Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Why "engaging strengths"?

I've been thinking a little about what it means to fully engage your strengths. I deliberately chose this title for my blog--"engaging strengths" -- because I see so many colleges and universities who are intrigued by a strengths-based approach to their first-year seminar, their career services, their student leadership programs, or other campus efforts, yet they rarely develop the kind of strengths-based interventions that will really make a difference in their students’ lives. Too often, they simply administer the Clifton StrengthsFinder and hold a discussion group about what the results mean—and then they’re done! Somehow they think this will have a miraculous effect on students’ lives. Wrong! This “once-and-done” approach is NOT what we mean by a strengths-based approach to education—and if it’s all you plan to do, don’t waste your time and money.

A strengths-based approach to any educational endeavor is just that—an approach. It’s a way of doing something else important. It’s a vehicle for engaging students in the learning process, or a tool for helping students become more self-aware. But the point is that any vehicle or tool must be used effectively for a purpose—used appropriately to accomplish something else. So that’s why I called this blogspot “Engaging Strengths” – the whole point is that we must engage our own strengths and those of our students in the service of learning and development. Know your strengths? Sure—that’s a first step. Affirm them? Okay, fine—still a first step. Learn how they can be applied so that you are better at what is important for you to do in life—now we’re getting there! And it is indeed a journey, not something that can be accomplished in one class session or a 30-minute conversation with an advisor.

So think of engaging your strengths as a life journey. My goal on these pages is to function as a navigator for the journey. Ask any question you like, but also feel free to post some of your good ideas and things that have worked on your campus. We’re all learning about this together!

Friday, March 23, 2007

The Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education

I have the good fortune to work with some amazing colleagues in the doctoral program in Higher Education at Azusa Pacific University who also do research together with the Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education. A little over a year ago the Noel Academy began as a way to honor the work that Don Clifton and Chip Anderson had been doing for several decades. Don, chairman of the board of The Gallup Organization, always asked "What would happen if we studied what was right with people?" Chip, one of our colleagues on the doctoral faculty at Azusa Pacific was fond of asking, "What would we do if we really loved our students?" Before he passed away in July of 2005, Chip had clearly left his mark on the university and our students. Our president, Jon Wallace, committed with our Board of Trustees for the university to become a strengths-based campus. Lee Noel, co-founder of Noel-Levitz, Inc., was a good friend of Don and Chip's. By funding the Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education, he not only honored the work of his colleagues and friends, but also ensured that APU would maintain its commitment to becoming a strengths-based campus. Bringing in Dr. Eileen Hulme as the first executive director of the Academy was a huge coup for us, as she has done some amazing work at Baylor University as the Vice President for Student Life.

The Academy will launch officially this April 27th with a dedication of the new building that houses the Academy offices. The grand opening event provides us with a great opportunity to gather people from around the country to discuss how a strengths-based approach can be utilized in three key areas: (a) in helping students discover their calling and vocation, (b) in helping K-12 schools recognize and capitalize on the strengths of their teachers and students, and (c) in impacting college campuses by building on the research coming out of the field of positive psychology. For more information, check out the Academy's website at www.apu.edu/strengthsacademy.

The mission of the Academy is to transform educational practices by equipping college and university faculty and staff to identify and nurture students' strengths as the foundation for engaging students in the learning process and helping them to achieve excellence. It does so by focusing on a TRIAD of activities outlined below. What can the Academy do for you?

  • Training and development of leaders, educators, coaches, and others who wish to apply a strengths-based approach to the work they do. The Academy can provide executive coaching or appropriate training for your leadership team members, academic advisors, faculty, student development staff, and student leaders.
  • Research on the impact of strengths-based interventions in higher education and K-12 settings. The Academy partners with researchers around the country to determine the outcomes of strengths-based interventions.
  • Interventions designed to produce engaged learning, student success, and a sense of meaning and purpose. The Academy can help you design the interventions that are most likely to produce the impact you desire, based on its experience in program design.
  • Assessment of the effects of strengths-based programming. The Academy can help you design assessment programs and evaluation measures before begin a strengths-based program, so that you can document to your campus leadership the effects of the program on outcomes that matter most to your institution.
  • Dissemination of best practices. The Academy intends to function as a clearinghouse for best practices in strengths-based leadership and education.

In future posts, I'll talk more about what it means to become a strengths-based campus and will share with you some of the best practices we've discovered along the way.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Welcome to Engaging Strengths!

Welcome to Engaging Strengths -- a blog created especially for educators who are using a strengths-based approach to their classes, advising, or other programming within their college or university!

As your host for this blog, my goal is to provide a space for us to discuss what's working and what's not as we design and implement strengths-based programs in higher education. Ask any question you like and I'll give it my best shot--or I'll connect you to someone who might be helpful.

I'll also update you periodically on the latest research, best practices, new ideas, and specific ways of applying a strengths-based approach to the work we do as educators. I'll post once a week and would love to hear from you!