The Illusions of Strength Based Leadership

As part of the service of this blog, I try to keep up to date on recent articles that might be of interest to our membership.  I am a regular follower of the internet version of the Deseret News and came across a thoughtful article during my morning read.  Dr. Timothy R. Clark wrote a piece that appeared Monday July 11, 2011, with the title: Michael Jordan and strength based leadership.

I don't know how many times I have said to my teenagers, "play to your strengths!"  It seems like a common sense thing to say, but as Dr Clark points out, it isn't a balanced way of trying to lead.  When we focus only on what we do well, we often begin to excuse ourselves from the responsibility to improve upon other things we do poorly.

How often have we had to read or listen to stories of public figures who were really good at their jobs, but failed in their responsibilities to spouse, employees or electorate?  When we have become successful, pride can become our constant companion, eventually fooling us into thinking that our strengths are so significant, our weaknesses don't matter anymore.

In his article, Dr Clark points out that really strong leadership isn't lopsided:

"If you have serious weaknesses that threaten to end your career as a leader and jeopardize the people and the organization you are leading, your priority is to attend to them immediately.  There are clear liabilities that could derail your effectiveness and your career.  They may be fatal flaws.  Jump on them.  On the other hand, if you have strengths that you can build on to increase your effectiveness and results as a leader, attend to these as well.  Take your game from good to great."