The Case for Strengths-Based Leadership

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC,FAAN

You will have many opportunities to lead during your own lifetime. As you will learn, the path to great leadership starts with a deep understanding of the strengths you bring to the table.” Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

This week, I am attending the Gallup Strengths Summit along with 1500 other coaches from around the world. As a Gallup certified strengths coach, I am impressed with how Gallup has grounded their work on strengths in research and carefully studied outcomes. The Gallup organization coordinated a research project in 2008 that surveyed more than one million work teams, conducted more than 20,000 in-depth interviews with leaders, and spoke with more than 10,000 “followers” around the world asking people why they followed the important leaders in their life. Results of their research launched a new perspective on the question, “What makes for good leadership?” What they found was somewhat surprising – that good leaders focus on their strengths and use them to their advantage. The most effective leaders invest both in their own strengths and those of their staff. They find the best people to work with and then maximize the ability of team members. They realize that they don’t need to be “well rounded in their strengths” but their teams do and this is what they should seek.

Why Knowing Your Strengths Can Help You to Be a Better Nurse Leader

In analyzing how leaders can use these findings, Beth Weinstock suggests that recognizing the importance of strengths can quiet the inner critic of leaders who often feel that they need to be good at everything. While it is important to work on your areas of weakness, knowledge about strengths can help leaders to build a team with individuals who have complementary gifts and talents. It can also help explain why some work contexts feel satisfying and others don’t. Fit, in the work place, is important. Leaders feel well-placed and gratified when the demands of the job fit with their best talents.

How to Identify Your Strengths

You may already have a good sense of what your leadership strengths are based on feedback that you have received. In their national bestseller book on Strengths-Based Leadership, Rath and Conchie provide the reader with a unique access code to take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. If you don’t want to purchase the book, you can take the assessment on the Gallup Site. The 188 question instrument takes 30-45 minutes to complete and assesses 34 different theme areas but most people only choose to have their top five assessed. You will receive a report on your top five talent theme areas. You will receive an individualized insight report to help you learn more about how to take these talents and turn them into leadership strengths. Based on your individualized results, you will have also an opportunity to assess how strong you are in the 4 identified leadership domain areas (executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking). You may want to take things a step further and hire a coach to help you do this more effectively.

Strengths-Based leadership can be very empowering. It is consistent with the values in both transformational leadership and authentic nursing leadership. It is about unleashing your personal best and valuing what everyone brings to the work environment. Self-knowledge is the key to great leadership and a building block of a healthy work environment.

Read to Lead

Gottleib, L, Gottleib, B. & Shamian, J. (2012). Principles of Strengths-Based Nursing Leadership for Strengths-Based Nursing Care: A New Paradigm for Nursing and Healthcare for the 21st Century. Nursing Leadership. Vol. 25 No. 2

Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths Based Leadership. New York: Gallup Publishing.