Page 170 - The extraordinary leader

Great Leaders Possess Multiple Strengths • 147

areas where I felt she was weak and together we developed strategies for her to
improve. After a year of seeing very little improvement, I felt I had no choice but
to sit her down and tell her that she needed to seek a position elsewhere as she was
just not making it on my team. I went as far as to consult with human resources to
try to get her placed outside my group.
Unrelated and purely by coincidence, someone told me about your book The
Extraordinary Leader. I bought the book and read it cover to cover. I was intrigued
by the idea of focusing on a person’s strengths as a way to become a more effective
leader. While my intent in reading the book was self-development, I could not
help but wonder what effect it might have if I went beyond focusing on my own
strengths and focused on the strengths of this subordinate manager. I began
looking for the things that she did well and began to acknowledge her for those
behaviors and assign her projects that utilized those skills. Within a few months I
noticed an incredible turnaround in her performance. Not only did she help the
team by taking on the projects that played to her strengths, it created a “halo
effect” and I began to see improvement in some of the areas that I had previously
identified as being “weak.”
Previously I had coached her several times about not communicating with me
about issues she was working on—by focusing and assigning her projects that
aligned with her strength, which was her ability to gain consensus on difficult
issues, she began to send me unsolicited e-mails weekly recapping her activities
that week. I also noticed by focusing on her strengths I began to change my view
of her and began to see other strengths that had previously gone unnoticed.
Thank you for educating me about this very powerful tool. It goes beyond
positive reinforcement. It caused a shift in my management style, which has
allowed me to better utilize the skills on my team, and as a result, the entire team
is now more productive.