The People Factor
Strength-based Leadership – the power of the wounded leader
Let’s be radical. There are many examples of how focussing on strengths enhances performance levels, whilst concentrating on weaknesses lowers the bar, so let’s actually do it. How about we ignore all the weaknesses that we witness on a regular basis and lead our teams instead by focussing on our own and others’ strengths?
I'll begin with some background.
We’re all pretty much aware of our weaknesses. We live with a planetary story of how the faults of our species have caused devastation and doom. We have psychological names for our neurosis and pop quiz labels for qualities we lack. Parents, partners, teachers and superiors have identified other factors and, on top of all this, we have secret bathroom-mirror lists of faults we know we need to improve
Zoom in and focus on the way this story plays out in multiple versions. Imagine an overworked leader with a head full of stories about what s/he is doing wrong and secret fears that if only there was time to address all the personal weaknesses, none of the high-stress problems would be happening. It takes little imagination to see how this leader would need to stifle this head-talk in order to function. Follow the thread and you will end up with a detached, defensive, arrogant, ineffective boss.
Stop here a little. Note the stress levels, the lack of good performance, the abusive behaviours and destructive conversations. The wounded boss is likely to be well-intentioned and even committed, but is clearly overwhelmed. This is an opening to stop, release the baggage and set off on the path of strength-based leadership.
Strength-based leaders acknowledge they have weaknesses, but refuse to allow them to sabotage the good intentions. They work from their innate strengths by knowing who they are and what they can contribute, as well as doing the same with others. They lead with their values, principles and talent and ensure they have a team that balances and complements each other in their areas of strength.
Recently, during a group activity in a Leadership Though Change process, we witnessed the power of this: a group of upper-level leaders was feeling angry, disengaged and highly resistant. We facilitated a seemingly simple activity in which each person privately identified personal strengths (surprisingly hard for some of them). After this they had to do the same for everyone else in the room and then share the lists.
The first shift came as they worked through their own list, the second as they went deeper into considering each other in the light of positive qualities each brought to the organisation, but the third shift was the most profound. As each person read the anonymous lists of strengths that others perceived in them, the room changed. The power was both unexpected and awe-inspiring.
This group cannot be the same after what they shared. The commitment and trust that emerged was revelatory. The result was dramatic. The shifts continue as the new awareness is carried out into the workforce.
We tend to be more aware of our weaknesses than our strengths, both in ourselves and others. It relates to the style of education and the way of the world. In most organisational cultures weak areas are primary focus for analysis and attention, whether as ‘skills for development’, SWOT projects, feedback interactions with others, Performance Assessments or labels from co-workers. Ask most employees to list their weaknesses and they won’t have a problem (positive thinkers may have a different language, but they’ll know the issues they wish to improve). Conversely, employees may need a little support to recognise and remember their strengths.
People in high-stress environments, driven by time deadlines and profit motives, often feel (perhaps secretly) that they’re failing. This results in some form of critique with a subtext of fear, either played out by reacting from fear or instilling fear in others. More and more we’re seeing how fear-based leadership can thoroughly sabotage business, self-esteem, inter-personal relationships and/or continued success.
The wounds that create sabotaging cultures are based on an undervalued quality - Care. People that present with bad behaviours are protecting the part of them that cares enough to feel hurt by what is going on. Care is not usually considered business-critical (unless part of the healing profession or a brand slogan) and this is the reason it's masked by ever-increasing defence mechanisms. In a team environment these bounce back and forth between people, building a habituated crisis culture. This is the cause of the new buzz-phrase of organisational issues - ‘lack of engagement’.
Strength-based leadership engages with this by acknowledging the care. Identifying and appreciating individual strengths has the miraculous potential to create positive change and realignment. Drawing on these strengths, developing them and making them a priority has a paradigm-shifting way of redirecting motivations and simply getting things back to effectiveness and functionality.
Strength-based leadership by-passes drama and is based on the following progressive assumptions:
Celebrating the good. How radical! 🙂