I’ve long been interested in a strengths-based approach to coaching and there is now a fantastic range of tools out there to facilitate this sort of conversation (e.g. StrengthsFinder, SDI, Realise 2 etc). Helping people to identify and leverage their innate talents is a fundamentally more effective and motivational conversation to have than talking to people about how they might ‘fix’ their weaknesses and deficits. Yet do we do our clients a disservice if we only talk about their ‘bright’ side and we avoid talking about what gets in the way?

Intriguingly, I find a conversation on ‘over-strengths’ is a palatable and helpful way for clients to see how they might be bringing ‘too much of a good thing’ on occasion.  It has often not occurred to clients that their strengths also have a flip side. So the ‘forthright and direct’ client might show up as ‘domineering’ or the ‘polite’ client might be experienced as ‘conflict avoidant’ when taken to excess. The coaching conversation is then about how they can ‘turn the volume’ done’ on an over-played strength, balance it with a compensating strength or avoid tipping into the excess version in the first place.