4 Ways Strengths-based Parenting Transforms Your Family

Spotlight:

• Reverend William is an ordained pastor who experienced the impact of StrengthsTransform™ Parenting for his entire family – Husband, wife &  two teenage daughters
• Peter & Yvonne uses StrengthsFinder & StrengthsExplorer to lead their family of five (Teenagers aged 15, 13 & child aged 7)

Through a series of workshops, profiling, individual & group coaching sessions, the families accomplished the following:

1. Parents applying their best talents in parenting

Strengths-Based parenting starts with the leaders of the family. When parents understand their talent themes and what makes them tick & excel, they begin to bring their A-game to the family.

• Reverend William uses his “Strategic” talent theme to guide the family with his thinking and provide counsel and direction for his daughters’ development.
• Peter likewise provides the key directions (with “Analytical” & “Strategic”) with regard to the children’s “house-rules” for healthy media use.
• Yvonne finds that she is best at using “harmony” to mediate between sibling disputes. She also uses “Input” & “maximizer” to source for the best quality food, household items & family experiences, in order to engage the family.

In each & every one of the examples cited, each parent was able to recognize & intentionally bring their best to the family unit. The ease with which they accomplished each of the “tasks” made it a delight for both parents & children.

2. Spouses working together as a team to bring up children

• No individual is an all-rounder. he will have his top talent themes but also areas that are very deficient. Peter is strong in strategic thinking themes and uses his prevalent “Achiever” talent to complete household chores. This clears up the way for Yvonne to invest time to source for useful means to add variety to family experiences.
• When it comes to disciplining children, Peter is mindful that his “Command” & “Strategic” can show up very strongly and in a directive manner. While this provides quick clarity, he depends on Yvonne’s “Harmony” to moderate his intensity.

3. Parents & children step into each others’ shoes using StrengthsFinder

William was surprised to find out that Faith her teenage daughter had both “Command” & “Self-Assurance” among her top 5 talents. Through the workshop & interaction, he could help Faith link & identify past incidences to these themes. The StrengthsTransform™ workshop was pivotal because it provided the space for Strengths Coach Tan Hee Guan to spend the time to explain how this is indeed a powerful combination and paint a picture of how this will give her an edge what she undertakes in her school life.

• In his own words: “Usually these 2 talents carry negative connotations especially for a girl in the Asian culture. But the workshop helped all of us to suspend judgment, understand and appreciate Faith’s uniqueness.”
• Peter & Yvonne were also very upset with Elizabeth’s seemingly last-minute and reactionary approach to her academics. However, through understanding her “Adaptability” talent, they were gradually able to embrace her unique ability to react to changes and encouraged her to adopt novel approaches to sustain focus while revising.

4. Parents help the child chart personal development with an understanding of his or her talents

Understanding the child’s talents allows parents to individualise their approach, to bring out the best in the child. This is a radically different compared to the deficit model widely used by schools & parents – focusing on remedial efforts to eliminate children’s weaknesses. While that approach prevents failures, it falls short in drawing out excellence in their children and actually directs them towards lower productivity & a poorer quality of life.

• Peter recognizes that Elizabeth’s “Intellection” helped in her academics, but that she may lose out to some of her similarly gifted peers because of her preference to “go with the flow” (“Adaptability”). Yet he does not see it as a handicap but instead recognizes the edge that Elizabeth may possess in a dynamic working environment in the future. Instead of suppressing her “adaptability” for even better grades, he focuses on helping her to manage her preference for variation and honing in to shine in dynamic situations.

These are the 4 significant benefits & breakthroughs available & waiting through strengths-based parenting. To find out more about this subject, you may want to pick up Gallup’s new book Strengths-Based Parenting.

Inquire too with StrengthsTransform for our next workshop/coaching opportunity!