The Realise2 4M Model sits at the heart of Realise2. It represents the core theory and research on which Realise2 is based, representing the four combinations of energy, performance, and use, which together define the four quadrants of the model.

• A realised strength is characterised by high energy, high performance, and high use.
• A learned behaviour is characterised by lower energy but high performance, while use may be variable.
• A weakness is characterised by lower energy and lower performance, while again use may be variable.
• An unrealised strength is characterised by high energy and high performance, but lower use.

These four characteristics - realised strengths, unrealised strengths, learned behaviours, and weaknesses - together make up the four quadrants of the Realise2 4M Model.

The 4 "Ms" refer to the advice that follows from the model, following clockwise:

• Marshal realised strengths – use them appropriately for your situation and context.
• Moderate learned behaviours – use them in moderation and only when you need to.
• Minimise weaknesses – use them as little as possible and only where necessary.
• Maximise unrealised strengths – find opportunities to use them more.

The Dynamic Nature of the Realise2 4M Model

The Realise2 4M Model is a dynamic model, and Realise2 is a dynamic assessment tool. Unlike personality assessments, where personality is expected to be pretty much fixed over time, strengths are different. The strengths we use and don't use are influenced by the situations we are in. How often we do something can impact on how we feel about it. How we focus on developing something, and whether it comes naturally or not, will impact on how we perform at it. All of these dynamic elements are captured by the Realise2 4M Model.

Just think about what this dynamic approach means in practice:

• Unrealised strengths may shift to become realised strengths - because your development has focused on maximising them and finding opportunities to use them more!
• Realised strengths that are taken too far - overplayed - can shift to become learned behaviours. When we use a strength too much, it becomes draining, and so can shift into the learned behaviour quadrant.
• Weakness development - when needed - will hopefully increase our performance of that weakness. As performance improves, so the weakness might become a learned behaviour - but our experience shows that the energy will almost never shift, so it's highly unlikely to become a strength.
• And as situations change, so might the strengths we use in those situations also change. It's called adaptation, something that we humans have been doing for tens of thousands of years through evolution.

As you can see, the dynamic nature of the Realise2 4M Model means that strengths are not like personality. Strengths are more fluid, more able to be developed, more dynamic in relation to our situation. In contrast, personality is stable, if not fixed, less able to be developed, and more consistent throughout our lives. This doesn't mean that we can just "choose" the strengths we want to have, but it does mean that our strengths are not fixed at birth, but instead emerge and develop and evolve over the course of our life and through the different situations we experience.

The Realise2 4M Model in Practice - Performance Reviews, Coaching, Individual and Team Development

In practice, the dynamic nature of the Realise2 4M Model means that it is ideally suited for use in performance reviews, coaching, individual and team development, and as a tool to enable people to achieve their goals and objectives.

The essence of the advice from the Realise2 4M Model in these situations is quite straightforward:

1. Marshal your realised strengths and align them to your goals and objectives, because you are more likely to achieve your goals and objectives by using your strengths. When you are using your strengths, you feel a sense of energy, engagement and intrinsic motivation, and you deliver better performance as a result. There is consistent evidence for this.
2. Find opportunities to maximise your unrealised strengths and use them more in achieving what you want. Your unrealised strengths are a goldmine of untapped potential.
3. Watch out to ensure that you moderate your learned behaviours, using them as much as appropriate but not too much - if you do, you'll pay the price in terms of feeling de-energised, drained, and disengaged. Learned behaviours are there to be called on when needed - but not over-used.
4. Learn how to minimise your weaknesses so they don't have a negative impact on your performance. You might do this by finding ways to use your strengths to compensate, working with other people, in partnership or in teams, or even learning how to develop the weakness so that it is "good enough".
5. Having worked through the cycle, put it into practice. After a month, three months, or six months, come back and review. Strengths are dynamic, situations are ever changing. See what has changed for you and what you need to do about it, so that you can continually perform at your best through realising your strengths, moderating your learned behaviours, and minimising your weaknesses.

Addressing Critiques of the Strengths Approach

Realise2 and the Realise2 4M Model were specifically developed to address some of the critiques that have been made of strengths approaches, including:

• "Strengths approaches ignore weaknesses" - not in the Realise2 4M Model. We include weaknesses, and call them just that - weaknesses. Not "areas for development" or "lesser strengths" or "growth focus areas". Just weaknesses, plain and simple.
• "Strengths just focus on one part of the person" - not in the Realise2 4M Model, which is unique in how it includes strengths, weaknesses, and learned behaviours, providing a truly holistic, integrated perspective on what you love to do (strengths), can do (learned behaviours), and can't do (weaknesses) - as well as what you need to do about it.
• "Strengths overplayed become weaknesses" - they may do, which is why our advice is to marshal realised strengths. That is, to use them appropriately for your situation and need - the golden mean of strengths use, as we called it in Average to A+: Realising Strengths in Yourself and Others.
• "Strengths are fixed and unchanging" - they are not. If strengths were fixed, leaders would be born and not made, nobody would ever change or grow, and development budgets wouldn't exist. Instead, strengths are a dynamic interplay between you and your situation. It's true that you can't just "choose" the strengths you want to have, but it's equally true that strengths can be developed, and that different strengths can emerge as they are called forth at different times and in different situations.

Into the Future...

The Realise2 4M Model and the Realise2 strengths assessment tool represent the state-of-the-science in strengths assessment and development. Just as competencies transformed how people were managed in organisations in the 1980's and 1990's, the Realise2 4M Model for holistic assessment and development will transform how people are managed in organisations in the next decade. Use the Realise2 4M Model in your work and you too can be at the vanguard of the future.