LEADERSHIP: BEWARE OF YOUR STRENGTHS

Published: 2010-03-22   please add a comment below

Twenty years ago, I was shocked to hear that some of the reasons my wife had originally been attracted to me were now driving us apart. My decisiveness and energy were leaving no decision-room for her. It's often the same in business. Our natural attributes, which are powerful and value-adding, can go to extreme and undermine effectiveness. If I asked your colleagues, which two of your strengths would they say are most causing them trouble? Here's a checklist that might help.

• Vision: do you easily see the road ahead and how your business should be positioned and differentiated? However, are you so engaged in possibilities that you fail to anchor things back in terms of defined goals, plans and action lists? Do people feel you're inspiring but also ungrounded and even confusing?
• Energy: are you confident and take charge easily? Does this leave enough room for others? Does your enthusiasm ever run to hyperactivity, which burns others out? Is there lots of movement but not enough focus on tangible outcomes?
• Culture: is it in your nature to want people working in harmony and enjoyment? But, is this underpinned with sufficient accountability? And, how much room is there for dissenting views? Do people feel you're more concerned with happiness and political correctness than with concrete outcomes?
• Task: are you a high performer, who people turn to for advice, particularly on the tough problems? That's flattering but do you develop others and encourage them to become thought leaders too? Or, does your perfectionism leave no room? Do you put quality ahead of profits; or promote perfect solutions above practicality?
• Organisation: do you engage people easily and enjoy close relationships? No doubt this builds teamwork. But, is it balanced with clear performance metrics? Does everyone know what they have to deliver; and, the price of failure?
• Renewal: do you enjoy watching how markets change and picking the next big thing? But, do you spend too much time scanning the horizon and too little getting the products out? Do your people feel you're always changing things - chasing every ripple rather finding and catching the really big wave?

Having chosen the two areas where colleagues would say you're most at risk of turning a strength into a weakness, write down what you're going to do to change this - and avoid undermining your leadership effectiveness.

Try our Leadership Tool Kit now: to solve a leadership problem

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Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership^®

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