Understand your limitations, but focus on strengths

BOOK REVIEW
Strengths Based Leadership
Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
Gallup Press, NY, 2008
Rs 650

By M. Gautham Machaiah

For years, management gurus have told us to identify our weaknesses, work on them and convert them into strengths, but now, here is a book which advocates quite the opposite. Strengths based Leadership prescribes that the path to leadership is to focus on one’s strengths while understanding the limitations, instead of being bogged down by weaknesses.

“It is hard to build our self-confidence when we are focused on our weaknesses, instead of our strengths. If you focus on people’s weaknesses, they lose confidence.”

Based on the research by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, the book identifies three keys to becoming a successful and effective leader: knowing your strengths and investing in other’s strengths; getting people with the right strengths on your team; and understanding and meeting the basic needs of those who look to you for leadership.

If you spend your life to be good at everything, you will never be good at anything. Perhaps the biggest misconception of all is that of a well-rounded leader. World leaders have succeeded because they have exceptional clarity about who they are- and who they are not. If any of them had chosen to spend a lifetime trying to be “good enough” at everything, it is doubtful they would have made such an extraordinary impact. Instead, they have all been wise enough to get the right strengths on their teams and this has led their organisations towards continuous growth.

The book which lists 34 strengths contains an access code which allows one to take an online test to identify your top five strengths which are distributed under four leadership domains—Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building and Strategic Thinking. It is not necessary that one should have the relevant strengths in all four domains. As the book cautions: “Those who strive to be competent in all areas become the least effective leaders over all.”

Instead, a leader should ensure that his team as a whole has strengths which fall into the four leadership domains. The ground rule is to identify each person’s strengths and leverage on it. Although individuals need not be well-rounded, teams should be.

The book draws an interesting comparison between Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi to indicate that is impossible to lead effectively without an awareness of one’s strengths.

Churchill’s bold and commanding leadership succeeded in mobilising a war-ravaged nation. It is unlikely that he would have had as much success if he had tried to emulate Gandhi’s calm and quite approach. Yet, Gandhi’s leadership during India’s freedom struggle was much more effective because he did not try to emulate the domineering leaders of the past. Both men knew their strengths and used them wisely.

The book takes the reader through the stories of top-notch executives to illustrate how they used their strengths to make a perceptible difference to the businesses they headed. Take for instance, the case of Simon Cooper who used his strength as an Influencer to maximise one of the world’s greatest brands Ritz-Carlton.

“You get a sense that this is one man who realises he can change the world—even if that means influencing one person at a time,” the authors note.

Then there is the case of Mervyn Davies, Chairman, Standard Chartered Bank, who effectively utilised his relationship building skills reaching out to each one of the 70,000 employees spread across 70 countries. While other chief executives were focused exclusively on their bottom lines, Davies was just as concerned with building an organisation with a heart and soul.

What set Davies apart was that he surrounded himself with people who could do specific things much better than he ever could.

Another interesting story is that of Brad Anderson, Chief Executive Officer, Best Buy, who through his Strategic Thinking skills and unconventional approach helped create unprecedented growth. Had you invested $1,000 in Best Buy’s stock in 1991, when Anderson took over as president, it would have been worth $ 175,000 by 2008.

The authors also analyse why people follow certain leaders. Based on the findings of the research, the book concludes that employees look for four basic needs in their leaders—Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope.

The last paragraph of the book is as effective as its opening lines: “Perhaps the ultimate test of a leader is not what you are able to do in the here and now—but instead what continues to grow long after you are gone.”

(Picture sourced from: Strengths.gallup.com)

COMMENTS

Nice one.
-Anantha Krishnan M, Bangalore

Nice blog, Gautham. There is another very interesting International Bestseller 'Now, Discover Your Strengths' by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O Clifton.
-Abha M. Banerjee, Mumbai

Useful book. Contains good information.
-Madhusudan, Bangalore

Good one Gautham.
-Lakki