Strengths and Leadership Development

We were once asked by a reporter about the “best” experiential exercises for leadership development.  Our response was, “It all depends on the debrief—and the application thereof.”  

There is no single best method or approach to leadership development.  If there were, performance improvement would be a simple process indeed.

Strengths coaching, an approach we’ve used frequently and to great benefit at ALG, has been the subject of some debate. Does it work? What about weaknesses? Are you saying we just ignore those? Is it just a fad? We would like to put this debate in context and provide insights based on our own practice of more than a decade in this area.

First, it is important when giving feedback to distinguish between performance and developmental feedback.  

Performance feedback is about the work that was, or was not, completed. If there are issues with performance on the job, these absolutely should be shared and addressed. This might include addressing “weaknesses” or concrete areas of underperformance.

Strengths coaching is developmental feedback. The idea is to enhance performance by encouraging people to (1) know themselves better, and (2) leverage the things they do well to be even more effective in their roles.

Strengths coaching is also helpful to understand what happens when you overuse a strength or apply it in an inappropriate context. Overuse or incorrect application of a strength is a  “weakness” in the strengths coaching framework and can be readily addressed by “dialing up” or using additional and different strengths. 

In the context of strengths coaching, we work with our clients to set goals, and then to think about how they can apply their strengths to achieve them. These goals may be general management or leadership goals, or they may be related to performance feedback, or both. 

It is in these coaching conversations where we’ve seen the real value.  In our experience, simply taking a test and knowing your strengths, or “talents,” has little benefit on either development or performance.  People say, “Yes, well, that looks like me, at least generally,” and that is the end of the exploration.

In a coaching context, strengths create a language and framework for refocusing efforts on approaches that are both motivating and reinforcing for the person being coached.  

An example: We worked with an organization where almost half of the senior leadership team had “responsibility” in their top five strengths. This helped these individuals be high performers as individual contributors, but also detracted from longer-term goals to grow and lead the company: They weren’t delegating enough and were headed toward burnout. Our coaching conversations focused on understanding that this could easily happen, then focusing on other strengths to support the goal of developing team capacity.

In short, it all depends on the debrief—and the application of the learning thereof. Strengths development is a powerful tool to help individuals and teams excel, but it is best experienced in a coaching context where specific goals can be discussed and used to develop or hone latent talents into a powerful forces for leadership growth.