What is Going to Make YOU the Next Great Leader? What Will Take YOU to the Next Level?

As the workplace dynamics and life situations are rapidly evolving, there are multiple opportunities to assume leadership roles.  Circumstances whether in your job or in your community or even in your family may require you to step up and lead.   For example, I have seen one of the biggest and most consequential leadership roles that I have had to undertake was addressing the needs of my aging parents.  In our communities, we often see that individuals are standing up to fight for what they believe in or to seek justice.  In the workplace, organizations are moving more aggressively toward team management and project-based operations.  These settings have made it even more imperative that organizations invest in growing leaders that can step into management roles to execute their organizational.

So, what do the experts say makes a great leader?

•  Great leaders get straight “A’s” on their leadership test.  They exemplify authenticity, accountability, adaptability and appreciation.

• Great leaders cast a compelling vision about where they want to go and they have faith in their beliefs - they create lasting solutions to problems not just band aide fixes and they create a thriving organizational culture.

• Great leaders stay positive, exhibit confidence and have a sense of humor - they are clear about their goals and decisive in their decisions - they lead with courage, passion and humility.

• Great leaders handle controversial issues or crisis calmly and confidently - they embrace failures and manage setbacks while taking responsibility for their actions - they learn from their mistakes and make the hard choices when they have to.

• Great leaders embrace change and lead by example - they communicate effectively and are transparent in their actions.

These are what I call the brass ring objectives.  These tend to be the buzz words of leadership development.  These are the things that we often shoot for to become better leaders.  While these are all good intentions and yes great qualities to have as a leader, they tend to be taught as the flavor of the month but, in reality, nobody embodies all of these leadership qualities. While a finely tuned racecar looks great and will perform competitively on the racetrack it won’t be a winner when you need to bring the groceries home from the store; your SUV will do a better job at that.

So how are you going to become the next great leader?  What will get you prepared to step into a leadership role, willingly or unwillingly, and have the best chance to succeed?

We all take on leadership roles in very different ways.  Depending on our talents and strengths as well as knowing our limitations we all approach the responsibilities of leading in very different ways.  Through Gallup’s research, it was determined that the most effective leaders are always investing in strengths.  Without an awareness of your strengths, it is almost impossible for you to lead effectively.

“We believe that when the right talent meets the right opportunity in a company with the right philosophy, amazing transformation can happen.”  -- Reid Hoffman

In order to be an effective leader, you need to take stock of your personal characteristics and skill sets and assess your strengths and weaknesses.  Further education in leadership and management coupled with continued professional development of your skills are key.   In this age of digital enlightenment and rapidly evolving workplaces, the definition of effective leadership is constantly changing and to keep up, leaders need to continuously ask questions of themselves.

In the popular TV show, Game of Thrones – Peter Dinklage plays Tyrion Lannister a dwarf living in this fictional world where physical strength and the ability to engage in warfare are rewarded.  When asked why he reads so many books, his answer is to improve his already strong mind.  Knowing that because of his physical limitations, that he would never excel as a warrior, his best chance to lead and succeed was through his intellectual abilities.  He knew his strength was his intelligence and that by enhancing his strongest asset he could not only survive in a chaotic world but he would excel as a leader.

Knowing your strongest assets are your best chance to be a successful leader.  Understanding not only your strengths but those of your team and bringing those talents to bear in your leadership endeavors is your best path to being a great leader.  Knowing your strengths and those of your team is like having a blueprint of why you are or why your team members are the way that they are is like having a manual on how to make yourself or your team members function at optimal efficiency.

In my previous articles, I have been talking about knowing your strengths is understanding your “YUR”.  Why you tackle certain challenges the way you do; why you react the way you do; why you lead the way you do are all encompassed in how you use your strengths.  For example, if one of your strengths is communication you will lead best if you use this talent to influence others.  Empathizing easily with others will take you a long way in your leadership responsibilities by helping to build strong relationships.  Having strong analytical skills, will help you devise effective strategies while leading a team and if you are a person possessing an acute ability to focus then you will use this strength to lead your team in successfully executing their projects.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself.  When you become a leader, success is about growing others.”  – Jack Welch

As a person that has “Maximizer” as my top talent theme according to the Gallup StrenghtsFinder assessment, I understand that great leaders know that people are key to your success.  One of the keys to being a great leader, in my opinion, is being able to instill power within others.  Lifting others up, inspiring them to grow and bringing out the best in people is the best way to create more leaders.  A true leader is able to inspire their team to encourage them to go beyond excellence and accomplish far more than anyone expects them to – or they expect of themselves.  Great leaders earn their team’s respect.  They do this by getting to know their team by listening, providing productive feedback and they encourage cooperation over competition.

“You cannot have faith in people unless you take action to improve and develop them.”  -- Sumantra Ghoshal

The other side of the leadership equation is encompassed in why followers follow.  In the book written by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, Strengths Based Leadership, Rath and Conchie outline how you can effectively lead using your unique strengths.  I highly recommend reading this book and with it you will get a code that will allow you to take Gallup’s StrengthsFinder Assessment.

If you are ready to find out what shapes your ability to be an effective leader and you are ready to maximize your “YUR” by discovering your talents, declaring your strengths and developing them into dynamic tools that will make you the next great leader V1H Consulting will help you to evolve your “YUR”.

“What great leaders have in common is that each truly knows his or her strengths – and can call on the right at the right time.”  --Tom Rath

“How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything”

A Strengths Based Approach

Martha Beck is credited with coining the quote, “How you do anything is how you do everything”.  This quotation has been widely used in a variety of training seminars, motivational talks and many books and periodicals.  It would suggest that how you manage most situations, challenges or other experiences in your life is probably a good indication of how you handle almost all of the occurrences in your life.  When I first heard this quote in a leadership seminar a few years ago, I wasn’t quite sure if this was really true and, if it was, how I would process this information.  Typically, statements that include words like anything or everything are usually very broad expressions and, quite frankly, I interpret them with guarded reservations.  For example, when I looked at the relationships that I have had in my life, or some of the actions that I have taken, I didn’t necessarily see a correlation to that statement.  My relationships varied widely and because I may procrastinate on doing yard work that didn’t necessarily mean that I procrastinated in doing other things, especially things that I enjoyed doing.  Also, while my desk may get a little messy, my car stays clean.  And, I certainly would not want to compare how I play basketball or sing, for example, with how I do other things in my life.  So, while I did see some things that fit in this model, my personal experiences didn’t seem to fit this doctrine consistently enough to solidify it in my consciousness.

Do you ever wonder why you make certain choices?  Why you do what you do?  Why you like certain things?  In my last article, titled “YUR” which talked about how your talents and strengths determine why you do what you do, leads to the connection between strengths and the do everything scenario. Under the concept of “YUR” I have suggested that the core of why you do what you do is driven by using your strengths.   As I viewed the do everything statement through the strengths lens, I could see a more definitive pattern that gave credence to this premise.  As I developed the “YUR” concept, as it relates to StrengthsFinder, I began to see a pattern that provided more credibility to the notion that “how you do anything is how you do everything”.  By looking at this quote in this new context, I saw it’s meaning in an entirely new perspective.

There are obviously some things we don’t do well.  Strengths psychology pioneer Dr. Donald O. Clifton asked the question, “What will happen when we think about what is right with people instead of fixating on what is wrong?” This philosophy dictates that it is better to focus on the things that we do well.  Why are we better at some things than others?  There is a reason:  It’s our talents.  Our talents help us to understand why you are the way you are – ergo, your “YUR”.  Knowing your talents helps us to understand how we naturally think and feel and they can shed light into our behaviors. Talents are aptitudes, personality traits and interpersonal characteristics like empathy, strategic thinking and assertiveness.  These are things that you are born with.  Infused with knowledge and the development of skills, these talents will become our strengths.  These are enduring qualities in each of us because they are basically hardwired in our brains. In short, they affect our ability to reach our goals and desired outcomes.  So, when you are using your talents and working in your strengths you can feel confident that when you do anything that you will find consistency in how you do everything and you can achieve the results that you desire when you know your talents and use your strengths to succeed.

When we look at others, such as, mentors, role models, leaders, etc. we look to them for inspiration and guidance but we also look to them to see if they do anything/everything consistently.  Those that we admire for their accomplishments and are at the top of their game in what they do are using their strengths at the highest levels.  Whether they are athletes, entertainers or in leadership positions they have discovered their talents and honed them to gain the maximum affect.  It is their dedication, tenacity and work ethic that are driven and supported by their strengths.  They repeat what has been working for them while enhancing their skills to improve outcomes.  For example, a basketball player uses his or her skills as a 3-point shooter to have maximum impact on the game, entertainers use their talents to regale their audiences and leaders use their strengths to influence others to initiate change.

Therefore, I have determined that this notion of how you do anything is how you do everything can be a good thing.  If you harness your talents and nurture them and ultimately make them your strengths, you too can use them to achieve your desired results. I encourage you commit to growing your strengths and use them to do everything.  When you master the art of unlocking your strengths and step into the version of yourself that uses your strengths to do anything, then you will find that how you do everything will result in more positive results.

Management expert, Peter Drucker says, “everyone ought to know what their strengths are’.  How you do anything is how you do everything when guided by your strengths creates patterns of success. Your strengths are your means of making positive contributions in the world. Your strengths are your inborn, hard-wired resources for good works. If you’re not making the most of your strengths, everyone's missing out. Start maximizing your strengths.

Discover, Declare and Develop your Strengths:

“If you are not focusing on your strengths then what are you focusing on?”

Because there’s a 1 in 33 million chance of you having the same top 5 talents in the same order as someone else, YOU are unique.  Be inspired to live in your strengths zone. Join us in the world of strengths. Focus on Your Strengths.

If you have any questions about anything that you have read in this article, or you’d like to talk to us about helping your team to understand the power of Strengths then connect with us today to see if we might be a good fit to help your team or organization build a Strengths Based culture.

Larry Hammond, Sr.

Start your Strengths Journey with our Basic Introduction Course

Unlock Your Strengths for Success, A Basic Introduction.

$125.00

Sharpening Your Talents and Allowing Your Strengths to Manage Your Expectations...By Larry Hammond, Sr.

Our expectations are our beliefs that something is likely to happen.  Expectations are formed because we anticipate certain outcomes as we go about our life’s activities.  We all have formulated particular expectations from the simple and mundane to the complex and serious aspects of our lives.  When we turn on a light switch, we expect the light to come on; when we go to start the car, we expect the engine to turn over.  When we travel by airplane, we expect the crew and equipment to work cohesively to get us to our destinations safely.  We depend on reliable expectations to make decisions and to manage the activities that we undertake in our lives each day.  While we would like all of our expectations to transpire as we predicted, that is certainly not always the case.  This is especially true when it comes to expectations derived from the actions related to other people; our family, friends and colleagues.  How we process these types of interactions becomes much more complicated.  For example, how often have you expected your children to do one thing and they do the complete opposite?  How many times have you had an encounter with a friend or associate where their actions have totally taken you by surprise; sometimes even shocked you?  And, can you count the number of times that you have engaged a co-worker or colleague and gotten something entirely different then what you expected to get from that person either in action or work product?   

We develop our expectations based on our experiences and our encounters.  From a young age, we begin to learn what to expect when we do certain things; the reactions that we get from our parents and others when we act or perform in a particular manner.  We learn to modify our expectations as we gain new information and knowledge.  For example, if you touch a hot stove you may expect that all stoves are always hot.  As we grow and discover new information, we modify our expectations accordingly and we can make better decisions as we make more informed assessments of our expectations.

In the case of a finely tuned basketball team, such as the 2017 Champion Golden State Warriors, you would imagine that they refine their respective talents to win games and team members rely on their team mates to exert their strengths to ensure they achieve victories and championships.  For example, the Warriors turn to Steph Currie to make 3 point shots and there is a strong expectation that he will make them.  Knowing your team’s strengths gives you a clear-cut advantage in implementing strategies and achieving success.

When a manager and other team members are confident that a team member will perform the necessary and comprehensive research to move a project forward; when the team is assured that a co-worker will take on a responsibility, take on complex tasks and move through those tasks with skill and grace; and when a team can rely on their cohort’s abilities and talents then you have a team that can EXPECT success!  Conversely, expecting something from someone that they are unable to deliver can be frustrating and less productive.

Leaders who know how to manage expectations are able to more seamlessly navigate the choppy waters within their organizations.  Why?  Because they know how to communicate, organize and direct conversations around their team’s talents and strengths, thereby being more likely to successfully predict positive outcomes that ultimately achieve success for the team.

What if you could be more confident in your ability to predict expectations?

Building a Strengths based team is key to having the ability to predict expectations.  Teams that know and intentionally use their unique talents and strengths have a significant advantage in managing and predicting expectations.  Teams built around this philosophy learn to appreciate each other’s strengths and develop a level of trust in their team members’ abilities to deliver.  They also know how to combine their strengths with other team members to directly enhance positive results.

The main components in a team environment that will influence the decision-making process and collaboration are the following:

Communication – Having teams grounded in their strengths allows for the team to express ideas in a common language that enables them to build complex connections between members.  These connections increase the ability to predict expectations as team members are well grounded in what is being communicated to the team and among stakeholders.  This promotes clarity.

Clarity – Using strengths as a basis for fostering effective communication among the team is the first step to solidifying clarity.  When goals and objectives are clear and well defined, there is a much greater probability of achieving success.  Teams that are fully operating in their strengths are much more likely to perpetuate understanding of intentions and purpose which boost assurance in the team’s capabilities, thus building confidence.

Confidence – Strength-based teams are confident in their abilities, their team members and in achieving the desired outcomes.  Having high levels of confidence on a team is an essential predictor of expectations as to how the team will perform.

These elements are enhanced dramatically by discovering, declaring and developing Strengths.

“The expectations of life depend on diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools” -- Confucius

Your talents are your tools - Sharpen them and let your strengths help you manage your expectations.

Larry Hammond, Sr. – Certified StrengthsFinder Coach and Principal with V1H Consulting.

Find out more about strengths based workshops and training at wwwv1hconsulting.com