Strength Based Leadership Review

Strengthening our Leadership

Agenda

• What is strength?• Activity• Review: Strength Based Leadership• Managing Transitions• Strength Based Change

• What is strength?

• Strength is the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in a specific task.

Shaq has the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in the specific task of dunking a basketball.

This is truly a strength!

His career free throw shooting average is about 53%, so based on our definition of a strength is shooting free throws a strength of Shaq’s?

I think not!

• Skills• Knowledge• Talent

Strength• Skills• Your basic ability to perform the

fundamental steps of a task

• Skills do not naturally exist within most of us; they must be acquired

• Formal/informal training• Practice

Perfect practice, makes perfect!

Strength

• Knowledge• Knowledge is simply what you know. It may

also be your grasp of things• It does not naturally exist within us• Acquired through formal training or informal

education

Strength

• Talent• The way we naturally think, feel and behave• Our inner drive to compete, sensitivity to the

needs of others, being outgoing• Naturally occurring and cannot be acquired

like skills and knowledge

Strength

• Your most powerful talents represent the best of your natural self;

• They are your best opportunities to perform at levels of excellence through strength

• Dominate talents naturally appear frequently and powerfully

Your greatest talents are the foundation of strength

development.

Strength Based LeadershipThe path to great leadership starts with a deep understanding of the strengths

you bring to the table.

Activity

• At your tables• Discuss: What is Strength Based? Leadership?• Prepare 2 minute Info Commercial• Deliver to group

SBL• Is the idea of Strength Based Leadership to

ignore your weaknesses?

• The emphasis for any leader should be a deep understanding of what they bring to the table and not trying to be something they are not.

Effective Leaders

• Always investing in strengths

• Failing to focus on individual's strengths• Employee engagement 1/9 (9%)• Focus on the strengths• Employee engagement ¾ (73%)

Effective Leaders

• Surround themselves with the right people and maximize their team

• Understand the needs of their followers’

Four Domains

• Executing• Influencing • Relationship Building• Strategic Thinking

Executing

• These are the people who will work tirelessly to get something done

• Have an ability to take an idea and transform it into reality

Influencing

• Good at influencing and are always selling the team's ideas inside and outside the organization

• Take charge, speak up, and make sure your group is heard

Relationship Building

• The glue that holds a team together• Keeping distractions at bay or keeping the

collective energy high • Transform a group of individuals into a team

capable of carrying out complex projects and goals

Strategic Thinking

• Focused on what the team could be are constantly pulling a team and its members into the future

• They continually absorb and analyze information and help the team make better decisions

• What did you learn about your individual strengths?

• Where there any surprises?

Four Needs of Followers

1. Trust2. Compassion3. Stability4. Hope

Trust• Can they trust you? Have you demonstrated

a lifestyle of integrity?• Chance of employee engagement without

trust in leaders are around 1 in 12• Chance of employee engagement with trust

is 1 in 2• That’s a six fold increase!

Trust

• Increases speed and efficiency in the workplace

=TRUST SPEED COST

•Respect•Integrity•Honesty

Compassion

• Is the leader concerned about their needs and empathetic or merely concerned with the success of the organization, or a project?

Compassion

• When people feel that they are genuinely cared about they:

• Are significantly more likely to stay with their organization

• Have much more engaged customers• Are substantially more productive• Produce more profitability for the

organization

Stability

• Employees who have high confidence in their company’s financial future are nine times as likely to be engaged in their jobs when compared to those who have lower confidence about their organization’s financial future

• Nothing creates stability like transparency

Hope

• Must make them feel enthusiastic about the future

• It seems that people want stability in the moment and hope for the future

• Blank looks• Muttering• Foot dragging• Sabotage• Anger

• Disbelief /Denial• Doubt• Lack of Trust• And more

What are some of the ways you have seen people react to change?

“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you

MAD!”Aldous Huxley

“Whether people perceive change as positive or negative depends not only on the actual outcomes of the change, but also on the degree of influence they believe they exert in the situation.”

People deal more effectively with change when they feel they are

a part of it.

“We live in a moment in history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is disappearing.”Change is not new. We live in a time of rapid change.

The 1950s family car

The 1950s Classroom

The 1950s Bathroom

Change in the 1950’s

Recovery

Change in the 1960’s

Recovery

Change in the 1990’s

Recovery

Change Today

Recovery

• The amount of change has risen

• The speed of change has increased

• The complexity of the changes at times seem overwhelming

Change• Change – an objective phenomenon. It is the

external “thing” that is changing. – Moving to a new floor– Changing computer programs– A new manager

• Transition – the psychological process a person goes through as they let go of the status quo and commit to a new situation. – How I feel about Moving to a new floor– How I feel about Changing computer programs– How I feel about the new manager

Transition

Phases of Transition

• Letting Go• Neutral Zone• New Beginnings

Phases of Change

• Letting Go: Letting go of the old• Leaving the known• Comfortable

Phases of Change

• Neutral Zone: changes not fully implemented• Caught between old and new• Most stressful• Neither old ways nor new ways

seem to work right

Phases of Change

• New Beginnings: the emotional commitment to do things the new way.

CUSP Model

• Control• Understanding• Support• Purpose

CUSP Model

• Control: During transition, people feel things are happening “to them”. Get them back in control through involvement and goal setting.

CUSP Model

• Understanding: Things do not “make sense” during transition. Help them through this time using communication, town hall meetings, email, etc.

CUSP Model

• Support: People feel alone during transition. Build support mechanisms with planning groups, temporary roles and even EAP’s.

CUSP Model

• Purpose: What people used to be motivated by can now be gone. Define the vision of the future, and help them redefine their mission in line with it.

Involvement+

Patience=

Commitment

Change is all around you.

You can manage change using your strengths or let change

manage you.

You will be more than a manager or supervisor…..you will be a LEADER!

Use your strengths and the strengths

of others!