Strength-Based Leadership Strengthens People, Businesses and Society

Strength-based leadership is about bringing together the individual strengths of an organization into a common whole that pulls in a unified direction. And in a unified, strengthened direction of sustainability and vitality. It does not matter what direction we take; the world calls for us to take responsibility for what we create. As a leader, you take responsibility by being conscious of your leadership responsibilities — that you are aware that the choices you make and the way you enter into relationships have consequences for your employees, for the product you create together, and for the surrounding community.

Purpose, purpose, purpose

When, in our infancy as consultants, we consulted the management aisles almost 20 years ago, little was said about the purpose of the organization or the company. We could concentrate on the management tools. Today we are experiencing another, more sustainable trend: the organization must have a clear purpose from which we can talk and talk as we explore, together with the leaders, what will be the best way to conduct leadership, provide feedback, etc in this organizational context. The clarity of the company's purpose has become paramount to whether it will be possible to “get employees involved/motivated” at all. The purpose is to describe in a visionary way how the company and its products or services contribute to creating a better world. At one time Nestlé produced chocolate goods and freeze-dried coffee. Now Nestlé produces chocolate goods and freeze-dried coffee, at the same time as that they work with the coffee and chocolate farmers to cultivate the land in a sustainable way. It is the replacement for CSR, which in Michael Porter's words is called CSV, Creating Shared Value (HBR, Feb 2011).
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Of course, this places demands on a company and its managers. As a leader, you must first of all be able to gather your people around a common purpose and you must be able to communicate, involve and challenge them into the context in which the organization is located and the purpose it strives to achieve.

8 Hallmarks of the Strength-Based Leader

In the spring of this year we published a revised edition of our book Strength-based Management at an American publishing house in collaboration with Professor David Cooperrider. Cooperider wanted to contribute to our book on strengths-based leadership because he believes that without skillful and responsible leadership, it will be difficult to get to grips with the great global challenges we face in the world. In the book, which bears the title The Strength-Based Leadership Handbook (Crown Custom Publishing, 2016), we describe 8 basic principles of the strengths-based leader — the “ideal pit” (the ideal way to live the strengths-based approach). The basic principles are important to know and understand because many of the strengths-based tools are best used if you have a deeper understanding of the philosophy behind the approach. Therefore, in the following brief we will review them one by one, after which we will summarize how you as a leader can start leading from the strengths-based mindset and introduce you to some concrete leadership tools from the book.

1. Shedding light on what you want to see grow

If you're looking for problems in your organization or in society, then you should probably find plenty. Problem spotting is something that a lot of people spend an incredible amount of time and energy on. It is also important to take care of the problems. However, the way problems are discussed and dealt with often creates additional problems because the problem is addressed or concepts of guilt are added to the dialogue, which means that instead of jointly resolving the problem in the quickest and most constructive way, one is lulled into a dialogue about guilt and obstacles to a solution.
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Problem dialogues should instead be about what we want to create together — and how we can jointly tackle what is not working. Strength-based leadership is sometimes misunderstood as a paradigm that leaves no room for openly talking about what doesn't work. But you are very much allowed to talk about what you are unhappy with, angry about and see as barriers. The art is, then in time, to be able to flip the coin -- so you acknowledge what's not good enough and then together do something about it. The strengths-based leader dares to talk about the problems, and then has the ability to illuminate — shed light on — flip the coin — in the direction of what you can do about it together — what you want together instead, want to “see grow”.
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This is the trick that the Illuminations hallmark in strengths-based leadership is all about. Throw light on what you want to see grow. Near the constructive talks — talk about the common desired future. Look for the positive exceptions — and look for the reasons why this could take place “in spite”.
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Often there are already fragments in the present that one would like to create even more of in the future. Example: The vision for customer service described by your company undoubtedly exists to a surprising extent already. It is simply talked about as if it is something new that we need to create. Find the places where the vision is already lived in glimpses, start by opening your eyes and your mind and explore reality and the company, highlighting where things are already working.

2. Cultivate your strengths — and deal with your weaknesses

Your strengths are a combination of something you are good at and something that gives you energy. What you are good at can usually be seen by others. What you are passionate about is not always visible. Many managers don't know enough about what their employees are passionate about. For the development interview, they only talk about competencies. What you're good at. Also remember to ask about people's energy. You may be lucky that completely new opportunities open up for cultivating your strengths.
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The optimal balance between focusing on strengths and weaknesses is a ratio of roughly 3:1. Think of it not as a dogma, but as a marker. When we coach leaders, there remains a surprisingly large proportion of them who focus heavily on their own weaknesses and those of others. It is on the weak points that are guided by development potential. As a strengths-based leader, you have to constantly challenge this. Ask for both the 3's and 1's so that it becomes a balanced development focus. A concrete way to remember it, might be to stop using the term Strengths and development opportunities. And instead replace it with Strengths and weaknesses. And then explain to people that your exorbitant way of talking about weaknesses is because you consider both strengths and weaknesses to be areas of development.

3. Experiment, learn, adjust

An essential point within the strengths-based management approach is that one must be allowed to practice, experiment, learn along the way in one's job. As a strengths-based leader, you must work with your employees to make a plan for the direction in which you are moving — it must be clear, as mentioned before, where the organization is moving, but also clear what the employee is working towards. Once the plan is laid out, you take the first steps — and then it may be necessary to adjust. The trick is to be able to make these adjustments along the way and not get stuck into slavishly sticking to a plan that may be out of date before the ink has dried.
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The best managers are often the ones who dare to show that they have doubts, show that they are not world champions. They are humble (as described with the Level 5 leader in the book Good 2 Great by Jim Collins, 2001), and practice openly every day. They dare to fail, recognize mistakes and create an atmosphere around them where experimenting becomes legal. Of course, you should not make the same mistake too many times in a row, but learn from your mistakes — and then you can adjust.

4th. Accept what is and be authentic

As a strengths-based leader, it is crucial that you do not try to change too much about yourself or your employees. Rather, it is about cultivating the strengths that are in yourself, the employees, the team and the organization, accepting the weaknesses, and then finding some and something that can compensate for the weaknesses. When David Cooperrider asked management guru Peter Drucker back in the early s what he thought leadership's most important task was, he replied: “The essential task of leadership is to create an alliance of strengths that make our weaknesses insignificant” (Translated by the authors). The philosophy behind the strengths-based approach is that you are wise to focus your energy on getting better where you are already strong — see also point 2. It's far more fun, more rewarding and substantial in the end. The more authentic you appear, the easier it will be to unfold your strengths and, moreover, to “bring people with you” (Goffee & Jones, 2006).

5. Look for good intentions, causes and explanations

No human goes to work to annoy others, do a bad job, or thwart an advance. Most people want to contribute, as we have already mentioned, which is why it is an essential point of the strengths-based management approach that when someone complains, seems to be resisting or delivering a decidedly bad piece of work, then there must be some good reason for it. It simply cannot be because they are lazy, outright delusional or just plain inept (except, of course, very few glaring cases, in which case you have to deal with it). The starting point must be curiously and openly investigating what is behind an apparent bad behavior/delivery or the like.

6. Positivity makes a difference

The evidence is overwhelming. Our brain works best when we experience positive emotions. Negative emotions provide tunnel vision, and act as the familiar flight, freeze, or fight function, which admittedly can be useful in tapering situations. Positive emotions make us effective problem solvers. They make us more social creatures who cooperate better. The list is long. (Fredrickson, 2009 & Goleman, 2013). Do not try to suppress negative emotions. That, paradoxically, makes them worse. On the other hand, use challenges, problems and generally negative situations to challenge yourself on whether you will be a slave to the influence of the environment or whether you will try to find positive emotions to deal with the difficulties. Bring hope, persistence, curiosity, enthusiasm, purposefulness, consistency, etc. into negative situations and see what it does for yourself and your handling of the situation. As noted American war hero Jim Stockdale once said: “Face the brutal facts, but never ever doubt that you will prevail!”

7. Involvement creates responsibility

Legendary former GE CEO Jack Welch spoke out on his resignation after 20 years of constant advancement for the company on how the company could continue its successes going forward. He emphasized that the company had to create a culture that brought everyone's brains/minds into play. As a strong and visible top leader, he spent his entire career dedicated to getting his organization involved in decisions, projects and tasks. In doing so, he ensured that responsibility for the right things was taken at the right levels. Without this principle, he probably would not have succeeded in the many significant changes he took the company through (Rothwell et al., 2005).
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Most managers will say they salute and abide by this principle. But try to challenge yourself on that. Do you dare? Do you get involved enough? Are you getting doled out enough? Do you give real influence to decisions? Or should it right around you? Is it easier to do it yourself? There are employees and middle managers out there who are ready to step up and take on greater responsibility, and that requires you to dare to let it go and involve the organization in what is important and what is right. So really let it go...

8. Timing and presence are crucial

Presence training is gradually known and recognized by most managers as a relevant and effective tool to become a better leader. When we started applying it in leadership training 10 years ago, the resistance could be great. We meet virtually no resistance on it anymore. Presence, we believe, is the ingredient that binds all the ends of leadership together. When you are present, you look with openness, curiosity and respect at other people. You work more disciplined, purposeful and consistent. You stay calm under pressure and in difficult choices. And you're more clear about what your organization is put in the world for and what your and your team's contribution is to it.
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Presence enables you to time your leadership efforts in a better way than if you are not mentally present. Who can argue against that? And there are two pieces of good news. 1) You already have the ability to be present, and probably are many times a day. 2) You can train your ability to become even more present, no matter what level you are at. If you choose to train your presence, it is a lifelong learning. In return, we promise you that it will positively affect your management work. A bonus often becomes a positive contagion on personal life.
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The 8 basic principles of Strength-Based Leadership are our proposal for a foundation for you who want to make a difference as a leader. And not just a difference, but a positive difference for people, for your organization and for society. The ninth basic principle is: Put the strengths-based approach in the background and put your company's purpose, vision and strategy in the foreground.
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