Strengths-Based Advising

Academic advising holds enormous promise as a vehicle for permeating the campus with a strengths-based approach to student success. Where else does every single student have the opportunity for an ongoing one-on-one relationship with a faculty or staff member?

At its heart, academic advising is a relationship--and we know that taking a "strengths approach" to learning and student success works best in the context of healthy relationships. Good advising helps students get the most out of their college experience by connecting who they are and who they want to become to the pathways that will enable them to reach their goals.

But after 25 years in higher education, I have to confess that I'm pretty frustrated with the academic advising systems on most campuses. My fellow faculty seem to think advising is nothing more than course registration--and that it can be done in about 15 minutes. Too often they see it as an interruption of their work, a hassle that comes once a semester complete with long lines of students outside their doors or urgent last-minute e-mails from students who need to register. What would happen if we realized the transformative power that advising has to impact student learning and engagement?

In his book Making the Most of College (2001), Richard Light points out that "good academic advising may be the single most underestimated characteristic of a successful college experience." A powerful statement! And a challenge for us as educators working within a system that rarely provides the time for or the recognition of the importance of advising. In research I've done with the Student Satisfaction Inventory, we see the same pattern year after year: students rate advising effectiveness as second only to teaching effectiveness in importance to them, yet faculty rate advising effectiveness near the bottom of institutional priorities.

Taking a strengths-based approach to advising means we do some things differently! It means we start with a different foundation for the advising relationship: we start with the assumption that our purpose as advisors is to help students identify and develop their strengths so that they get the most out of their college experiences. Sure, course registration is an activity that happens as part of this, but it's a very small part. The much bigger part of our role is to help students become the persons they were created to be. Good advising spotlights the seeds of talent already in students and then helps them identify paths they need to take to develop those talents into strengths so that they reach their goals. It's not about identifying talents just so they feel good about themselves; it's about identifying talents as the foundation for excellence, as the best way of becoming a college graduate.

Chip Anderson and I wrote an article on strengths-based advising for the 2005 special issue of the National Academic Advising Association Journal that highlighted advising theories and models. From this article, I've expanded on some of the practical ways of taking a strengths-based approach to advising. On May 16th, The Gallup Organization and The Noel Academy for Strengths-Based Leadership and Education are co-sponsoring a webinar on strengths-based advising, so you're welcome to check out some of these strategies there. For more info, see www.strengthsquest.com.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts on the challenges you face in advising, as well as strategies you use in advising that seem to work!

Momentum for the Movement

I just returned from three different opportunities to speak to people about strengths-based approaches in higher education. The first was the "Dialogue on Learning" that took place at Tompkins-Cortland Community College (TC3) in central New York. Khaki and Chris are doing a great job there introducing other educators in the region to the positive learning outcomes that can occur when a strengths-based approach is used in the classroom. I spoke on Engaged Learning and talked about the research evidence that connects strengths-based approaches to greater levels of motivation and student engagement in the learning process.

From there I moved on to Washington, DC, where Karen Longman and I had the opportunity to present a plenary session to the joint conference of the chief academic officers and chief student development officers of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, a group of 105 faith-based liberal arts colleges. We presented a strengths-based approach to engaged learning and to team building across student life and academic affairs. Once again, the potential impact of a strengths-based approach on student engagement seemed to grab people's attention, as did the possibility of working better as a team by capitalizing on the strengths that each person brings to the table.

And lastly, Orlando, Florida--site of the joint conference between NASPA and ACPA that happens once in a decade! Almost 10,000 people were there. The strengths perspective was well-represented in four different presentations: Dr. Kim Greenway from the University of North Alabama presented "Building on Students' Strengths: A Strategic Partnership Between Academic and Student Affairs" with me, Dr. Eileen Hulme from Azusa Pacific University presented with some of her students on best practices in strengths-based interventions and programs, as well as with her colleagues Sharra Durham (Texas A & M) and Dub Oliver (Baylor) on strengths-based approaches to staff development, and I presented on strengths-based first-year programs and their impact on student engagement. If you're interested in any of the Power Point slides from those presentations, you can find them at the Noel Strengths Academy website: www.apu.edu/strengthsacademy.

If the size and energy of the audiences at these presentations were any indication, the strengths movement is rapidly gaining momentum! Another reason why it's so important that we as practitioners and researchers continue to answer the "so what?" and "now what?" questions that naturally arise once students learn about their strengths.

I expect that we will take a large step toward furthering the movement when people gather at the Noel Strengths Academy April 26-28 to think together about the next steps to be taken. There are three symposia occurring during that timeframe as part of the Grand Opening of the Academy -- Positive Psychology on Campus, Calling and Vocation, and P-12 Education. In each of these critical areas, conversations will center around what we are learning about the contribution that a strengths approach makes to the outcomes that really matter: the growth and development of students from preschool through college graduation. More info about these symposia can be found on the Academy's website listed above.

Even more conversations will occur at The Gallup Organization in Omaha June 27-29, as educators gather there to focus on "Becoming a Strengths-Based Campus." This conference is a great way to learn what others are doing and to bring a team from your campus so that you get the "big picture" about the impact a strengths approach can have not only on students, but on faculty, staff, and administrators as well.

Maybe we'll run into each other at one of these events!