StrengthAcceleration

Everybody and their dog can spot weaknesses. It's not rocket science to identify problems. More difficult is the ability to identify strengths. Harder still is the craft of building a fire under those strengths.

The wisest leaders I know are skillful at identifying the strengths in those around them. Beyond that identification, those leaders also find ways to bolster, leverage, and accelerate those strengths. Here are some of the practices they deploy in Strength Acceleration:

• They purposefully identify, acknowledge, highlight, and prioritize strengths (as opposed to doing so with weaknesses). They seem masters at paying attention. 
• They view strength development as a process, not an event. As verb rather than noun.
• They engage team members with probing questions that cause reflection about those strengths. 
• They freely praise those who have used their strengths to advance the goals of the team.
• They offer support and collaboration toward the development of those strengths.  

Focusing on the "good" rather than the "bad" seems to be the SOP of these wise leaders. 

We can start today...

OfficeAllergy

The wisest leaders I have observed somehow manage to be in their office minimally. Instead, they continually move about the various work spaces of the organization. It's almost as if they're allergic to the office.

There is method to that madness, it seems. Some of the benefits of "the boss" going on relentless walkabouts instead of being caged up in the office is that they...

• Interface with a LOT of their internal customers (and even some of the external ones).
• LEARN a great deal about processes, procedures, workflow, customer service, etc.
• Ask questions of the troops, giving all of them "voice," and listen carefully to the answers.
• Model what authentic engagement looks like.
• Acknowledge and praise good work, in person.
• Get a firsthand view of the bottlenecks and pain points. 

Those that hole up in their offices often learn that they become prisoners of their offices.

OwnershipAmbiguity

Finger pointing, dodging, evasion, blaming... All are behaviors that happen -- A LOT -- on teams for which taking "ownership" is problematic. 

Some of the best teams I've observed (led by the wisest leaders I've observed) put into place some consistent practices/habits to make the "ownership" problem less of a problem:

• Leadership provides crystal clear clarity around who's responsible for what. 
• Monitoring conversations (not scorecards) among and between team members, both vertically and horizontally, happens as part of the daily routines.
• Team member are allowed much autonomy in the processes they use to achieve the outcomes they own.
• The team codifies shared goals, with some kind of metrics applied, so there is some reasonable way by which progress (or its lack) can be assessed.

Sounds easy, but it's certainly not. Otherwise, every team would be doing it.

RichVsWealthy

Being rich is grounded in materialism. Having money, having expensive stuff, and extravagantly displaying both seems both goal and evidence of being rich. Having much, and showing it off. 

Juxtapose that existence with one of wealth. Wealth implies being blessed far beyond material things. In fact, a person can be wealthy with very little in the way of material possessions.

Wealth is grounded in assets more than resources. Those assets can include the tangible, yet more often than not, wealth is made up of the intangible: relationships, peace, accomplishment, contentment, servanthood, wisdom.

The pursuit of either richness or wealth is a conscious decision on our part. 

Wealth for me, please. 

BUY(ing)IN

We often refer to the gaining of support as BUY-IN. Too often that phrase is thought of in the past tense, as if it's already in the books, a done deal, a ship sailed.

Not so. The work of gaining and maintaining BUY-IN is an ongoing process, not an event.

Masters at the craft of garnering BUY-IN consistently engage in the following behaviors. They...

• Start always with the WHY, before getting into the weeds of the WHAT and HOW.
• Assume all voices matter, and should have opportunity to participate.
• Create an environment of equality, in which rank doesn't matter as consensus is sought.
• Value, invite, and highlight different perspectives. 
• Gather and engage both data and people.
• Understand that contexts are fluid/dynamic, thus structures/processes/decisions must be also. 
• Calendar "re-visitation" conversations for months/years to come. 

Sounds messy, huh? However, the messiness is nothing compared to trying to proceed without BUY-IN.

Distraction

We have limited time, limited energy, limited resources, limited bandwidth, and limited attention.

There are a bazillion things and many people (10s? 100s? 1000s?) that compete for our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention.

We get to decide what's important. Once we do, it's the important things that deserve our time, energy, resources, bandwidth, and attention. It's regarding the important stuff that we're trying to gain traction.

Everything else is.......DIS-traction.

TrustPropellant

Trust is a fragile and precious thing. Anything and everything we can do that engenders trust is a good thing. 

Some of the most trustworthy folks I know persistently engage in the following behaviors:

• They help others achieve and succeed as a matter of practice.
• They relentlessly seek from others information and expertise.
• They model integrity; their actions and words align perfectly.
• They heap praise on others, and deflect it from themselves.
• They are extremely generous with their time and resources. 
• They keep both their questions and explanations simple.
• They freely extend trust toward others.
• They exhibit remarkable kindness.
• They are transparent to a fault.

Plenty of areas we can polish up on, huh?