Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work under several bosses and observe the different styles of leadership each of them brought to the position. Some of them proved to be textbook examples of how not to lead a team while others were unremarkable, but nonetheless competent in the managerial role. But then there were those rare few who were invaluable in teaching through their conduct and behaviour how one should approach the role of leadership.
One such example of this was Dan, the president of a biotechnology firm I worked at a few years ago. As the head of the company, Dan displayed an open interest in finding out what unique strengths his employees brought to the business. He then used this information to look for opportunities where he could encourage his employees to use and develop those abilities. It was clear that he viewed it as his responsibility to foster an environment where his employees could develop their potential both for the benefit of the company, as well as for their own professional growth.
Unfortunately, most leaders manage their teams by focusing instead on their employees’ weaknesses, looking more at those areas that their employees “need to work on or improve” in order to better their job performance. The school of thought behind this approach is that getting employees to work on fixing or compensating for these deficiencies will help to improve the individual’s work output and consequently, the company’s ability to remain competitive and push ahead.
And yet, how many people have truly succeeded by focusing on trying to overcome these weaknesses as opposed to building on their strengths? If we look at any arena of human pursuit – whether it’s business, sports, arts, or sciences – the examples of those who we view as models of success didn’t achieve this status by striving to overcome whatever weaknesses they had. Instead, it was a result of understanding where their strengths lay and focusing on building on those abilities to create the outcomes we now aspire to match or even surpass.
As leaders, it’s important to recognize the opportunity we have to create a stronger workforce by shifting the focus toward encouraging our employees to develop their unique strengths. As I learned from Dan’s example, this can be done by offering employees both the means and opportunities to explore and build on these talents. The vantage point offered in leadership positions also allows us to guide our employees to push outside their perceived boundaries in order to gain insights to what they’re really capable of accomplishing.
Of course, the idea of nurturing others to build their own sense of personal strength is not a new one. In fact, if one looks at the typical plot line for how a superhero comes to terms with their unique identity and powers, we find that the stories contain within them the common thread of a nurturing figure, providing them with the guidance and support to develop an understanding of how their abilities can be used to help the greater good. Spiderman, for example, had his Uncle Ben, while Superman had the support and wisdom of his father to help him find his way. While it might be the superhero that gets all the attention for their abilities, this is only because they were provided with the encouragement and support needed to see these unique strengths as something that could be of benefit to others.
True, our employees can’t shoot spider webs from their wrists or leap tall buildings in a single bound; they can’t catch thieves just like flies or run faster than a speeding bullet. What they do have, though, are unique talents and skills that can prove to be vital to your company’s future growth and stability.
When Dan left the company to help lead another biotechnology firm, there were many in his team – myself included – who eagerly hoped there might be positions in his new company they could fill so as to have the opportunity to continue to work under him. This sense of loyalty he fostered was not simply because Dan was a nice guy; it was a result of the fact that he viewed his leadership role as one that comes with the duty to encourage his employees to focus on building their strengths, and with it an appreciation of how they can contribute to the big picture.
Hi Tanveer…
Behaviouristic psychology would back you 100%, praise (reinforce) what's positive and creative and ignore the rest on the premise 'unwanted' behaviours will diminish and desired behaviours will increase. And Dan did far more than that skilfully through rapport supporting you all in developing your strengths as contribution as well as personal fulfillment.
I believe there's also a place for looking at what abilities you could develop more… if you choose. That's often an amazing ocean of creativity which at first you might just not believe you could navigate… until you begin!
Thanks Tanveer for another great blog!
Thanks Sharon; I appreciate that.
It's certainly not a common understanding that leadership involves the creation of an environment to enable others to develop and build their strengths. But if we recognize that as leaders, we shouldn't be expected to know everything, it makes all the more sense to help your employees grow as a sure way to build value as a team.
Thanks again, Sharon, for sharing your thoughts on this and for your kind words. 🙂
Man I need to remember the right email address!
Hi Frank, thanks for the great comment. Part of the problem is that people seem to think being a leader means keeping people below you. And let's face it, what better way is there to keep people down than by continuing to point out how poorly they perform a specific task, instead of helping you strengthen those areas you show real promise in developing an expertise in.
When we start to look at leadership as being in service to others, as opposed to making people bend to our will, perhaps examples of leadership like the one Dan exhibited will become more commonplace and expected.
Thanks again for your comment, Frank – even if you used the wrong email address. 🙂
Hey Tanveer,
I have often wondered who writes the evaluation forms that many of us have had to endure when working for a company. They always seemed to stress the areas of needed improvement and never the areas where your work was strong.
As you said, you were encouraged to improve on your shortfalls, but seldom supported in enriching your strengths.
The result for me was always a sense of desperation. If I wanted to stay with the company let alone get a bigger raise, I needed to cowboy up and fix my problems.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if I left the evaluation with a sense of accomplishment and a list of things I had done right? It seems that it would have been so much more productive for me, and for the company, if I had a mindset of “I’m good, but I can do even better.”
That’s Leadership.
Hello Tanveer,
As a young manager I was exposed to certain leadership qualities that created within me a desire and commitment to lead people differently than those who led me. Given that was over 30 years ago, some of those commitments stood as challenges to the status quo that was certainly cause for some very lengthy and heartfelt conversations from which I emerged more firmly committed. One example, was my staunch belief that my direct reports do NOT work for me. They work with me, and we all work together for some greater cause.
I have been fortunate in knowing all too well of my own short comings and for that reason I felt it unfair and unnecessary to focus on the weakness of my team members. Much more can be accomplished by focusing on the individual strengths and when necessary, adding members who had complementary strengths to increase the overall team capacity.
I am always pleased to learn of people like Dan. He is is the kind of leader I believe we should all be.
Cheers, Gordon
Hi Gordon, welcome to my blog and thanks for sharing your experiences with this.
You bring up an excellent point of how as a leader we can compensate for the weaknesses exhibited by some team members by bringing in others who will complement their strengths. Again, this is what makes for a true leader – someone who enables those around them to bring their greatest value to the shared goal of the team or company. And I couldn't agree with you more that we need to view leaders and their team mates as working collectively toward a shared goal, something I pointed out as being a key point to creating an engaged workforce.
Thanks again, Gordon, for sharing your experiences in this discussion.
"In service to others"
Leadership done right – totsally agree my friend.
Hey Tanveer, great post, as usual!
There are two levels to this argument. The first is that a managers job is to help people excel. S/he can do that by helping them reach excellence and by finding their talents and strengths. Giving them the freedom and support to enhance themselves and excel.
The second is the level of team work that should be enhanced by each members strengths. Teamwork is not about everybody doing the same and being mediocre at everything, it is about each part contributing to the synergy.
Thanks for this post!
Elad
Thanks Elad, I appreciate that.
The interesting thing about the two points you bring up is how they are very much interdependent – to lead a strong team, you need to understand the individual strengths each member brings to the table. At the same time, it's important to help develop and build those strengths to remain competitive going forward.
Thanks again Elad for sharing your insights in this discussion. 🙂
I’ve heard of bosses who only focused on their employees’ weaknesses and focused on berating them instead of teaching them. I’m fortunate enough to have a boss who values people’s strengths and works to improve these skills to help them flourish and find their place in the industry and the world. I only wish more bosses and leaders were like that. With mentors like these, the world may very well be filled with powerful, well-adjusted individuals. 🙂
Thanks Teresa for sharing your experiences with this. Sounds to me like you definitely have a great boss to work with. Agree with you that we’d all be better off having more individuals like these in positions of leadership to help others succeed and prosper.
Great post. My goal is to make people around me better than me. I want my office to be crowded with talented people that are far smarter than I am. I have also many times experienced that if you give people the chance to grow, they will. Good example: Internal promotions in stead of external leadership hiring, always the best results with internal.
That is the goal of real leadership; after all, every leader wants to be successful in their role and how else can one be successful leading others if they're not facilitating an environment where their team members can succeed and grow. Unfortunately, as most of us know from experience, it's not very common to work for someone in a leadership position who understands this fundamental truth.
Thanks Frode for sharing your thoughts on this piece.