Page 6 - 2020-12-Rotary-on-the-Move-Newsletter-Zone-8

‘CAPITALISE ON YOUR STRENGTHS

FOR MEMBERSHIP SATISFACTION’

Article by Carol Coffey, District 9670 Membership Chair

Who doesn’t enjoy a spirited motivational speech or demonstration? Who loves going out and doing
something that you can do well? People are inspired by strength of character, morals, talent and skills,
so why in a volunteer organisation do we spend time searching for our weaknesses?

There are often enough people in your workplace fixated and reminding you of your perceived weaknesses and what
you need to do (in their opinion) to lessen them. Often, they want you to fit into a role description, without
flamboyancy and opportunity to push the limits.

To motivate people, be progressive and look at their strengths; this is particularly important to Millennials who
thrive on recognition. Gallup research indicates people working in their strengths zone look forward to going to
work, have more positive interactions with co-workers and treat customers better. People in this zone proudly tell
their friends they work for a great company, achieve more daily, and have more positive and innovative moments.
All areas that provide for excellent quality of life and pride in workmanship. I saw this in abundance recently from
a young Sudanese man who had the opportunity to go on a RAWCS project to Vanuatu where he plied his IT skills
with a solar installation.

His pride in working with Rotary, getting recognition and a reference to assist him working with John Deere was a
presentation to remember. My husband offered to assist him in honing his skill and present to District Conferences
– Kleenex shares would rise that weekend! Hopefully one day he will accept the offer and believe in the power of his
empathy to influence his powerful story.

Strengths develop from our talents through experiences, skill building, coaching and feedback – your personal
development of vision, communication, organisation, leadership and positive lifestyle are talents that develop over
time to shape your strategic thinking, relationship building, influencing and executing. (reference Clifton
StrengthsFinder - Don Clifton). Clifton said, “what will happen when we think about what is right with people, rather
than fixating on what is wrong with them?” He also believed that weakness filing prevented failure where strengths
building led to success.
People gain greater self-confidence and self-awareness, an improved understanding of others, greater collaboration,
renewed joy in their work and a different perspective in how they can approach their work.
How does this relate to your experience in Rotary?

Rotary (and many other service organisations and NFP) let you explore talents that your workplace may not allow
for. An accountant can engage in IT or marketing, a sole trader can be President of a club, an office worker can be a
Treasurer, most importantly we ALL can be ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things’ through our service
opportunities.
We don’t need to dwell on our clubs or members weaknesses – lets manage and explore the many and varied
strengths of our members to provide the opportunity for the elements of human behaviour that may not be possible
in their workplace to be better used. Maybe it is what some members need to maintain their membership, maybe it
will ignite some passion amongst your club as new opportunities develop from their strengths.
There are 34 themes in the StrengthsFinder framework; imagine what success, growth, innovation and engagement
you could achieve through knowing and applying your dominant strengths – starting, experimenting and learning
in the safety and hopefully with the support of your club – allow Rotary to Open Opportunities.

‘DO GOOD’

Quotes from 9550 DG Merewyn Wright, from the November 2020 DG Newsletter

“Let’s think about why we meet, where we meet, what we do when we meet, and who we meet with – and
perhaps even what we call these get togethers! Our world is changing, and with the current pandemic
even more so; we need to adapt and change our practices if we are to continue to stay relevant.”
“This is all about our service projects - the way we "do good" in our local and global communities, because "Service
above Self" is still our core business, and our local, national and global communities need us more than ever!”

“Let’s not just “do good” in our communities; let’s make sure we tell everyone about it! But let’s do it well – using
consistent branding.”

Rotary on the Move December 2020 Page 6