"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing." - Warren Buffett. [Click to share on Linkedin]

There are risks that come with the adoption of strengths:

Don't put strengths on the shelf to expire. Despite your best intentions, other priorities will take precedence. Don't waste your time. What is the point of learning if you're not going to do anything with the knowledge? If you don't follow through, you will lose your team's trust because a flip-flopping leader does not inspire confidence. You can avoid this pain by dedicating ten minutes in each team meeting to talk through strengths. You can use strengths language into your one on one conversations, too.

The interrelationship between strengths is confusing. A dominant strength for CSMs is called 'Strategic'. Strategic CSMs cut through the clutter, see patterns and get to an answer. This Strength can create a lot of frustration among the team because other team members can't follow their logic. The easiest way to understand how Strengths inter-relate is to bring the awareness to the entire team and allow them to put strengths into their words.

It's not clear how to put strengths into action. The good news is that new habits which are formed based on strengths are very sticky. When you're naturally wired to behave in a certain way or have a natural talent, your typical reaction is to do more of what feels right. Brainstorm ways you and your team members can flex their strengths. You can align projects with strengths and help individuals spend more time in the parts of their role they enjoy.

Next up, we'll share some case studies to show you the impact strengths can have on your Customer Success team.