Strengths-based leadership is the ability to identify and make the best use of your own and your team members' strengths.
Of course, this doesn't mean that you, or your team, should avoid learning new skills. But you should feel able to delegate tasks that you're not so good at to others who are more skilled or experienced.
In their 2009 book, "Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow," workplace consultants Tom Rath and Barry Conchie argue that the most successful teams possess a broad range of abilities. When you know each of your team members' key strengths, you can apply them in a way that benefits the team as a whole.
The following techniques can be leveraged to apply strengths-based leadership:
- Understand individual strengths
Use a diagnostic tool to understand your own strengths and the strengths of your team, then use these insights to focus on building strengths. - Tap into authentic leadership
Authentic leaders enact their values and operate in alignment with their true selves. This, in turn, means that authentic leaders are playing to their strengths. Leaders can then invest time to understand their values, and those of their team members, and how these connect to their strengths. - Create a culture of care
Taking time to get to know team members and what motivates and engages them creates a culture of care that builds the foundations for cultivating a strengths-based workplace. - Use strengths as a recruitment tool
Asking questions that are designed to explore weaknesses is commonplace in many company recruitment processes. When seeking to build a strengths-based workplace, leaders use questions designed to illuminate the candidate’s strengths. - Increase diversity and inclusion
When leaders focus on their team members’ strengths this celebrates and recognizes each individual’s unique personality and experiences, highlighting what they can offer to the team. Inclusivity and diversity become attractive indicators a strengths-based workplace. - Don’t discount weaknesses
Remember that focusing on strengths doesn’t mean we discount weaknesses. Instead, it’s about recognizing we all have weaknesses that can be worked on to a level at which they are acceptable within the responsibilities of the role whilst simultaneously focusing on enhancing strengths. Weaknesses become gaps that can be managed with the support of colleagues and systems .
The Risks of Strengths-Based Leadership
Despite the benefits outlined above, the strengths-based leadership approach does have some potential downsides.
First, encouraging people to only focus on their strengths can limit their opportunities to grow. Sometimes, pushing your team members to venture into unfamiliar territory can help to reveal skills they never knew they had.
1. Be careful that focusing on individual talents and strengths doesn't cause you to overlook important knowledge or skills gaps.
2. Team members may become bored, frustrated, or resentful that others are developing new areas of expertise, while some aren't.
In Nursing Management, A strengths-based leadership approach can improve your delegation skills, increase the personnel diversity, and can generate consensual leadership style in the clinical settings.
However, be attentive not to ignore the staff member’s weaknesses. If left unchecked, they can be less likely effective more so non cohesive members.
N240-1
Cerbito, Marilyn Cano
Master of Arts in Nursing, Major in Nursing Administration
University of the Philippines, Manila
The Health Sciences Center, College of Nursing