Discover Your Signature Strengths

At Worcester Business School we designed and delivered the ‘Discover your Strengths’ workshop for full-time 16–18-year-old college students bridging further education and higher education and/or those undertaking vocational diplomas and technical study programmes.

Pre-workshop conversations with the partnering college saw discussions on institutional educational synergies across their sixth-form and post-16 education provision, and our higher education tenets in generating and advancing knowledge via quality teaching and professional preparation and training. Mutually shared and compatible intents underpinned the workshop collaboration via the combined wish to support personal and civic development of benefit to society and the economy. Together we established a working relationship to augment educational practice and affirm participant confidence by bringing to the fore ‘stand-out strengths’, showcasing both innate qualities and applied skills.

For the workshop focus we outlined fundamental enablers of both personal and professional workplace readiness, crafting an experience to reinforce a secure sense of identity. In administering Elias Porter's Strength Deployment Inventory [SDI ©] we reviewed what made for effective goal attainment and personal fulfilment. Esteemed values associated with their related behavioural clusters were portrayed by participants to reveal what informed (their) predominant motivations. The SDI © made for a tangible representation of value-centric ways of doing things, helping to connect surface behaviours with their plausible drivers, and the would-be impact on all concerned.

Differences between natural aptitudes and acquired skills were recognised giving rise to discussions on how to make the best of abilities whilst being mindful to ongoing development opportunities. The core strengths brought to life in the experiential learning challenges were reflected on. Appreciation for individuals’ values in action was expressed along with exploring implications for building relationships, navigating interpersonal difficulties and contributing towards purposeful teamwork. Participants commented on their increased self-awareness and self-regulation on completing the workshop, acknowledging what they do well with some implications for what could be next for them.