Student Affairs

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Comment by Melinda Latas on October 18, 2012 at 3:20pm

Howdy Everyone-I am on the Strengths committee at Augustana College. Three years ago we implemented the strengths assessment as a requirment for all incoming students, so as of next year, all our students will have and know their five strengths. In an attempt to maximize the benefits from this, we are exploring the idea of developing a session regarding the ways that faculty academic advisors can utilize the strengths p[rofile of their advisees in annual advising sessions. Do any of you know of a program or initiative, in your connections to student affairs or academic affairs divisions, that already does this? If so, it would be helpful to us as an example, and I would love to hear from you!  My email address is melinda.latas@augie.edu. Thanks! ~Melinda Latas

Comment by Bernard D Schulz on October 19, 2010 at 2:45pm

I am looking for a Student Affairs Professional in the Washington DC area that is able to facilitate a Strengths Quest session for staff in our Dean of Students office.

Comment by Chris Wiens on July 8, 2010 at 4:53pm

I am looking for anyone that has some strengths activities to do with Residence Life Staff. We are getting ready for RA training next month and we have a large group of assistants that are returning that have been using strengths for a couple of years now and 7 new staff members that will be new to it. We are looking for activities that will encourage team building and how you put together teams based on strengths.

Comment by Chris Jachimowicz on February 23, 2010 at 3:16pm

Amy;

Thanks for the feedback.

I expect that battle (re: evaluations) in the next few years as we move to becoming a strengths-based campus. We have an ingrained desire to tell others what is wrong with them and to seek "improvement."

I like to use the "Writing Challenge" (available in the Educators Workbook) as an illustration of why strengths-building is more successful than weakness fixing.

If you have professionals questioning the legitimacy of a strengths-based approach, have Gallup provide some of the data. I used the fact that a strengths approach drives engagement for a presentation two weeks ago: In organizations where leadership promotes strengths, 73% of respondents were engaged whereas only 9% were engaged in organizations where leadership failed to focus on strengths. Focusing on strengths allows employees to do their best work for the company - who doesn't want that? Happy employees and potentially greater productivity?

Best of luck in making the pitch!

Comment by Amy Trueman on February 23, 2010 at 2:54pm

Chris,That is incredibly helpful. I just got out of a meeting where we met a lot of resistance to changing our professional evaluations to a strengths-based model. I can see several ways to use your ideas to work toward understanding the value of strengths-based evaluation in a more gradual way. Thanks.

Comment by Chris Jachimowicz on February 23, 2010 at 11:31am

Wendy;

I wouldn't correlate "leadership" and SQ at the start of your program. For me, the beauty of SQ is that it is a personal development tool of use to anyone. What I like even more about SQ is that it does fit nicely into one of the most basic expectations of leadership which is "know thyself."

I would conduct a 90-minute workshop focused on the "Discovery/Awareness" phase of SQ and assign homework that asks the participants to share their Themes with three friends and record their feedback with regard to accuracy and STORIES about when they have seen the participant use the themes.

In the second session I would hit the 34 themes hard, helping the participants to gain a basic understanding of each theme. I've found that Pictionary is a great way to make the theme discussion more interactive.

In the third session I would give them some activities around "blending" (choosing two themes for a character in a situation and then asking how the character might act given those themes). I would also review barrier and enabler language with them. I might ask them to do the "Critical Activity" exercise to have them start thinking about applying talents and building strengths.

In a fourth session I would review Strengths Based Leadership and discuss with them how their particular talents fit in one of the four leadership domains.

That's just off the top of my head. I hope that it helps.

Comment by Wendy Marie Burns on February 23, 2010 at 11:06am

Hi everyone, we are in the process of developing a new co-curricular leadership development program and plan to use Strengths as the central component to the program. Any suggestions on how it can be used?

Comment by Kari Eckelkamp on June 23, 2009 at 1:40pm

Do any of you use Strengths as part of a student employee training program? And if so, how is the program structured and how do you handle issues like frequent turnover, new hires and large populations?

Comment by Karen Caylor on June 23, 2009 at 1:04pm

Hello. I work in Student Services and oversee the housing and residential life at McPherson College, McPherson, Kansas. It is great to be a part of this group and I hope to learn and share ideas. We have been strengths based in SS for 4 years now and we require all of our resident assistants to take the assessment as a communication tool for them and us. It has been a great addition.

Comment by David Norenberg on August 22, 2008 at 2:02pm

Hello everyone. Technically, I am not in student affairs; the Career Services office here at SUNY Canton reports to Advancement, but I you are my people. Glad to be connected.

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