Leadership

Found this in an internal blog. Sharing it here. Credit to - Wayne Hays 


Extract:

Research conducted by Zenger & Folkman and published in their book "The Extraordinary Leader" revealed some interesting results. They found that leaders who were perceived as having at least one strength were rated significantly higher in their overall leadership effectiveness.  Leaders with no strengths but no clear weaknesses were rated lower than leaders with weaknesses but a few clear strengths.

Why were leaders with no weaknesses but no clear strengths perceived to be less effective?  The authors suggest they lack a redeeming quality, skill, or ability.  They may not be ineffective at anything, but they are also not terribly effective at anything.  A focus on building strengths will help improve overall effectiveness and as most of us have heard, individual development plans should include optimizing strengths.

That leads to the natural next question, "how do I develop an existing strength?"  Peterson & Hicks (Development First, Strategies for Self-Development) offer some suggestions.

• Seek experience in new, complex situations.  Force yourself to face challenges that push your limits.
• Spend time with experts.  Benchmark yourself against others you feel are experts in the area.  Watch what they do and continue to push your own performance.
• Cross-train.  Pursue learning in related areas and search for synergies, connections, and parallel ideas.
• Share the wealth by teaching others.  Others will benefit from your expertise and teaching requires that you deepen or stay sharp in your expertise.

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Needless to say, three of these points are things that KMers and KM tools attempt to enable! ;-)