We’ve all been in a meeting that’s heavy with visionaries — so many innovative ideas but no one thinking pragmatically about process or how to drive ideation to execution. Everyone walks away excited about the future, but with no actionable steps to help them arrive at the destination.

Or maybe it’s the exact opposite — a team of executors, but nobody keeping the long-term vision or strategy in mind. Productivity is high but there is no bigger picture.

High-performing teams need all types to thrive. Ideators, empaths, activators, and arrangers UNITE!

Related Reading: Future of Work… or Experience

You may have heard these words before. They are just a few of the 34 CliftonStrengths themes that originate from Gallup, an analytics and advisory company that studies worldwide employee experience, engagement, and connectedness. Gallup believes in promoting positive psychology by helping people understand their inherent talents so that they can lean into these strengths every day in the workplace. Their research demonstrates that not only does employee engagement, loyalty, and satisfaction soar when people play to their strengths, but it has a direct impact on businesses’ revenue, growth, and overall health.

But this isn’t a blog promoting CliftonStrenghts. Instead, it’s about how my beliefs about future of work and building strengths-based teams lead me to be part of the Great Resignation and brought me to SQA Group.

After spending six years in a profession where my relationship-building strengths were in overdrive, I knew that my ideal career trajectory included more opportunities to flex my strategic thinking and executing muscles. At the same time, the last 18 months completely reframed how I think about work, and I craved a transition to a company passionate about employee experience (EX).

The future of work is flexible and human-centric and will require looking at things like innovation, disruption, and collaboration in a way that we never have before. To keep up in this competitive market, leaders need to be thinking about the points where customer and employee experience intersect, creating space for emerging technology to enhance (not replace) human work, and measuring the seemingly unmeasurable – engagement, mission, collaboration, and so on.

The challenge was finding a company with beliefs and values that align with my own.

I started sifting through job postings and company websites but talked myself out of the opportunities that closest aligned with my strengths. I was hung up on my previous job title and sector as a hindrance to pursuing something new and different, until a friend suggested I reach out to SQA Group’s VP of Growth Strategy Carrie Majewski.

Over the course of a handful of calls, and a non-traditional, human-first interview process, Carrie and I talked about SQA Group’s values, opportunities, and growth focuses… all of which led to the co-creation of the position I hold today — Director of Strategic Initiatives. And while this would be a significant shift for me, it was clear that SQA Group embraces, celebrates, and develops its employees’ strengths and truly believes in the power and potential of people. Values aren’t just images on the website, but rather pillars of belief that guide work and decision-making.

The choice to join SQA Group felt like a no-brainer.

An opportunity to embrace and flex my strengths. Check.

Leadership that cares equally about employee and customer experience. Check.

A team that wants to forever shape the future of work through their services. Check.

There is no denying the new era of EX we are entering. It begins the moment we start the interview process, and in the long-term, it will be a major driver for company growth and health.

On that note, we’re continuing to grow our team in accordance with our values and with a strengths-based lens. Check out our open positions or drop me a note.