Strength-Based Leadership – Maximising your Leadership Impact
Strengths-based leadership is the ability discover and effectively utilise your strengths as well as that of your team members.
In the book “Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow”, workplace consultants Tom Rath and Barry Conchie proposed three overriding principles of strengths-based leadership:
– Effective leaders invest in their followers’ strengths
– Effective leaders build well-rounded teams out of followers who are not and
– Effective leaders understand the needs of followers.
To be a more effective leader, you need to first know your strength then understand the strengths of your team. This enables you have a better understanding of the drives, behaviors and culture within your team. With this understanding, you will be able to identify and make the best of your team’s strengths and align them to tasks and projects that are fully suited to their capabilities, in order to maximise performance and achieve results. That is simply what strength-based leadership is about.
In order to be successful and effective as a leader, you need to discover and develop your strengths while simultaneously discovering and utilising the strengths of your team to be able to improve performance. According to zaengle.com, people who recognise and use their strengths are more likely to be successful at work than those who don’t.
Leaders who focus on discovering their strengths will benefit from it in the following ways:
• Knowing your strengths as a leader helps to improve your self-awareness, encourage clarity and give you a new appreciation for traits you previously undervalued in yourself. This knowledge will enable you appreciate the values in other members of your team.
• Discovering your own strengths as a leader will help you identify similar or complementary strengths within your team and enable you to tap into their drives to enhance your team’s performance and bring about exponential growth.
• As a leader, having strengths that are in line with your organisational goals is an indication that you are more likely to succeed. This increases the efficiency and motivation of the leader to team members to be able to accomplish more.
• Knowledge of your own strength as a leader will enable you build better relationships with your team and thrive in your daily work.
• Besides building better relationships with your team, understanding your strength as a leader will improve the energy of your team and steer the culture of the team towards growth and development.
Everyone has their unique capabilities, skills and strengths. While some are outstanding and very easy to spot, others are hidden. The Management Drives matrix provides insights into the unique drives of individuals and teams within the organisation. These Drives are the motivators that predict how a team or person uses their knowledge, skills and competences.
To find out more about how you can identify and leverage your strengths as a leader, book a complimentary place at our upcoming Management Drives experience. Click this link to register now.
