When it comes to being authentic, with skill, there are few better approaches than by using the strengths approach. So today, I would like to focus on how to be more you, the strengths way. I have 5 steps to share with you:
Here’s my step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Know your values and your purposeIt doesn’t get bigger than this. Your purpose is what you are here for. On earth, for the time you have. What do you want people to say about you when you’re gone? And when you’re here? For me, I’m here to create a better world, based on some of my values of love, inclusion, individuality and authenticity. And speaking of values, they are your bedrock – your guiding principles to a way of life that you are most at home with. Most of us have a load of these, some more important than others. For me, I would add to those I’ve already mentioned integrity, responsibility, loyalty, curiosity, family and no judgement. There are more, but those will serve to illustrate. So if you want to be more you, the strengths way, step 1, your bedrock, is to get clearer on what you’re here for (your purpose) and on your life principles (your values). So what are yours? Step 2: Understand what energises youThe strengths way is about recognising who you are at your most comfortable, energised and skilled best. There are a few ways to arrive at this but most start with some kind of strengths profile and the best of these, so they say, is Strengthscope.
For me, my go to, bring with, ‘(almost) always on ‘strengths are 1. Collaboration (for the connection, for finding common ground, for the sheer joy of doing things together and sharing in experiences), 2. Empathy (partly in service to deepen my connections by understanding you better, and also just to understand you for you) and 3. Leading (for building energy around a vision or a goal, to move people, emotionally and literally towards a meaningful goal). So what are your ‘stand out’ strengths? Step 3: Build a brand around your strengthsSo knowing and labelling your key strengths – those things that energise you and that you are great at or have the potential to become great at – is a good start. But if I just met you and said to you that my key strengths are Collaboration, Empathy and Leading, that would give you something but it wouldn’t give you a huge amount go on. And it’s unlikely it would help you to see how I can bring value to your world (other than maybe collaborating with you or empathising with you). But where’s the colour, the depth, the value of all of that? To take it to the next stage, my advice is to find your own words to describe the benefits of the strengths you bring, examples of where you’ve used them, the benefit to others and stories that bring your strengths to life. The value of my Collaboration and Empathy for example is in really getting under the skin of how you’re going to bring your best by joining the dots of what I observe, what you tell me and what we’re trying to do together and then giving you a clear insight into what I see to work through it with you and see if it’s accurate or valuable. I’ve built that strength combination into my executive coaching practice as an outworking of those strengths in combination, as well as into my leadership and management roles by helping team members to see and to value their strengths, skills and potential. I am also told regularly that I have vision, that I can bring people around that vision and galvanise belief and action towards a shared goal, something that I believe is going to have a positive impact in the world. So that’s leading and collaboration combined to energise positive change. When you know your values (your bedrock) and you know strengths (and the benefits they can bring), you can work up a brand and start to communicate it with confidence because you will be describing you at your natural, energised, confident and comfortable best. And people need to hear about that, because otherwise they may not get the full picture of authentic you and all that you bring. How close are you to developing your personal brand? Step 4: Keep stretching and learningOur strengths are natural qualities that we are drawn towards using and probably have been for most of our lives. That means that, in most cases, we will have become fairly skilled in using them. But it also means that we are likely to have fallen into habituated patterns of behaviour where we are most likely to get a consistently positive outcome. And that can inadvertently, when we’re not paying attention, lead to the development of a ‘fixed mindset’ around our strengths, where we avoid risking using them in a new or more challenging context.
For me, if I am seen already as a visionary leader then what can I do to stretch that Leading strength still further? How can I get more people around the vision? How can I learn to hone my Leading skillset? I can read, I can research, I can get mentoring and coaching, and I can take practical steps to more widely communicate my message so that more people can get value from my strengths and I can supercharge my vision. What active steps are you taking to develop your strengths set further, so that you can be more you, but in a more skilful way? Step 5: Avoid overdriveGotta love overdrive. The shadow side of our strengths. By way of example, my Collaboration in overdrive can mean overstretching my commitments and falling short on delivery of the value that I’ve promised. Antidote: pick my collaborations carefully, set expectations realistically and boundary well. And I use my Strategic mindedness strength to help bring the bigger perspective to that to avoid initiating too many collaborations for my own good and for everyone else’s. My Leading in overdrive can look like an idea without a plan. Antidote: get a plan together that’s SMART and make sure that the right people are involved in managing it through to a successful conclusion. And that’s unlikely to be me. I choose to get other people’s help to develop a plan and stick to it and actually to manage me to bring my best and to get a good result. My Empathy in overdrive can lead me to lose my sense of self in my connection with someone else. In the service of others, I may forget to serve myself and that can lead me to over-analyse and over-worry. Strategic mindedness to the rescue to make sure that I can keep a bigger picture perspective. And the support I have from others to give me an external view on something I’m experiencing or feeling is essential for me. What are your overdrive risks and what are your antidotes; how can you manage them so that they don’t get in the way of you being your best you? Those are my top 5 for today to be more you, the strengths way: know your values and purpose; understand what energises you; build a brand around that; keep stretching, keep learning; and avoid overdrive. Till next time, stay strong. The Strengths Guy podcast is on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. If you enjoy it, please support us by subscribing and sharing on your favorite platform. Via https://www.strengthscope.com/be-more-you-the-strengths-way/
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In today’s podcast we talk to a truly tremendous human, who is doing a whole range of positive work in the community both in the UK and in DRC in Central Africa, Christian Bless. We discuss Christian’s story: setting up Solola Bien, a TV show in DRC, the community group Boys 2 Men in London and most recently, Greaterself – a consultancy that aims to help African businesses bring transformation in workplaces through the recognition of strengths and self-awareness.
We talk about Christian’s personal learnings about strengths and what he has learned about strengths at their best, overdrive risks, and the role that strengths have played in his various ventures up to now. We also look at what more can be done, and by whom, as regards community work. What’s needed and how can people help, what can they do? This is a genuinely inspiring podversation, giving us a personal trip around Chris’s various community and business ventures. To find out more about Christian’s community projects, please check out the following links: https://www.sololabien.co/
The Strengths Guy podcast is on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. If you’ve found this podcast valuable, please support it by subscribing and sharing it. Via https://www.strengthscope.com/strengths-in-the-community/
A Podversation with Abbigail LeesonToday’s conversation is with our Strengthscope intern, Abbigail Leeson. In her time with us, Abbigail has been focusing on building the Strengthscope practitioner community and has provided a lot of creative and research input to help with that. In her time with us, Abbi has also been upskilling and upknowledging the team at Strengthscope on an area that she is deeply passionate about: feminism and she has run a session with the team entitled ‘a short history of feminism’ which has superb and got amazing feedback from the team. In fact, the feedback was so good that I really wanted to feature Abbi on the podcast and to get a wider audience for some of this great content, plus have a conversation about how and where we can take action to level things up for women in the workplace. We discuss her passion for feminism and what should workplaces be prioritising right now around sexism, feminism and inclusion. And, of course, the role that strengths and Strengthscope can play in equality for women.
I just want to finish with a shout out to one of Strengthscope’s charity partners: Womankind Worldwide. Womankind Worldwide strengthens and supports women’s rights organisations and movements and resources they need to challenge oppression and change the lives of women, in the home, the workplace and the communities they live in. At the very least, I would encourage you if you’re listening today to take a look at the amazing work they do at womankind.org.uk; you can listen to a podversation I had some time back with Alicia Luther-Jones, Philanthropy Manager which gives you even more of a flavour. And if you like what you see, of course, you can take action and/or donate to further their cause. Thank you for listening today and until next time, stay strong.
The Strengths Guy podcast is on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. Please support it by subscribing and sharing it. Via https://www.strengthscope.com/gender-equality-feminism-and-strengths/ A podversation with Rebecca NewtonIn this podversation, I talk with Dr. Rebecca Newton, organisational psychologist lecturing in Management Practice at the London School of Economics, and faculty member teaching on the Accelerated Leadership Program at Harvard Law School. Rebecca is also CEO of CoachAdviser, and an adviser, executive coach and facilitator of leadership development programmes. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at LSE; and before that, Rebecca was a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Bec is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and Forbes, serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Change Management, and has facilitated executive education for LSE, Duke CE, the University of Cambridge and Harvard Business Publishing. Rebecca is the author of Authentic Gravitas: Who Stands Out and Why. We discuss
You can find out more about Rebecca on her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rebecca-newton-b3b29220/ Her website, Coach Adviser: https://coachadviser.com/ Her book is available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3x7FodO You can find The strengths guy podcast on all major platforms – Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. Please support this podcast by subscribing to get it at the start of the working week!
Via https://www.strengthscope.com/authentic-leadership-and-the-role-of-strengths/ Stakeholder engagement – what and why?In my coaching and development work with senior execs, there is one activity that I can guarantee will always form part of our conversations, almost certainly more than once. And that’s stakeholder engagement. From forming a stakeholder engagement map to a stakeholder engagement plan or strategy, these discussions are almost always central to the success of our work together. The reason? Everyone needs to know who their key stakeholders are, as well as the needs and expectations of those stakeholders, so that you can work out best how to work together so that you can each get your needs met. At leadership level, the stakes often get higher, and unmanaged or even unknown stakeholders can become a reason for projects to hit turbulence and for careers to get stalled. What’s the secret to doing stakeholder engagement well?On the flip side of that, if you follow the principles of stakeholder engagement that I outline today, you will be much better placed for success in your current and your future leadership roles, because you will have clarity on the important people around you – how they operate, their agendas and their expectations and how you can develop functional, mutually beneficial relationships with them. Today’s blog then is about developing your stakeholder engagement strategy. This activity is particularly important during transition for leaders – either in the lead up to a role change, change of employer or even change of career; just after the transition is made; and also when change happens within an organisation due to restructure or changes in senior management. But refining your stakeholder management strategy is a worthwhile exercise at any point because without it, it’s likely that the network of people and the relationships around you will have shifted without you realising the consequences. Is this politics, or is it relationships?Another point to make here which brings up inevitable baggage is the word ‘politics’ – not Big P politics but the small p version. There aren’t many leaders I’ve worked with who would say that they enjoy politics, in fact the majority would say that they ‘avoid politics’ or ‘don’t play politics’. I get that, there’s something about the word that conjurs up images of shady characters scheming in darkened rooms, plotting the downfall of this or that person. Yep, that can happen, but you can take more control over those conversations if you’ve done the work, if you’ve figured out the people a bit and worked out the ‘give and get’ between you. And that comes down to honing your skills of observation, empathy, good communication and influence – which are all good foundational skills for leadership anyway. When I work with leaders who are considering making the transition into senior exec roles or who have recently landed there for the first time, there’s often a note of regret in their voices when they realise that an increasingly large proportion of their time is going to be taken up by managing relationships, doing politics, influencing their stakeholders to get sponsorship for their projects or team and in particular working with people who they don’t necessarily feel have arrived in their senior exec positions on merit, but who have instead built a power base by being political. And I get that too. But that’s the world, it’s not a meritocracy, at least not for much of the time. Learning from the relationship-building opportunistsI remember attending an event about 20 years ago – a development centre – I was an assessor, a psychologist observing people’s performance in various simulated tasks and then giving them feedback on what I was seeing. The idea was that this would give senior management an objective read on their talent pool…those people who had been identified as having the potential to move into exec roles in the next few years. So me and other assessors (psychologists and line managers from the client organisation) sat in rooms observing scenarios and behaviour all day and giving some feedback on performance at the end – both to the project sponsors and to the participants themselves. Part of the day also saw some very senior leaders coming in to talk about their experiences of leadership and just to show their faces to the people going through the centre. I distinctly remember at breaktimes and at lunch how there were some behaviours that I was observing that had nothing to do with the assessments we were making. A small number of participants during the non-assessed parts of the day were seeking out informal social moments with the senior sponsors who were there – meeting, greeting, making themselves known, even maybe honing their elevator pitch about their aspirations for a leadership role and it hit me like a lightning bolt that this form of influence…around the edges, in the cracks, where the opportunities arose…these were the moments that could have the biggest impact on someone’s later promotion chances. Maybe even more so than acing the development centre. Is that fair? Is that playing the game? Well it is the game. At least part of it. As humans, we all have needs – to connect, to feel important, to be appreciated, to be safe and supported. And it was the development centre participants who were fulfilling some of those needs for the senior sponsors at the event who might have ended up being the most memorable to them. And if nothing more, those participants were taking the opportunity to start to build relationships with senior folk who may be able to help or support them at some point later. How can you make those opportunities? With a stakeholder engagement strategy Now if all this feels a little unsavoury (and if I’m honest, it did to me 20 years ago) it doesn’t have to – what I’ve learned is that you can fully live your values and still take or make the opportunities you need to build the relationships with your key stakeholders that will help you in your career and role. That’s how I support my coachees: how to do stakeholder engagement your way so that it sits right with you. First up – build your stakeholder engagement mapOK, here’s the How To – starting with creating your stakeholder engagement map (see below). Lowest left box = Low influence and Low quality – you don’t need to put much effort in here. Top right box is High influence and high quality (‘Enlist support’) – these people can be your sponsors and supporters who make the biggest difference. Low influence and high quality relationship stakeholders (‘Keep happy’) – these people need some contact for the relationship to remain positive but they’re not going to be super important right now in actively helping you move forward in your role or career. The final box is High influence but low quality relationships (‘Deepen relationship’) – these are important stakeholders who at this point you may not have spent enough time with in order for them to be sponsors or supporters.
Once you have your grid, you need to start populating it with actual people and my advice here is to ‘be exhaustive’ – get everyone down and when you think you’ve finished, think again, think more broadly, maybe even outside your department or business area or even your organisation until you have everyone included. Your stakeholder engagement map is unique to you – now to put it to workEveryone’s grid will be different – for some people there will be a lot in ‘Keep happy’, but actually when they look at their high influence boxes, they see far fewer – this is comfort zone territory in stakeholder engagement…typically you’re spending most time with people you like and who like you but who aren’t making a big difference in terms of influence over your work. In other grids, there will be a lot of people in ‘Deepen relationship’, particularly if you’ve recently moved role and there are a lot of new stakeholders to get close to. Formulating your stakeholder engagement strategy – first prioritise your key stakeholdersWhatever your map looks like, you’ll need to prioritise your relationships now – what do you need to do and most importantly, with whom? Ask yourself who are the handful of stakeholders whose support you really need to achieve your goals and aspirations? Yes, this group may well include your line manager but you will almost certainly need to look beyond that relationship to broaden your visibility. What can you do to improve the quality of your relationships?When you’re clear on that priority group, be honest with yourself about the quality of your relationships – are there any people in your shortlist that you don’t get on with? Ask yourself what specific differences in style or interests, what obstacles or challenges might there be that are getting in the way of an improved relationship with them? Also, think beyond that direct connection between you and the stakeholder…think also about the people close to them and whether it might be worth you developing a better relationship with them as those influencers may help build your currency with the key stakeholder in time. How can you find common ground and build on it?When you think about how you can start to deepen relationships with your key stakeholders, think about how you can use your strengths and values and their strengths and values to build common ground between you. It’s also worth thinking through what their needs are – business and personal – and how you might be able to meet those needs. And to work on your leadership brand if you haven’t done so already – I talked about that last week at Season 10, episode 9, so take a listen for more tips. Go through this process for each of your key stakeholders and then decide on what actions you’re going to take to get the relationship to where you’d like it to be. Checklist for your stakeholder engagement strategyHere’s my checklist for your stakeholder engagement strategy:
Good luck building out your stakeholder engagement plan and your stakeholder engagement strategy. Even if you just end up developing a relationship with one or two more people than you’re doing right now, that will help. Relationships are what makes the world go round after all.
The Strengths Guy podcast is on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. Please support it by subscribing and sharing it. Via https://www.strengthscope.com/building-your-stakeholder-engagement-strategy/ In my executive coaching work, I often spend time with leaders working on their values as the principles they work to and which others need to understand. We also spend time on the strengths and skills that mark them out as unique. For some leaders we also talk purpose – what difference they want to make and what legacy they want to leave as a leader. And for other leaders, we work on their gravitas and building a strong reputation – how they can be seen as credible, confident and trustworthy. In this podcast, I combine all of these elements into one activity which will help shape your communication of what’s important to you and how you can make an intentional positive impact as a leader. Today’s podcast is all about building your leadership brand. A leadership brand helps you in several ways:
Building your leadership brand pyramidOnto the activity. There are plenty of ways of doing this but my favourite is to use a pyramid – practically, there’s more space to capture what you need to at the fat end but the shape also shows the importance of the base layers as providing you with strong foundations for your leadership proposition and legacy, which sit at the pointy end. So first thing is to draw a pyramid with four layers or levels. “Who I am” – Values and attitudesValues and attitudes are the bedrock of your leadership brand The base level includes the core values and attitudes that guide your leadership. I recommend James Clear’s list of values as a good starter for inspiring your own values list. Try and keep it as a relatively short list, say 7-8 and do use your own language. Think about the things you truly value and hold dear, the way you feel that the world should be, the behaviours or actions in others that anger you – all of these point to your key values and attitudes. This is important because everyone’s values are different – they come to us from our upbringing and from our experiences through life. We can’t assume that anyone else sees the world in the same way that we do. So think about the people who work for you – would it help them and you if they knew what you valued? Think of this list as a ‘survival guide’ or playbook in working with you – if the people who work for you act in alignment with your values, you’re more likely to see them in a positive light. And if they do something that is out of alignment with your values, they can expect that it won’t sit well with you. It’s very important therefore to capture these as the bedrock foundations of the other brand elements. “What I bring” – Strengths, skills and experienceStrengths, skills and experience are the ‘features’ of your leadership brand. Second layer are your strengths and skills and expertise – if you thought of yourself as a product, this level would contain your ‘features’. Your Strengthscope Standout 3 strengths sit here, along with the leadership skills that you want to bring to your role, whatever they may be – strategic vision, networking and relationships, project management capability, flexibility, critical analysis – whatever your gifts and talents and features are. If you’re not 100% sure, you can always ask for feedback from others who know you well. Where do they see you at your best? What do they see as your greatest leadership strengths and talents? “The difference I wish to make” – Your leadership legacyYour leadership legacy communicates the benefits of your personal leadership brand. If the second layer up included your product ‘features’, this layer includes the ‘benefits’ of those features. Think of this level as the difference you want to make and/or the leadership legacy you want to leave. Try and get this down to an inspiring ‘statement of intent’ around your core purpose. A couple of examples: ‘I create environments where teams thrive and I support each individual to reach their true potential’ or ‘I build and deliver strategic plans which always create measurable value for my organisation’. It needs to evoke emotions in you (and possibly others, but mainly you because it is intended to stimulate you towards action) and it should be something that sets you apart as being different. “My essence”Your essence gives you a strong leadership brand promise. OK, top and final layer is your essence – when you are at your best and most energised and the reason others would follow you. 10 words max, ideally fewer, in fact the fewer the better. The idea here is to capture a statement that when you say it or others hear it, it will inspire the kind of people who you would want around you to get around you. Think of this as a leadership brand statement or a brand promise if you like.
What’s next: developing your leadership brand management planSo that’s quite a bit of work, it’ll take time to hone. Once you have, say the words out loud to yourself (particularly those in the top two layers) and test your own reaction. Does what you have sit right with you? Does it feel like you? Can you own it? Or does it feel awkward, does the language not quite work for some reason, might you just feel embarrassed if you were asked to describe your brand in this way to your team? Then do some more work until it feels right. It will be a mix of the now and the future, of what you have attained already and your aspiration and ambition for your leadership future. Make sure it’s sufficiently ‘now’ that it represents a reasonably accurate picture of how people will experience you today – they need to be able to recognise you. But make sure it has a future-focused perspective too, so that you have something to move towards, space to grow into. Once you’re happy with your leadership brand, you’re going to need a leadership brand communication plan. So I have some reflection questions for you to ask yourself which should help. How close are your stakeholders’ perceptions of your current leadership approach to your ideal leadership ‘brand’? What do you need to do more of, less of, or differently to close the ‘gap’? So these questions are getting you to think about your behaviour and what others see in you day to day that will lead them to conclude that your brand is aligned with the human in front of them. And we all have work to do on that. Do you need to make your values more visible or talk to more people about them? Do you need to communicate the value that your strengths and skills and expertise can bring? And to whom? And who knows about the legacy you want to leave right now, and who would you like to know? How will you communicate your leadership brand to colleagues, direct reports and other stakeholders? Once you’ve worked out where your gaps are in terms of people’s perceptions right now and how you would want ‘brand you’ to be seen, you can get to work on a comms plan, a brand management plan, that will help you get the right messages to the right people in the right ways. For example – translating your values into leadership behaviours and behaving consistently with them. Talk to your team about your values maybe at an all-hands meeting, where you ask them to share theirs too or maybe 121 with your top team. What about your legacy and your essence – ideally you would want more senior folk to see and hear this so work on an elevator pitch that you can switch on if you get the opportunity to be in front of your plus ones, plus twos or plus threes. What immediate steps can you take to start communicating and living your leadership brand right now? Finally, start taking steps today. Small actions can make a big difference but you’ll need to make those actions habitual and repeat them consistently over time if you want others to shift their current perceptions or to solidify a view that they may of you already. In conclusion: the benefit of working on your personal brand as a leaderStrong personal brands are not built overnight, they take a long time to build. It’s worth it though, as all great brands produce strong results in terms of improved demand, perceived value, reputation and results. I hope you’ve this blog useful. If you have, please subscribe on your favourite platform (button below) and share it with others who you feel might find it useful. ‘Till next time, stay strong. You can find this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. Please support it by subscribing to get it at the start of the working week! Via https://www.strengthscope.com/how-to-build-your-personal-leadership-brand/ Today’s podversation is with Derek Appau, the founder of Limitless Personal Excellence. Derek specialises in accelerating career progression, job satisfaction, leadership development and creating inclusive cultures. Derek also has his own podcast channel – Passions N’ Professions – (available on Apple Podcasts here) about people who have taken what they loved and turned them into what they do as a profession. Some of the things we discuss are:
Thanks to Derek for taking the time to appear on this weeks podcast. I highly recommend checking out Derek’s Passions N’ Professions podcast and you can find the Limitless Personal Excellence website here.
Via https://www.strengthscope.com/using-strengths-to-drive-inclusion-and-equity-a-podversation-with-derek-appau/ What is the research telling us about strengths based leadership?Strengths based leadership is getting a lot of interest these days and rightly so. What we know from the research is that when leaders enable the strengths of their teams, there is a large spike in engagement (Gallup) and that this can also lead to significant increases in productivity when taken into performance management conversations (Corporate Leadership Council). So the strengths based approach – managing and leading by focusing on others’ strengths – makes a human difference and a business difference. Other findings include:
What does it mean to be a strengths based leader? Identify your highs and lowsMost importantly, a strengths based leader recognises that they have leadership strengths – unique qualities that energise them and that they are skilled at using (or have the potential to become skilled at using). Those leadership strengths will be unique to them – we know from Strengthscope research that the chances of having the same Top 7 Strengthscope strengths in the same order as anyone else is 1 in 1.3 billion, so it stands that every leader has the potential to bring unique qualities into their leadership role. Strengths based leaders also know that they have vulnerabilities – specifically, the potential for their strengths to go into overdrive and to have areas of non-strength which drain them – potential leadership weaknesses if you like. More on that a little later. So what role do leadership competencies have?In a world still geared towards all employees meeting competency requirements, that recognition that the strengths based leader has highs and lows instantly marks them out as different from a leader striving to be well rounded, to meet each and every competency requirement laid down by their employer as their sole aim. When you know your strengths and your risks as a leader, you better understand how to achieve competency standards in a way which is more energising, and less draining or risky for you, rather than feeling you’re going to need to twist yourself into all sorts of shapes to meet the competency requirements of your employer. Making space for others to flourishThere are other benefits – as a leader if you acknowledge you have vulnerabilities, that you’re not great at everything – that means there will be space for others to stretch and develop and grow because you will need their skills and strengths to support your aims. And you won’t try to do everything on your own. You’re much more likely to need and learn the art of delegation and partnering because you know that you simply don’t have the strength to do everything and anything. And you’re ok with that. Stepping into your unique brand of leadershipThe biggest benefit though is that by identifying where you do have strengths, you can work on your own brand of leadership and in time, you can become a master of that like no one else can. Literally. It’s a career’s worth of work to do that – if I look at my standout 3 strengths of Collaboration, Empathy and Leading, I need to remember to walk the line every day between relationship building, being part of a team and enjoying that collegiality and togetherness, listening to and understanding others’ challenges and supporting them on their journeys (that’s the Empathy). And I need to combine that with providing clear, inspiring leadership for everyone by communicating the vision, clarity on direction and purpose and holding people to account for delivery (that’s the Leading). I have to dig deep for the holding to account. I need preparation to give constructive feedback well – it’s not natural for me, but I use my Empathy to remember that people value honesty and clarity. I use others’ Efficiency to follow processes we have for feedback through our performance management process and I use my Critical thinking to prepare exactly what I want to say before I go into a “courageous conversation” type meeting. Five tips for effective strengths based leadershipStrength based leadership is about being self-aware, being real, authentic, being prepared to be vulnerable, to make mistakes, to own those mistakes, to be human and to own that. And it also means being comfortable with the idea that no one will lead like you, stepping into that space with confidence and making the impact that you want to make. So what can you do to increase the extent to which you lead with strengths in your leadership role? How can you become a more effective leader, through strengths based leadership? Five things: 1. Use your strengthsFirstly, know and remember your strengths and use them every day. Exercise them, become familiar with them, talk to others about them, stretch them. Actively work on your leadership brand so that your stakeholders, your colleagues, your team, your customers, know who you are as a leader – what drives you, your values, your strengths, what should they come to you for, why should they be led by you. Have a listen to my podcasts at Seasons 1, episodes 11-12 on how to build your personal brand (part 1 and part 2). 2. Limit your risksSecond, to become a more effective leader, become more aware of your risk areas – where are your overdrive risks? What drains you? And what, actively, will you do about each? I know that sometimes my Optimism and Strategic mindedness strengths can combine and overdrive and that might lead me to get complacent about a plan or a project when I should be checking in more regularly and making sure things are on track (that’s a leadership overdrive risk). I know also that I need to rely on others for processes and project plans that I should be following because Efficiency and planning drain me (so that’s a drainer, a potential leadership weakness, a vulnerability – others know it and that’s ok). 3. Get feedbackThird, ask for feedback from colleagues on where they see your strengths, when they see you come alive and be at your very best. If you’re using Strengthscope, the 360 and leader modules make this process easy but even when using those and definitely if not using them, actively asking your colleagues for feedback on where they see you at your strongest can be enlightening, reassuring and sometimes surprising, so go get the feedback. 4. Develop effective leadership behavioursFourth, and there’s more, much more on this to share, develop effective leadership behaviour. The strengths-based leadership model we’ve developed, integrated into our strengths based leadership profiler StrengthscopeLeader includes to share vision, spark engagement, skilfully execute and sustain progress. Strengths knowledge and application aren’t enough, to get the most from your strengths, you need to cultivate positive leadership behaviours too. 5. Help others play to their strengthsAnd finally, once you’re on your own strengths development journey, you can best enable other people’s strengths. There’s more on this topic at my podcast on Maximising strengths in others – the art of great leadership at Season 5, episode 11. If you’re interested in a broader perspective on leadership, please take a listen to my podcast on The future of leadership at Season 8, episode 1. Thanks for listening today. If you liked today’s podcast, please subscribe on your favourite platform using the button below – when more people subscribe, the podcast gets more visible and more people get to listen and I’m really keen to share more widely. So please give me a subscribe click. Thank you. Till next time, stay strong. You can find this podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google podcasts, Stitcher, ACast, TuneIn, Breaker and Soundcloud. Please support it by subscribing to get it at the start of the working week! Via https://www.strengthscope.com/what-is-strengths-based-leadership/ |