Know Your Strengths and Build Upon Them, Others Will Follow!
People have told me that they would follow a great leader on their hands and knees across a desert in search of great leadership. I believe that they are sincere. Truly great leadership is too rare, and that’s why people are passionate about following great leaders because they want to believe. How can you help your team to leverage their strengths or go to places that they cannot get on their own?
- Place your emphasis on people! Surround yourself with brilliant people who will bring out the best in you and complement your strengths and also balance out any areas of development that you may be struggling to overcome.
- When you’re leading your people, encourage them. Focus your associates on making the most of their talents by emphasizing their strengths and spending 80% of their time and energy on leveraging their strengths, not toiling to overcome their inadequacies.
- What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Now that you’re encouraging your people to focus on their talents by emphasizing their strengths, you should do the same for yourself. Spend 80% of your time and attention working on taking full advantage of your innate strengths and only 20% or less of your time on addressing any gaps or areas where you need to develop.
- People like to follow great leaders, right? Research proves that one of the primary reasons that people like to follow certain leaders over others is because they know their own strengths and can recognize and invest in their team members’ strengths. They also know how to build strong teams who trust one another and have diverse teams with different strengths.
Stay focused on your goals. Keep your team focused like a laser on the team’s goals, including why THOSE goals are important and how we’re going to achieve them together. Make sure that every member of the team has a written copy of the team goals and their personal goals. Encourage the team to review their goals and reflect upon them regularly. Have the team keep their goals near their list of their 5 StrengthsFinder 2.0 strengths, allowing them to remind themselves of their strengths when things get foggy or when the going gets tough. Remember that your team is counting on you to inspire them to achieve these goals. Help the team get to the goals by reminding them often to leverage their strengths along the path to success. Call out and celebrate victories along the way toward achieving the team goals as often as you can. Enjoy the journey!
