Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1503152
V O L . X X I X N O. X V J U LY 1 0 , 2 0 2 3 10 B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S M A I N E B U S I N E S S N E W S F RO M A RO U N D T H E S TAT E said its employees participated in a company-wide volunteer day to help organizations throughout Washington County. The day was part of the company's commit- ment to give 2,000 hours an- nually to support healthy, active communities. The Maine Community Foundation in Ellsworth announced that its Guy P. Gannett Journalism Scholarship Fund awarded $222,000 in schol- arships to 19 students studying journalism at the undergraduate or graduate level. Husson University in Bangor an- nounced a partnership that will give qualified students fast-track status and priority entry into the St. George's School of Medicine and School of Veterinary Medicine in True Blue, Grenada. R EGI ONAL S PONS OR S PR ES ENTI NG S PONS OR Make new connections with the Augusta business community HORS D'OEUVRES / CASH BAR / NETWORKING WITH AREA BUSINESS EXECUTIVES S PACE IS S PACE IS LIMITED LIMITED, BE S URE TO , BE S URE TO REGISTER! REGISTER! Please register ahead at mainebiz.biz/OTRAugusta23 AUGUSTA W E D N E S D AY, J U LY 1 9 / 4 – 6 P M / A U G U S TA T E E N C E N T E R , 2 4 4 W AT E R S T. , A U G U S TA A S K AC E A n s w e r e d b y A n g e l a H a n s e n o f R a n g e C u l t u r e C o . The Association for Consulting Expertise (ACE) is a nonprofit association of independent consultants who value "Success through Collaboration." The public is welcome to attend its regular meetings to share best practices and engage with industry experts. For more information go to www.consultexpertise.com. Q: I've heard about the benefits of considering employee strengths at work. How do I incorporate this into my work and my team? ACE Advises: Gallup has extensive data about using employee strengths. The data demonstrates that when humans work within their top 10 ranked strengths, they feel like the work is aligned with their purpose. The prevailing way of thinking involves designing a job and asking someone to just do it. This is a mistake. There are many benefits to understanding an individual's strengths and matching them to their work. The strengths concept is a shift in which you look at the individual, what they're great at and adjust the work to utilize their strengths. Let's be realistic. In business, we have jobs that need to get done and molding everything around one person may not be efficient. However, data shows that everyone wins when small shifts are made to work with an employee's strengths. It isn't that a human needs to be doing work within their top 10 100% of the time. Rather, if it happens some of the time, impressive things happen. A first step as a leader is to take the strengths assess- ment. There is an online assessment for about $60. It will open your eyes to how parts of your work match (or do not match) your natural tendencies. Take note of the awareness of your ranked strengths and how they correlate with your work. In doing this, you will experience the process, benefits, and how you can use it to benefit your team. Angela Hansen, an ACE member, is the co-founder and chief business officer at Range Culture Co., provides practical tools for employers to retain valuable employees. Range Culture Co does workshops offering essential skills like communication and collaboration, conflict management, employee coaching, relationship building, change management, and hybrid workforce manage- ment. Angela can be reached at angela@rangecultureco.com For more resoruces on this topic, go to store.gallup.com/p/ en-us/10003/cliftonstrengths-34 @ N O T E W O R T H Y N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N N O R T H E R N & E A S T E R N