Bernard and Jean Haldane
Bernard Haldane is recognised as one of the giants of the strengths philosophy. This was an approach he was already using in the 1940s. His legacy lives on through his thought leadership, his protégés and the continuing work with what he termed ‘Dependable Strengths’.
The following pages give a brief overview of Bernard’s approach, which was enriched and supported by his wife, Jean.
Philosophy
Bernard was born in 1911, grew up in England and trained to be a doctor. He moved to New York in 1946, but found that his medical qualifications did not meet US standards.
Choosing to go another route, he became an editor at the New York Journal of Commerce. Then came a career shift.
The job market was flooded by veterans returning from war, but organisations did not know how to employ their talents. Veterans were used to ‘war jobs’, many of which did not exist in the labour market.
Bernard was invited to help such people to find work. Adopting a different approach from other recruiters, he went through the following steps with the veterans.
He asked them to recall their best achievements and, in the process, clarified what they enjoyed doing and what they did well.
He clarified their individual strengths and transferable skills that would be useful to an organisation.
He helped people to market and present their offering in a way that showed the benefits to a potential employer.
Bernard’s ‘inside-out’ out approach was extremely radical for the time. Most people who assisted job seekers adopted an ‘outside-in’ approach, trying to fit people into old boxes.
Richard Knowdell, a highly respected figure in career development and a friend of Haldane, said that:
“Bernard believed that he could reveal ‘the excellence in each person’ by analysing the skills that individuals had used in performing past accomplishments.”
People then needed help in marketing their strengths and conducting interviews. Bernard was highly skilled at helping individuals, but this approach was highly labour intensive.
Richard Knowdell explains how Haldane tackled this challenge.
He asked the job seeker to enlist a small group of friends. The individual would relate past accomplishments and the group members would record the skills on a skills analysis checklist.
He trained interested people to practice this approach with job seekers.
He continued to expand his network of career counsellors. The demand became so great that he set-up Bernard Haldane Associates (BHA) in New York and Washington.
Bernard published Career Satisfaction and Success in 1974. Eight years earlier he had married Jean, who added her skills to enriching the strengths approach.
BHA grew in size, spread across America and he sold the company in the 70s. With it he sold the rights to use the name and the methodology to work with people in the commercial sector.
The company bore his name, but he had no connection to it. Bernard and Jean then focused on the ‘not-for-profit sector’, continuing to do superb work into the 21st Century.
Principles
Bernard developed many of the ideas that are now common practice in personal and professional development. Here are some of those principles.
People can explore their strengths by recalling their good experiences.
Peter Drucker called Bernard a "pathfinder in finding human strength and making it productive."
Jean Haldane said that Bernard’s methods stayed the same throughout his life, even though he refined the methodology.
He would “help people look at their experiences” and find “things you feel you do well, enjoy doing and are proud of.” This approach was developed by many of his protégés.
People can clarify their dependable strengths and transferable skills by exploring these good experiences with other people.
The Center for Dependable Strengths is an organisation that applies Bernard’s approach. People often work together in groups to help each other discover their strengths.
Here is a description the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process that can be found on their web site.
DSAP is a peer-assisted, group process first developed by Bernard Haldane in 1945. The heart of the process is story telling. DSAP facilitators are trained to elicit the kind of stories that illustrate a person's Dependable Strengths® – each person’s special talent for excellence.
Participants in the process reflect on their experiences in life, identify their patterns of strengths, and learn how to talk about their Dependable Strengths in ways that demonstrate their value to an organization or community. We help people plan for successful futures!
People can be proactive and develop their skills for finding roles in which they can use their strengths.
Bernard did more than help people to find their strengths – he encouraged them to go out and find their perfect role. He also helped them to do what would now be called ‘networking’.
In an article titled Bernard Haldane Was Ahead Of His Time, Jerald Forster wrote:
“In his 1960 book, How to Make a Habit of Success, Bernard Haldane made the case for focusing on successes rather than mistakes … He then described a series of activities wherein the person ‘mines the gold’ in his key achievements, searching for success factors.
“As early as 1962, Bernard wrote: ‘Seventy percent of all beginning jobs today are obtained through personal contacts with an employer or through friends.’”
Contribution to the strengths approach
Bernard made an enormous contribution to the strengths philosophy. For example:
He pioneered thought leadership in the area of building on people’s strengths. This was at a time when most people thought that development called for continually focusing on weaknesses.
He developed practical approaches to focusing on ‘the excellence in each person’ and enabling them to find their strengths and transferable skills.
His influence has contributed to millions of people finding and enjoying satisfying work.
Jerald Forster says: “While the first part of Bernard’s career was almost totally focused on the goal of facilitating job and career satisfaction, the latter part had a broader focus on what might be called life satisfaction.”
Summarising Bernard’s later work, The Center for Dependable Strengths says:
“Through a culmination of experiences, and with the assistance of his wife, Dr. Jean Haldane, Dr. Haldane evolved the idea of marketing one's strengths and potential in everyday life with a focus on helping children and the poor build their self-esteem.
“This idea was the seed that blossomed into the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process, a process that has since spread worldwide.”
Peter Drucker, the renowned management writer, wrote the following in the Foreword to Career Satisfaction and Success.
“Bernie Haldane has, for twenty-five years or more, pioneered in finding human strength and in making it productive.
“Long before it became fashionable, Mr. Haldane realised that placing people is the most important help one can give them, whether they work in an organisation or for themselves. And understanding what one is good for and what one therefore should try to strengthen and develop is the key to self-development.
“But, from the beginning, Bernie Haldane has gone beyond philosophy, has been the practical guide, the helping hand, the pathfinder.
“This book distills his experience, his achievements, his knowledge and his wisdom. It is more than a ‘guide to the perplexed’ – it is a guide to achievement and self-fulfillment, especially in the modern organisation.”
Bernard died in 2002, but his work continues. Perhaps one of his greatest legacies has been the number of people who have followed the trail he blazed.
Virtually all the grandees in the field of Career Development acknowledge the debt they owe to Bernard. Summarising Bernard’s later work, The Center for Dependable Strengths says:
“Through a culmination of experiences, and with the assistance of his wife, Dr. Jean Haldane, Dr. Haldane evolved the idea of marketing one's strengths and potential in everyday life with a focus on helping children and the poor build their self-esteem.
“This idea was the seed that blossomed into the Dependable Strengths Articulation Process, a process that has since spread worldwide.”
Links
* The Center for Dependable Strengths.
http://www.dependablestrengths.org/
* The Strengths Foundation’s introduction of Bernard Haldane’s work.
Posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 4:55 am in Companion, The Strengths Blog | RSS feed
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