For an overview of what it looks like to apply strengths-based thinking to leadership, I recommend:
It’s a quick read and goes to the core. It covers the three primary keys in applying strengths thinking to leadership:
A good word from Tom Peters:
(How does this harmonize with my linking last week to Penelope Trunk’s post on not making a big deal out of typos on blogs? Peters is addressing a larger and more macro issue — he’s not talking about typos. However, eliminating typos would be a sub-set, for sure, of good writing.
Further, Trunk wasn’t saying that lots of typos are good or that we shouldn’t care about them at all; her point in general was that in the medium of blogging and the press for time that comes from it being avocational for most, an occasional typo isn’t such a big deal.)
HT: BNET
John Kotter’s classic article What Leaders Really Do is one of the most helpful things I have ever read.
From a recent book by Harvard Business Press:
The conclusion [in a presentation] should not summarize your arguments; rather, it should appeal to the audience for its understanding, its action, and its approval — whatever it is you want the audience to do or think.
So don’t fall into the trap of telling your audience what you’ve already said. Summing it up is a surefire way to kill any enthusiasm your presentation may have generated. So forget about a summary; instead, tell your audience what it should think or do.
From The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make:
From Strengths-Based Leadership, summarizing the findings of a Gallup study:
In the worklplace, when an organization’s leadership fails to focus on individuals’ strengths, the odds of an employee being engaged are a dismal 1 in 11 (9%). But when an organization’s leadership focuses on the strengths of its employees, the odds soar to almost 3 in 4 (73%).
So that means when leaders focus on and invest in their employees’ strengths, the odds of each person being engaged goes up eightfold.
…This increase in engagement translates into substantial gains for the organization’s bottom line and each employee’s well-being.
