THE STRENGTHS MYTH
I invited several top leaders, authors, and bloggers to share their wisdom with Leadership Freak reades. Thanks to Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner for contributing this insightful post challenging the strengths myth.
From the ancient literature on leadership that searched for the individual “kissed by the gods” (charisma) to historical “great man” approaches (already limited by gender biases), people have been searching for the magic elixir that explains leadership success.
The current fascination is the concept of strengths.
Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with the notion that people are more proficient at or prefer to engage in some activities than others. But the strengths approach has been misapplied to mean that you should take on only tasks in which you are strong, not waste your time attending to your weakness, and in areas where you aren’t strong and don’t have natural talent, you or the organization should assign those tasks to other people.
That’s also not to say that people shouldn’t attend to their strengths or that they aren’t generally happier if they’re using them at work, but the emphasis on strengths has fundamentally discouraged people from becoming better leaders.
To become an exemplary leader you have to challenge yourself.
Over the 35 years we’ve been researching leadership, we’ve consistently found that challenge characterizes every single personal-best leadership experience. And when you confront situations that test you, it’s highly likely that you’ll have to develop new skills and overcome existing weaknesses. You simply can’t do your best without searching for new opportunities, doing things you’ve never done, making mistakes, and learning from them.
The truth is that the best leaders are the best learners.
Whether it’s enhancing your existing strengths or overcoming your weaknesses, learning is the master skill. Becoming the best leader you can be is not about settling for what you can do today, it’s about stretching yourself and learning continually. It’s about stepping out to the edge of your capabilities and asking a bit more of yourself.
How might leaders challenge themselves?
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are the coauthors of the award-winning and bestselling The Leadership Challenge.
Jim is the Dean’s Executive Fellow of Leadership and Barry is the Accolti Endowed Professor of Leadership in the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University. This blog is adapted from their new book, Learning Leadership: The Five Fundamentals of Becoming an Exemplary Leader (2016) by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (San Francisco: The Leadership Challenge, A Wiley Brand).
How might leaders challenge themselves? “Think outside the box”, not everything is written in stone! If we don’t challenge ourselves daily we are mere statues in the shade, going no where!
Seek out your inner-self who knows what you will find and become?
Thanks Tim. One thing that disappoints me when I hear someone say no to something and follow it by, “That’s just not me.” I get that we should stay within our strengths. But, it’s sad when people don’t challenge themselves.
See: The Myth of the Strong Man by Archie Brown.
Thanks for extending the conversation, John.
Should we spend our time, money and effort fixing our weaknesses or building our strengths?
I think it depends on our weaknesses and our strengths.
Should we spend other people’s time, money and effort trying to fix other people’s weaknesses or building their strengths?
Perhaps employers ought not presume to know the answer.
If we hire the right people, then we won’t need to fix employees’ weaknesses.
Thanks Bob. What I like is the idea that it’s good to challenge ourselves and others. I don’t want that to seem like fixing people as much as it is expanding capacity.
Glad you jumped in today!
My two cents, if I may; It is essential that a leader ‘fix’ people / ‘teach’ people. A leader has the Innate ability to recognize and nurture a green, up-and-coming leader. Yes, hire the right person, but until you get to roll up their sleeves and learn who they truly are you won’t know if they are the ‘right’ person. Take care to pay it forward, growing in the process. Thank you for the great post, Dan and invited wise guests.
Any concept taken to the extreme tends to lose it’s fundamental stability. Properly applied the Strength concept is both sound and effective. Working in your area of strength is about your satisfaction. Building a solid team or dealing with people issues is, as usual, more complicated than a couple of buzz phrases and courses designed to get in touch with your inner-self. It involves truthful self-assessment so that you can understand who you are, how you can be most effective and how others can help
Thanks db. Nicely stated. I think the “satisfaction” aspect is so important. It can be very satisfying to develop in an area of weakness that matters. That idea isn’t a rejection of the power of focusing on our strengths.
I like Dan’s phrase (in a comment) about “expanding capacity,” as long as we’re being reasonable and not expecting someone to be all things to all people, all the time. I’ve gotten tired of being expected to be superwoman 24/7!
I see leadership as being somewhat analogous to coaching a sports team. Coaches know to play people to their strengths — they put players in positions they’re good at. (duh, right?!) A good coach would recognize the folly of forcing a player who’s great at scoring to be a goalie, or vice versa.
It may be an ego thing, but too many manager-leaders (and performance reviewers) insist on dwelling on a worker’s “weaknesses” and try to force them to be something they’re not, rather than play their employees to their strengths.
Thanks Anon. You hit on something that I love poking. We hire people for their strengths and evaluate them on their weaknesses. Crazy!!!
Evaluation time in an organization is so de-energizing in a traditional context. Worse yet, it invites people to expend their best energy on working on weaknesses.
I’m sorry that you and the authors of this book have fallen for the straw man argument that is being propagated by some to discredit the Strengthsfinders program in an attempt to build up their own programs (in this case The Leadership Challenge for Kouzes and Posner).
Apples are good, but if I only eat apples then I WILL have health problems. So can we make the argument that apples are poisonous because if I only eat apples my health will suffer? No because it is faulty logic. My misapplication of a concept to the exclusion of other good things is NOT the fault of the apples. It’s my fault for not educating myself about a program on which I am embarking, and not understanding the consequences of misapplying a helpful concept of “an apple a day”. Do we blame the dryer for shrinking my clothes because I used the wrong setting? Or how about blaming the food for the fact that I am 60 pounds overweight? Some do, but we all know that no one actually believes that.
I’d encourage everyone to re-read dblockheads comments above. Strengthsfinder is about a better knowledge of yourself, a better understanding of how you can structure your team and its work to make the team more effective. Not sure I’ve ever seen anything in Strengthsfinders that advocated totally ignoring your lesser strengths (NOT weaknesses), or NOT taking on challenging or stretch projects that don’t play to your strengths. It advocates managing and mitigating for our lesser strengths and setting up systems to remind us to go to our lesser strengths when we need to use them.
We use both programs where I am a leadership development trainer, a Strengthsfinder coach, and a facilitator of the Leadership Challenge program. Both programs are very effective when properly applied and have helped our leaders become better at what they do and more aware of how they can improve the work lives for themselves and their teams. I would no more advocate a total SF approach for our organization then I would a total Leadership Challenge approach. Neither program is the end-all-do-all program. They both bring a piece of the picture and a piece of the solution to the direction we wish to move our internal and external culture. My failure to recognize that would not fall on Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge, nor on Don Clifton and Strengthsfinder, It would fall firmly on my failure as a OD advisor for my organization.
Let’s stop bashing a good program because people are misusing, misinterpreting, and misapplying a good thing, Nobody wins when we do that. Let’s call out the misuse for what it is and help guide people to understand how to properly use the SF program and it’s place in their development.
Thank Scott. I’m glad you added your perspective today. I’m a huge fan of the strength-based movement. Personally, I didn’t feel Kouzes and Posner were being critical of Don Clifton and the Strengthsfinder tool. I use it and love it.
In addition, I cringe when leaders sell themselves short by turning from development in areas that would enhance their leadership because it’s not their “strength”.
Like you, I’m a huge fan of The Leadership Challenge, as well.
Once again, thanks so much for jumping in today. I think your statement “when properly applied,” is so helpful.
I absolutely LOVE this perspective!! For leadership guidance AND for life! 🙂
The things that challenge us ARE harder. Reaching a point of success when you have chosen to take on the challenge is…oh-so-sweet!
Thanks Dianna. Take on challenges. Absolutely! We don’t drift into excellence. 🙂
Well said Scott W. – couldn’t agree more! A weakness in my mind is a “character” issue and I believes those types of weaknesses need to be addressed with vigor.
No matter how hard a duck tries, it will never beat a rabbit in a foot race. Why should the duck waste his time training for a foot race when he could be a world class swimmer.
One can find a lifetime of challenges within their strengths.
Love your posts Dan – just happen to agree more with Scott W on this one.
Thanks Scott. Great illustration. Thanks for jumping in. I enjoy the discussion! cheers
I happened to have picked a good Dad; a wise one. He has always cautioned me about always playing to my strengths. By all means know what they are and use them well, but be aware that your greatest strengths also happen to be your greatest weaknesses depending on the situation and context.
Dan Rockwell, Thanks for jumping in and replying to everyone’s comments with the same robotic thanks and mechanical trope of “thanks for jumping in.” Repeatedly expressing your unremitting “enjoyment of the discussion” and endlessly pointing out that any comment is “so helpful” suggests you are just filling blog space and need to strengthen your mindfulness skills when replying to engage your readers authentically and not patronize them with boiler-plate blather. And, of course, following your pedestrian practice,I have to end this comment with the requisite, cheers!
Seems like my attempts at being polite aren’t working for you. Best wishes.
@ Kay – Sounds like you should take the content of the post to heart and work on something that is not a strength. Instead of attacking the blog leader for his comments, read the blog for the content and find something positive from it or … move along. Would you have said your comments to him to his face? Online discussions make us so bold and always right, don’t they?
Regards.
As a leader in my secular work and as a Pastor I have always tried to play to my strengths, and challenge myself in the areas that I am lacking. We should always be pushing ourselves to improve. A well balanced leader is going to play to their strengths, work on their weaknesses and surround themselves with people that will help fulfill the goals. As the leader goes, so goes the staff. You cannot encourage others to push for greater heights if your not doing the same. Leadership is Example! Good thoughts Dan.
Sadly we live in a world that focuses on weaknesses and many of us are trapped and stuck by our view of them.
The classic symptoms of weaknesses are frustration, low energy, low performance and uncertainty. Personally I don’t want to challenge myself to feel any of those things. Focussing on growth from a weakness mindset ignores the chance to take something we’re good at and turn it into something that explodes growth where you learn the fastest and feel the most rewarded. When you try and change yourself and fix what’s wrong with you it is draining and unsustainable in the long-term.
Using strengths is not about ignoring weaknesses. The truth is our strengths inform our weaknesses and taking a strengths-based approach to addressing them is much more effective. Weaknesses typically show up as a result of strengths over-use (strength in overdrive appearing as weaknesses) and under-use (a strength being held back) and Blinds Spots – an area of non strength that is needed in the situation but where we have a lack of perspective, knowledge, skill, talent or passion. When it’s in our Blind Spot it’s hard to understand how to approach the situation, we don’t know what to do and it’s hard to engage. By understand and learning to effectively apply your strengths you are better positioned to deal with these deal with. One of my Blind Spots is fixing problems – it isn’t how I naturally think feel or behave and when anything breaks or someone is focussed on what is wrong rather than right it’s so frustrating to me. I’ve learnt to deal with this ‘weakness’ by claiming it and deliberately partnering with people who have this strength. By being aware of it I have also looked to reframe using my other strengths to help me solve problems. When you are aware of the contributions, needs, triggers and patterns of overuse of your strengths you are better positioned to manage them effectively so they don’t show up as weaknesses to yourself and others around you.
It’s time to reframe how we look at weaknesses and not be fearful of them. Our strengths exist so we can help others and our weaknesses so that others can help us.
To be honest, it’s the first time I ever gave a thought on whether to focus on my strengths or weaknesses as one begins to climb the top. So glad reading through and specially I thank Vicki for the contribution that ‘ our strength exist so we help others while the weakness exist so that some others will help.
However, its quite ok to work more on our weakness which is mostly conditioned than our strength which I believe is always innate.
As a former professional athlete, you had better work on the weak parts of your game otherwise, you just another wannabe that willneverbe. Duck analogy??? Ducks are made to swim. Rabbits are made to hop. Giraffes are made with long necks. Turtles will never be fast. Humans are the only intelligent beings that can constantly adapt to improve their weaknesses will operating in their strengths. It’s ALWAYS a balance.