"Growing Your People Monthly" Newsletter

October 2009

Walter Cronkite once said, "In seeking truth you have to get both sides of a story." At a recent event I had the opportunity to hear author Marcus Buckingham speak about many things, including the strengths-based approach to professional development (his book Now, Discover Your Strengths is on my recommended reading list). However, strengths are only half of the development equation - and this is clearly captured in Robert Kaiser's recent book The Perils of Accentuating the Positive, which I have also added to my reading list. This month, learn more about both sides of this ongoing dialogue, and next month, learn how to utilize this information from an organizational perspective. Read on!

Be Well,
Yvonne Kinney-Hockert
National Speaker, Business Consultant & Coach
Consulting Solutions, LLC.

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Strengths and Weaknesses - Bragging Rights or Crutch? Part One

One of the current theories getting media coverage is the strengths-based movement. In Now, Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham and Clifton apply the concepts of positive psychology to leadership development - stressing the importance of identifying talents and developing strengths, while minimizing the emphasis on weaknesses. The program is based on the results of studies done by the Gallup Organization, and urges organizations to embrace two new assumptions that are believed to "guide the world's best managers" - that talents are "enduring and unique" and that strengths offer the best opportunity for growth. (The program uses a profile instrument called StrengthsFinder, which has since been updated and highlighted in Tom Rath's book, StrengthsFinder 2.0.

This approach initially sounds exciting, but as a client recently told me, "At first, the thought of just focusing on my strengths was extremely liberating. However, after reading the book and taking the test, I still felt something was missing. It just isn't logical to me to only look at my strengths and ignore my weaknesses." Many people misinterpret the strengths-based approach in this way, but even Buckingham notes the importance of managing (not ignoring) weaknesses so they don't get in the way.

In The Perils of Accentuating the Positive, Kaiser and the other contributors make a strong argument for the importance of focusing on both strengths and weaknesses. Basing their findings on significant research studies and meta-analysis, they challenge the viability of a purely strengths-based approach to building leaders, show how strengths can become weaknesses, and emphasize that ignoring weaknesses is "a lethal strategy for individuals managing their careers, as well as for the organizations building and managing their talent."

One thing to be aware of, for example, is the inclination to use strengths as bragging rights and weaknesses as crutches. Leaders do not best serve themselves or their teams when they use their strengths or weaknesses as either bragging rights for why they are so "good" at one thing or as a crutch for why they are not "good" at another. Many leaders have been derailed by this type of thinking, as well as not being aware of their blind spots, and this is where awareness becomes especially important. Indeed, both the strengths-based camp and Kaiser's group stress the importance of self-awareness. Awareness can be achieved through the strategic use of personality profiles like the Winslow Assessment, that provide insight from the individual's perspective, and instruments like 360° feedback, which help leaders understand the perception of the people around them.

Whether finding ways to manage weaknesses by managing around them, or actively focusing on and developing areas of weakness, it is essential to develop awareness. Knowledge truly is power, and next month we'll discuss the use of strengths and weaknesses from an organizational perspective.

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