What Sets Great Companies Apart?

Marcus Buckingham has worked to answer this question for decades now by surveying hundreds of thousand of teams at workplaces around the world. In the end, the results of this research boiled down to one startling truth.

There Are No Great Companies.

Every company is made up of separate teams, and the performance of those teams, no matter how successful the company may be, varies widely. And for the individual employees, the experience of the team trumps the experience of the company. What then, determines the experience of the individual?

People Join Companies, And Quit Managers

Managers play a significant role in creating an environment within which individuals can thrive, discover their talents and have an opportunity to use their best selves daily. In short, great managers help people to identify and leverage their unique Strengths most of the time.

The data show that among the thousands of variables measured by the research, one – the opportunity for individuals to play to their Strengths most of the time – is the key factor that shows the greatest correlation to outstanding performance in the widest range of business outcomes, including profits, productivity, customer satisfaction, and safety and employee retention.

Teams whose members play to their Strengths most of the time are:

• 50% more likely to have lower employee turnover
• 38% more likely to work on high-productivity teams
• 44% more likely to earn higher customer satisfaction scores

The bad news?
Fewer than 2/10 people say that they do. Worse, fewer than 25% of employees say that their manager even discusses their Strengths in performance reviews.

Leap of the Week: Are you playing the game to your strengths? and equally important, are you leveraging your players strengths?