Great Leaders Emphasize Their Strengths
There are few things I love more than facilitating and teaching at events. It makes my heart sing to stand in front of a group of interested, engaged professionals, helping them grow and guiding them to reach their full potential.
But setting up and managing the events? Bleah. I’m not very good at it and it takes every ounce of willpower for me to do what’s necessary to pull all the pieces together.
Luckily, I’ve got Suzanne — Thrive’s Event Manager. She’s magic. I mean like Disney quality magic.
She oversees all the hospitality for our workshops and programs and I leave the details to her.
She anticipates what will make people feel happy and comfortable once they enter our doors. And she is naturally skilled at creating a welcoming atmosphere with thoughtful touches like special plates, napkins, coffee, treats, and takeaways.
What’s most interesting to me as I watch Suzanne work, is that she’s not trying harder than I do when I attempt the same outcome. Hospitality comes naturally to her. So not only is the quality better, it’s easy and enjoyable for her. She’s working within her area of natural strength.
A Need for Balance
Often, when coaching leaders, I notice their tendency to concentrate on shoring up weaknesses. There’s nothing wrong with this, and I would never encourage anyone to ignore derailers or critical areas in need of development.
But the truth is, there’s at least as much upside in improving strengths as there is in lessening weaknesses. It’s where our natural power lives; we are doing ourselves (and those around us) a disservice by not spending time here as well.
We need to be intentional about overcoming our human bias towards correcting the negatives and work to create a strength-based culture in our teams and organizations. Here’s how…
#1. Assess
We can’t emphasize our strengths until we know what they are. And, because many of them come so naturally, it’s easy to overlook the ones that are most powerful.
Take time for some personal reflection. Which activities are you naturally drawn to? What things energize you? Which elements of your work leave you fulfilled and thinking, “I love doing X; I wish I could do it more often!”
Complete an online strengths assessment (there are many). I recommend CliftonStrengths® 34 or the free VIA Character Strengths assessment, both of which will give you a list of your “signature strengths.”
Conduct a strengths exercise for your team. Understanding where our team members excel allows for better partnering, improved performance, and leveraging of one another’s natural talents.
Revisit your Enneagram type and its related strengths. Someone who leads with Enneagram Type Nine (for example) has inherent strengths of patience, consistency, and inclusiveness. They can lean more on those strengths in situations that call for structure, composure, and bringing out a collective vision.
#2. Ask for Feedback
The people with whom we interact frequently are well aware of our talents and highest capabilities. So ask for their input!
I recommend the reflected best-self-exercise in which up to 20 people are polled. You simply reach out and ask them to share three short anecdotes in response to this question: When you have seen me make a special or important contribution, what distinctive strengths did I display?
Another option is to get 360 feedback. Yes, I know you might worry about hearing what isn’t strong. But there are always — always! — positive messages received. So don’t skip over all the comments that answer, “Which of this leader’s strengths do you most value, and why?”
#3. Outsource
I don’t do my own taxes, perform my own HVAC maintenance, or attempt my own dental work. Even if I wanted to, it would take me longer and lead to lower quality results. And I would hate every minute!
Plus, by spending time doing these things, I would have less time to do the things I am particularly good at and enjoy. This same logic applies in deciding which work activities to give to others.
Look at what you do on a daily basis. Which tasks are keeping you from making your maximum contribution? Which of these could you hand off to people on your team — things that could both develop their skills and free up your time?
Align the right people with the right tasks. Delegating tasks based on people’s signature strengths and interests has a two-pronged benefit: more time for you while giving people work they enjoy and find motivating.
One Size Fits Nobody
The best leaders know where their strengths lie and where they have gaps. They don’t try to be something they are not.
Rather, they seek to build a team that covers most of the basics and matches the right people with the right tasks and responsibilities, all of which maximizes impact, satisfaction, and performance.