In “Strengths-Based Leadership” the authors, Tom Rath and Barry Conchie examine the question “What are the keys to effective leadership?”. To answer this question a group of researchers were gathered to review data collected from Gallup on the topic, the research included 20,000 interviews with senior leaders, studies of more than one million work teams and 50 years of Gallup Polls of the world’s most admired leaders. Key findings from the research are as follows:
- The most effective leaders are always investing in strengths.
- The most effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and then maximize their team.
- The most effective leaders understand their followers needs.
Investing in Your Strengths
Without understanding our strengths we a doomed to lead from mediocrity…
“If you spend your life trying to be good at everything, you will never be great at anything. While our society encourages us to be well-rounded, this approach inadvertently breeds mediocrity. Perhaps the greatest misconception of all is that of the well-rounded leader.”
It’s our differences that defines our success as leaders…
“I’ve never met an effective leader who wasn’t aware of his talents and working to sharpen them.” – Former NATO supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark, in the New York Times Magazine
The authors go on to make an interesting observation…
“If you look at great historical leaders such as Winston Churchill, Mahatma Ghandi, you might notice more differences than similarities – and it is the differences that defined them and led to their success.”
“Many political and business leaders have self concepts that are miles away from reality. They simply don’t know their strengths and weaknesses.”
The leadership researcher Donald O. Clifton started studying leadership in the 1960’s, conducting more than 20,000 interviews with various leaders across diverse industries, before his death in 2003, he was asked what was his greatest leadership discovery from the more than thirty years of research, he answered as follows:
“A leader needs to know his strengths as a carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician knows the instruments at her disposal. What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths – and can call on the right strength at the right time. This explains why there is no definitive list of characteristics that describes all leaders.”
Maximizing Your Team
“Effective people surround themselves with the right people and build upon each person’s strength. Yet in most cases, leadership teams are a product of circumstance more than design. among the executive teams we have studied, team members were selected or promoted based primarily upon knowledge or competence. So, the best sales person becomes the chief salesperson, even if he is not a great manager… Rarely are people recruited to an executive team because their strengths are the best complement to those of the existing team members.”
The research has identified four distinct domains of leadership strength that guide how different leaders contribute to their team.
“Although individuals need not be well rounded, teams should be.”
The four leadership domains as identified in the research are as follows:
- Executing: Leaders who know how to make things happen.
- Influencing: Leaders who help their teams reach a much broader audience.
- Relationship Building: Leaders who are the glue that holds the team together.
- Strategic Thinking: Leaders who keep us focused on what could be.
The four domains are supported by 34 themes that describes each leaders specific strengths. The book includes key that can be used to access the Gallup StrengthsFinder program, which allows you to complete the online assessment. The assessment analyses your strengths and provides a detailed report of each of leadership strengths and includes guidance on how to use your unique strengths to improve your leadership effectiveness.
In Summary
Effective leadership has it’s foundation in personal effectiveness, this requires a deep understanding of your unique strengths and weaknesses, resulting in greater self-awareness. Given the important of self-awareness to effective leadership, any tool that can assist a leader in gaining a better understanding of himself is worth the investment. This book is a great investment in your leadership development.
Technorati Tags: Strengths, Leadership, Management, Leader, Business, Talent, Book Review, Book, Assessment
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George –
There’s an interesting debate going on in leadership development circles on the Strength movement. Take a look at this post for a summary of a book critical of approach: http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2009/03/perils-of-accentuating-positive.html
Dan,
A great post on the topic. I do agree your view that…
I see this a bit differently more along the lines of..
“ play to your strengths and manage your weaknesses.”
Overly focusing on your strengths and likewise, overly focusing on your weaknesses…both will lead to poor results.
I see the need to manage weaknesses, so they don’t become stumbling blocks, as a ticket to the game. But they are not the game.