Principals, teachers and other instructional staff are usually evaluated by observing weaknesses or documenting mistakes made in the course of performing their job functions. Our frustrations to improve education are exacerbated by our methods of assessment and evaluation which tend to focus on the identification of individual weaknesses. It is rare to find evaluation systems designed in a manner to discover strengths of the individual and organization and then build upon them through a coordinated staff development effort. Donald O. Clifton provides the most knowledgeable advice about how to focus on individual strengths. In his book Soaring With Your Strengths he identifies five characteristics of a strength.
Strengths start in the mind of the performer.
They can be characterized as the pull or attraction of one activity over another. Watching for satisfactions or those experiences where the emotional and psychic rewards are great can be a sign of an individual strength. Easy learning of specific tasksis an indication of a strength and is something we are likely to be good at. There are times when we feel like we have always known how to do a particular task. Experiencing moments of excellent performance is an indicator of a strength.