Learning Project #2: Have we Learned to LEAD?
Read, Learn, Live. One book down, one to go —within this project!
Book One; Go Put Your Strengths to Work
In his book, Marcus Buckingham asked us to lead the way in the strengths revolution by putting our own strengths to work. We had to start with ourselves.
Leadership came into play, because we’d set a great example for others to follow, but also because we had to put our own strengths to work by getting others involved at work, and with the work that we do. Even if you are a solo entrepreneur, you need others to help you make your business successful; it is highly doubtful that you will do everything it takes yourself, because it is highly doubtful that you will have all the strengths that business will require.
Before we move on to our second book, I must ask you, did you learn to LEAD?
Marcus Buckingham set out his goal for us pretty clearly, but to take full ownership of his charge and make it ours, we have to set our own goals, reaching for that best possible outcome in a highly personal way. After all, if you’ve stuck with us this far, you just gave more than 6 weeks to the effort! What did you intend this to mean for you?
I’ve always thought that leadership required certain things from us;
First, the desire to lead. I had a boss who was fond of saying that “desire is nine tenths of anything you set your mind to doing” and over the years I’ve come to realize how right he was, and still is. If in this project with us, he’d be asking, “just how bad to you want this?”
Second, an impatience with following, and recognition you need a following. Leadership requires you to put your self-belief and confidence on stage, while holding hands with the humility that gets you your own followers. You need to cultivate followship, but honestly, you have no intention of returning to their ranks —and they need you not to.
Third, a future-focused idea. The idea can be about a wealth of different things, but to compel us to leadership it has to somehow create a picture of the future that is magnetically exciting, pulling us ever toward reaching it. Within this project we adopted the idea of the strengths revolution, with the intention of learning more about it first. The goal I ask you about, is your self-directed intention to lead, but in what way?
Fourth, visionary clarity, and the ability to articulate it. It’s one thing for the person with an idea to go for it, but for your collaborators and followers to ‘get it’ and go the distance with you, you have to be a champion who can explain vision, mission, and values, and explain them enticingly well. You have to be a catalyst, and a pretty charismatic one.
Fifth, great management. Up on that stage with you and your humility is a great manager who will own the action steps everything takes, crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s. This is where the habit-creation of Step 6 comes into play in MB’s book; great management keeps great processes —and the people within them— alive and thriving.
Therefore, at this point of our project, these five thoughts on leadership are offered to you as a self-reckoning. I’ll ask the question of this post title in a slightly different way: Leadership is about the leader, and in this case, it’s about you. Have you learned to lead with your strengths?
If your answer is “no, not quite yet” that’s okay, you still have some time! Our next book is coming up, and it was chosen to give us more help, looking through another window at the same project.
Book Two; StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath
This book makes quite a power-packed promise. From the book’s jacket:
In StrengthsFinder 2.0, Gallup unveils the new and improved version of its popular assessment, language of 34 themes, and much more: [5 different features are listed, including 50 Ideas for Action, i.e. 10 strategies for building on each of your Top 5 themes.] While you can read the book in one sitting, you’ll use it as a reference for decades. Loaded with hundreds of strategies for applying your strengths, this new book and accompanying website will change the way you look at yourself —and the world around you— forever.
I have the book, but I have not yet opened the accompanying packet with my access code for their website, and will be doing so with you, in this, Part 2 of our JJL Learning Project. It is true we can read most of the book in one sitting, so here is our upcoming calendar:
Week 1: This week, through next Saturday, June 16. Reflect on those five distinctions of leadership I’ve offered you and finish Go Put Your Strengths to Work as you need to, with the self-directed reflection necessary. Make it count for you.
Week 2: Ending June 23. Get your own copy of StrengthsFinder 2.0. Read and annotate the first 31 pages. Page 31 will instruct you to log on to www.strengthsfinder.com and take your assessment. Thereafter,
Week 3: Ending June 30. We’ll look at the second part of the book, where we work on applying our strengths.
The manager in me suspects we could easily stretch this out into another 5 weeks, one for each of our Top 5 themes. We shall see!
Our Project Mantra: Read, Learn, Live
The project may seem long, but frankly, what better could we learn, and create great habits for, than about our own strengths and how to apply them?
— Benjamin Franklin
My last posting for this project was this one (about Step 6— Build Strong Habits), and you'll find the previous of the Project Navigation here.
David Zinger has wrapped up his Go put Your Strengths to Work series for us with these two postings:
- One Final Note from the Trombone... - Get your free eBook!
Rosa:
I am looking forward to our work with StrengthsFinder 2.0.
I think the new website and all the applications is a real bonus.
I would like to suggest that we comment or really try to weave our strengths into what we write or how we write it. I believe we must go beyond listing our strengths to living our strengths.
Maybe we could have a week where people post their 5 strengths but go the extra distance and rate how well they did on each strength for one week. With a bad pun disposition we could go for a Weekness of Strengths!
David Zinger
Posted by: David Zinger | June 09, 2007 at 06:09 PM
A Weekness of Strengths ... I like that David!
I am looking forward to this too. I am a big fan of the Gallup organization, and wish they had the same kind of rock star appeal and marketing savvy that Marcus Buckingham has been able to take advantage of. I recently received some exciting news, that they may be bringing their Great Manager program to Hawaii in October, so I'm starting to save every penny I can!
The comment conversation you speak of would be stellar, magnifying the learning for all of us. What do the rest of you say, JJL community?
Posted by: Rosa Say | June 09, 2007 at 06:30 PM