Hello, my name is Janette Magnus. Thank you for
joining us. We are currently talking a little about -
the most important piece in the puzzle of advancing leadership and that is -
self-knowledge. So in this little video we will talk -
about why self-knowledge is important, a tool on how you can explore what your -
strengths are and why strengths and knowing the leader, knowing his or -
her strengths is so imperative in leadership.
So please, stay on.
So, who am I?
At the center of your being you have the answer -
you know who you are and you know what you want.
says Lao Tzu 571 years before Christ.
So many of you know the pyramid of Maslow's -
hierarchy of needs and you know that at the bottom is the physiology -
then comes the safety, security, the family and so on, then comes family -
friendship, love and intimacy.
However, next level is -
self-esteem, confidence, achievement and respect.
Before you then go to self-actualization, where actually you will be able to be -
a real leader and come -
truly into yourself. This is leadership training -
so ladies and gentlemen, you're climbing the Maslow's hierarchy of needs -
a pyramid, way beyond what you were taught in -
school.
So, the questions are who am I -
that's the assessment, the action is how do I get wherever it -
is that I want to go and then you need to know -
where am I going. These three work together all the time -
throughout your career, throughout your life and you need to be -
very in tuned to these questions and your own -
personal answers. In another small video I presented to -
you the opportunity to do a small personal -
SWAT to find out what your strengths are and -
what your weaknesses are, the opportunities and the threats -
so please, ponder on these things if you haven't -
already done it and think about particularly your strengths -
I'll come back to why the strengths are so important a little later.
So when you do SWAT, you should be mindful about what -
surprised you the most and you should think about okay -
don't list your weaknesses, it is your strengths that actually is the most -
important here. Because weaknesses are usually inert to -
your personality, inert to -
who you are and they are more -
they are nearly impossible to change, but if you don't accept them, you know -
them and you work around them and you use your strengths -
to leverage them and to work with them, you will fail and you will have -
challenges.
So leadership history and the literature shows -
over and over again, people that have gone to different kind of courses -
trainings and so on to be, get rid of their weaknesses and it -
doesn't work, you have to work on your weaknesses through your strengths and -
then diminish them and control them.
So, strengths first.
And the most significant growth is because -
there is a balancing of the strengths and the weaknesses, as I -
mentioned, and the -
conversations are weighted towards exploring strengths -
above exploring weaknesses. Weaknesses is something you need to be -
aware of, because it is part of you.
So the energy and the performance is linked -
to the competencies and the motivation and that's why you need to know -
both the strengths, which gives you energy and that actually also will give -
you the competency to perform and then the weaknesses that you have to control.
So, what are you best at?
A strength based leadership approach is linked to -
the realized strengths that you have, that -
actually will make you perform well, will energize you and wil,l you will -
marshal their use and you can really excel.
Many of us have unrealized strengths -
these strengths we can learn about when we do self-assessment, like -
that's what we just talked about, a different kind of -
psychological testings, in-depth conversations with mentors -
and trusted peers, because -
then you can see more of your strengths, you will in a way -
get somebody that sees you from outside and then that too can energize you and -
increase your opportunity to do well -
and you when you start maximizing their use.
The weaknesses, they usually will de-energize you, you -
should minimize their use, you should work around them -
and use your strengths, as I have said several times already, to actually -
mitigate them. And then we have -
in a way learned behaviors, we have behaviors that we have been said -
that oh, this is what makes you a good leader.
This is what you have to do, but it is so out of character and it's not linked to -
your strengths, so that it will -
excuse me, look strange when you do them, it looks perfectly well -
on somebody else, because it's part of their character.
It's part of who they are, but not necessarily with you, so be -
mindful about being true to you, your way of being and what your way of -
thinking so that you are a true person when you are a leader, not -
somebody's wannabe.
So, you will suffer -
fewer problems if you know what your weaknesses are and if you manage these.
So, the strength-based leadership approach -
is values, the capacity skills, knowledge -
connections and potential in each individual that actually -
participate as well as the community they come from.
So, focusing on strengths doesn't mean that -
you are ignoring challenges or that you are spinning struggles into -
strength, no, it is attacking things right -
head-on.
So, strength-based leadership builds on -
what's strong, rather than what's -
wrong. This is very nicely said by Peter Drucker -
a leadership -
guru who's written also some textbooks, that is very exciting, that you can find -
on our resource site and that is, he says, a person can perform only from strength -
one cannot build performance on weakness, let alone on something one cannot do at all.
So, ladies and gentlemen -
know your weaknesses, but -
diminish using them or attempting to use them as a leader.
So, the core element that actually characterizes strength-based leadership -
is the ability -
to get things done. A good executor is skilled at arranging -
and controlling tasks, events and people, they are consistently focused and -
prepared to take responsibility for jobs.
The another thing is that they are very very influential -
the strength to sell, influence and or persuade others to support ideas, project -
tasks, attitudes or organizational approaches
is a hallmark of strength leaders, they are also strong relationship -
builders because they recognize that, since they know their weaknesses, there -
are other peoples, that have strengths in the areas where -
you yourself have your weakness, so they will build relationships to mitigate and -
to use other people's strengths in order to get the organization and the -
group and the team together, so that they together can reach -
the common goal and ambition. This also replies to strategic thinking -
when you know your strengths, you know your weaknesses, you recognize -
the strength and you recognize the weaknesses in your colleagues and -
your peers as well, you will build together teams, that actually build on -
the strengths on the team and then, as a strategic thinker skilled at analyzing -
information seeking links and connection, you are capable of thinking outside the -
box as well, as a colleague of mine said, sometimes you just have to remove the -
box. But you need to know, that it's there.
So, take a time to reflect -
on how does the strength-based approach fit in the culture and -
community way that you work.
And also take a pause and ponder -
write down your reflections and think about -
your strengths. Good luck.