Page 169 - The extraordinary leader

146 • The Extraordinary Leader

L. A. Festinger wrote a book called The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. 4
In the book, he describes the idea that people have a different set of beliefs or
knowledge elements to which they hold. A belief might be as simple a thought
as “I like ice cream,” or “My manager is a terrible leader.” Dissonance is
created when there is psychological conflict between different beliefs (i.e.,
“My manager is a terrible leader” and “My manager is very good at solving
complex and difficult problems”). Through hundreds of experiments,
Festinger and other researchers have demonstrated that when dissonance
occurs, people will do whatever is necessary to reduce the dissonance. When
leaders improve their abilities on a few competencies, this can create dissonance
in the minds of others. People ask themselves, “How can this leader be so effec-
tive on some things but less effective on others?” The tendency is for others to
close the gap on the dissonance, and typically this involves a positive halo
effect for leaders who develop extraordinary strengths.
The implication of the halo effect is that when strengths are pushed to
higher levels, the halo effect tends to push up competencies that are not as
positive. This creates a fairly level profile. For those who worry that they need
to improve on their weaknesses because that is what their manager will focus
on in performance discussions, the halo effect can help them. Rather than
trying to incrementally improve a few less positive issues, focusing efforts on
substantial improvement in a few key strengths will create a positive halo
effect in the way a person’s manager perceives him. A few less positive issues
fail to show up because of the presence of a few profound strengths. Most
managers focus on less positive issues when they fail to see any real strengths
that draw their attention. The extraordinary strengths are the keys to guaran-
teeing promotions, bonuses, stock options, and high performance appraisals
for two reasons. First, those strengths help to produce tangible results. Second,
they create a powerful “halo” that settles in around the person.

Focusing on Strengths Transforms a

Leader’s View of Subordinates
A client from a telecommunications company shared the following story with
us. It illustrates the power of focusing on strengths as a way to change basic
boss-subordinate dynamics. This person was an assistant vice president in the
compliance arena of the organization. She wrote:

A manager on my team had been struggling with her performance. I had initiated
several coaching sessions with her. The focus of the sessions previously were the