-Based Coaching

Strengths-based coaching can have an incredible impact for companies of all sizes and across various industries. When businesses commit to the people part of their organization, amazing results follow.

Great strengths-based coaching requires expertise on instinctive strengths as well as expertise in coaching. It’s essential to know how to create buy-in from the top down, and to create a safe environment that allows individuals that show resistance to ask questions and eliminate doubts so the entire team can commit to increasing productivity, lowering stress, and improving collaboration. 

In this episode of Powered by Instinct, our guest is Jessica Harrington, Executive Business Coach at Carson Coaching. Jessica is a Kolbe Certified™ Consultant and recipient of the 2022 Kolbe Professional Award. If you’re interested in developing as a strengths-based leader, you don’t want to miss this one!

Host: David Kolbe (8273)

Guest-at-a-Glance 

💡 Name: Jessica Harrington (7823)

💡 What she does: Jessica is Executive Business Coach at Carson Coaching. 

💡 Company: Carson Coaching 

💡 Noteworthy: Jessica was recently awarded the 2022 Kolbe Professional Award for being an outstanding Kolbe Certified Consultant. 

💡 Where to find Jessica: LinkedIn 

Podcast Insights 

⚡Some people are hesitant to take an assessment. Therefore, a consultant's job is to create a safe environment and help those individuals share their doubts and ask questions. ''I was matched with a team of ten people, and one of them was resistant to what they would consider an assessment index. And so, luckily, we had the opportunity — I feel it's important to do this, especially given that I work with smaller teams — to have one-on-ones before I went out there and met with the group in-person. And so, that opportunity was pivotal in their understanding of the difference that Kolbe brings to the table versus other experiences they had. It was a great foundation for us to have a great meeting to the point where that person sent an email after I left and thanked us for that opportunity.'' 

⚡Kolbe helps team members embrace and make the most of each other's differences, whether it is a new team or a group of people who have been working together for decades. As a result, people can define their strengths and accept that these may differ from their colleagues' strengths. Moreover, if used correctly, these differences will lead to positive outcomes, primarily in finance. ''And so, let's celebrate this. It is a huge opportunity for you to specialize here and there, to shine a light on it in a different way, and say there's a middle road that we have to take, especially in an industry that's so focused on compliance and doing certain things a certain way.'' 

⚡Kolbe is an excellent hiring tool, but it can also help you eliminate obstacles that prevent your team from delivering desired results. So again, it is up to Kolbe consultants to show how the assessment can be a game changer in a given work environment. ''Kolbe gets brought in when a lot is going on and in [the case of] some strife or dysfunction. And so, first, [we] let them know we're here as a positive reinforcement. At the least, we're going to give you better language to communicate with each other.'