Archives For Strengths

How to Discover Your Passion

February 27, 2012 — 3 Comments

I’ve spent a good deal of time helping people discover how God wired them and how they could use their unique design to make a difference in the world. It’s no secret that to find your “place of service,” you must understand your gifts, abilities, skills, personality, and passions. And there are loads of assessments to help you clarify who God made you to be such as Strengthsfinder, Myers-Briggs, and Assessme.

All of these are important, but I’ve found that “passion” is the hardest one for people to pinpoint. Without passion, you’ll find yourself on cruise control. You’ll go through the motions with little emotion to keep you engaged. You can have an exceptionally honed set of skills, but without passion, your skills will yawn with boredom. You’ll scratch your head and wonder, “Is this all there is?”

One step that will help you discover your passions is to answer three questions. These questions provide a practical framework to help you explore your passions.

1. Which needs, problems, or issues do you feel challenged to serve? These are often cause-oriented passions that bring great levels of satisfaction because you feel like you’re truly making a difference with the world’s biggest needs. Some of these causes might include relational issues (marriage, parenting, abuse), emotional issues (insecurities, anger, emotional health), social issues (sanctity of life, poverty, homelessness, hunger, justice), political issues (policy, law), educational issues (tutoring, mentoring, at-risk children), financial issues (stewardship, financial counseling), or health issues (disease, disabilities, fitness, nutrition, disorders, addictions). This list could be endless, but you get the point.

2. Which people do you feel moved to help? Passions are sometimes tied to the people we will serve more than what we will actually do. You might be moved to help a specific age group (children, youth, adults, seniors), gender (male or female), culture (a certain nationality or people group), or a very specific audience who you connect with best. The best strategy is to identify the audience you feel drawn to serve and then determine how your unique skills can best help that particular audience.

3. Which activities do you deeply enjoy? Finally, some passions are tied to the activities we enjoy doing the most. These activities my be:

  • Heart Activities – These are activities that rely on empathy, relationship-building, encouraging, connecting, and hospitality.
  • Head Activities – These activities often involve dreaming, researching, creating, strategizing, and organizing.
  • Hand Activities – These activities involve things like helping, serving, building, performing, and constructing.

If you’re struggling to figure out your passions, ask yourself these three questions. Reflect on your past experience and really hunt for those times when you felt alive and full of energy. Then combine your God-given abilities with your newly discovered passion to make your mark on the world.

Question: What else have you found helpful in discovering passions?  

 

In Personal Growth Life Purpose, Passions, Personal Growth, Strengths
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How to be the Most Creative & Innovative

August 30, 2011 — Leave a comment

When are you most creative and innovative? Your first gut reaction to that question might be to give a time of day (such as mornings when your mind is fresh). Or, you might answer the question by linking it to a place or location (like outdoors or in a highly creative environment). Or, you might even connect it to a group of friends or employees who carry a certain innovative DNA. All of these are well and good, but I believe creativity and innovation is found first and foremost in a particular sweet spot known as your “strengths.”

In his book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, Marcus Buckingham observes, “…each of us is at our most creative, our most innovative, and shows our best judgment precisely in our areas of greatest strength” (p. 9). So if you want to be the most creative and innovative, consider three keys:

Continue Reading…

In Organizations, Personal Growth Creativity, Ideas, Innovation, Strategy, Strengths
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Four Domains of Leadership Strength

May 23, 2011 — 1 Comment

The strengths movement made popular by Marcus Buckingham has influenced countless leaders and organizations. By taking the Strengthsfinder assessment, you can pinpoint your five greatest talent themes and discover how to leverage them for personal and organizational success. But one of the most helpful tools in the strengths movement is the book Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie.

In Strengths Based Leadership, the authors organize the 34 talent themes into four domains of leadership strength. Each domain describes how strengths can be leveraged in leadership for the effectiveness of the organization. The four domains include: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking.

  • EXECUTING - Leaders whose strengths are primarily in the executing domain are great at making things happen. The bottom line for these leaders is their ability to get things done.
  • INFLUENCING - Leaders with strengths in the influencing domain are able to help the team reach a broader audience by selling the teams ideas inside and outside the organization.
  • RELATIONSHIP BUILDING - Leaders with relationship building strengths are like the glue of the organization and have the ability to create groups that are greater than the sum of their parts.
  • STRATEGIC THINKING - Leaders whose strengths lie in strategic thinking have the ability to keep the team focused on the future, to stretch thinking, and to innovate new ideas.

Rath and Conchie observe, “A more detailed language may work best for individual development, but these broad domains offer a more practical lens for looking at the composition of a team.” I have found that statement to be very true. It has helped us see where our team is strong, how we should restructure based on strengths, and where future hires need strengths.

If you’ve discovered your top five strengths by taking the Strengthsfinder assessment online, the following list organizes the strengths in each of the four leadership domains:

Continue Reading…

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Execution, Influence, Leadership, Organizations, Relationships, Strategic Thinking, Strengths
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15 Insights From Catalyst Dallas

May 14, 2011 — Leave a comment

I’ve spent the last 3 days at the Catalyst Conference in Dallas. Catalyst is such a great event loaded with great leadership teaching, fantastic worship, inspiring stories from culture-shaping leaders, and hilarious creativity. This year’s theme was “Take Courage.” Here are a few of my favorite takeaways from the event:

1.   A single act of courage is often the tipping point for something extraordinary to happen - Pastor Andy Stanley shared this thought in the opening session and then described three faces of courage:

  • Courage to stay when it would be easier to go.
  • Courage to leave when it would be easier to stay.
  • Courage to ask for help, when it would be easier to pretend that everything is okay.

Stanley observed that you never know what hangs in the balance when God says to stay while others say to go or when God says to go when it would be easier to stay. He said the only thing we should fear is waking up one day and being outside of God’s will.

2.  Our response to fear is either to seek to be safer or seek to be braver - Gary Haugen from the International Justice Mission made this observation and then observed that we want to know with certainty the path to take, how much it will cost, and be assured that it will be successful. Haugen says, “You can experience your power safely or God’s power dangerously.”

3. Creative Idea + Organization & Execution + Community Forces + Leadership Capability = Making Ideas Happen - Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, shared this formula as a process to turn great ideas into reality.

4. We are living somebody else’s to do list. Don’t surrender to reactionary workflow - This was another great insight by Scott Belsky. He observed that most leaders live in reactionary mode and abandon the essential practice of finding quiet spaces to think and reflect. This practice helps us be proactive.

5.  You can’t equate the blessed life with the safe life. The purpose of life is not to arrive at death safely - Christine Caine, founder of the A21 Campaign, shared this principle as she championed the cause of justice.  Christine works relentless to see slaves freed.

6. Compassion is never compassion until you roll up your sleeves, cross the street, and show compassion - Another great insight from Christine Caine.

7.  Joseph’s power was not about being powerful. It was about saving lives - This quote from Donald Miller as he shared about the life of Joseph was a great reminder of the purpose of leadership, power, and influence.

8. If you’re not dead, you’re not done - These are Craig Groeschel’s words of encouragement to the older generation followed by a challenge to invest in young leaders by delegating responsibility, not just tasks.

9. You can’t speed up maturity…it takes time - Craig made this challenge to the younger generation, reminding them of the importance of maturity and faithfulness.

10. You overestimate what God wants to do in the short run and grossly underestimate what God wants to do in the long run - This was another challenge Craig Groeschel made to the younger generation.

11. If you want to be over, learn to be under with integrity - This was Groeschel’s challenge to the young generation. He also reminded the audience of Andy Stanley’s words to leaders serving under a senior leader: “Honor publicly results in influence privately.” By honoring your leader publicly, you’ll gain influence with them in one-on-one meetings.

12. Admit your failures - Although this sounds like an obvious lesson, Scott Harrison, CEO of Charity: Water, used it to powerfully illustrate the value of transparency in leadership. Scott gave an example of drilling for water and the effort failing. They posted the video to their donors and didn’t try to candy coat the failure (even though 95% of the time they are successful). This transparency has only deepened respect from donors for the organization.

13. Do you teach your people that sin is an external activity or a state of the heart? Do you train people to attack the root or the branches? - These were questions Pastor Matt Chandler posed followed by the challenge that, “Most people don’t deal violently with sin.”

14. Your fully exploited strengths are of far greater value to your organization than your marginally improved weaknesses - Pastor Andy Stanley shared these words in his closing session. Some of his ideas included:

  • The less you do, the more you accomplish
  • The less you do, the more you enable others to accomplish
  • Only do what only you can do
  • Great achievers are not well-rounded. They are men and women who play to their strengths and delegate their weaknesses. Don’t focus on being well-rounded; focus on developing a well-rounded organization.
  • Your weakness is somebody else’s opportunity
  • Stress is often related to WHAT you are doing not HOW MUCH you are doing. Your sweet spot gives you energy.

15.  Get in the habit of saying to your team, “I’ll let you decide that.” This is the greatest way to develop leaders - Andy Stanley noted that when the organization’s key leader makes all the decisions, they become the bottleneck to leadership development.

Those are my 15 insights gleaned from this year’s Catalyst Conference in Dallas.

Question: What insights could you add to the lessons above? If you attended Catalyst, what lessons would you add?

 

In Church, Culture, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth Church, Courage, Delegation, Execution, Failure, Leadership, Organizations, Personal Growth, Perspective, servant-leadership, Strengths
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The Bright Spot Question

April 7, 2011 — Leave a comment

It’s really easy for leaders to get so frustrated with what’s not working, so enamored with the new and exciting, and so enthralled with problems to be solved, that we forget something really huge…BRIGHT SPOTS. Bright spots are the areas of your organization that are working. And because they’re working, it’s easy to forget about them and get distracted by the squeaky wheel.

I’m not saying to ignore problems. Doing so can turn problems into crises. What I am saying is to pay attention to your bright spots. Bright spots are not only working right, they’re delivering great results. And there’s a reason they’re working so well. That reason is what you need to uncover. What lessons can be learned from your bright spots? And how can these lessons be leveraged to create more bright spots?

Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard, captures the philosophy of bright spots in a single question: “What’s working, and how can we do more of it?” Unfortunately, most leaders are fixed solely on a different question: “What’s broken, and how do we fix it?” The first question is solution focused and the second is problem focused. It’s not that one is right and the other is wrong. Both are necessary, but one is better.

So how do you know which question has the majority of your attention? The Heath brothers capture it best: “What is the ratio of the time I spend solving problems to the time I spend scaling successes?” Let that question bother you. It just might help you create more bright spots.

 

In Church, Leadership, Organizations Church, Leadership, Organizations, Problem-Solving, Strengths
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The Forgotten Ingredient in Playing to Your Strengths

November 19, 2010 — Leave a comment
If you’ve been in leadership circles for long, you’re familiar with the phrase, “Play to your strengths.” I believe it completely! It makes all the difference in the world when it comes to delivering sustainable results and cultivating long-term employee satisfaction. But there’s one point that is often misunderstood.

As I’ve talked with other leaders who believe deeply in maximizing their strengths, sometimes they overlook their weaknesses to their demise. And when you confront them on the issue, they quickly and unashamedly say, “But that’s not my strength.” I get it! And I’m glad they get it. But if that’s where your view of weaknesses ends, there’s something that you don’t get: Compensation.

No, I’m not talking about money. Nor am I talking about your benefits package or your desire for a pay raise. I’m talking about compensating for your weaknesses. I’m talking about more than being blissfully aware of your strengths-I’m talking about being responsible in what you do about your weaknesses.

I’ve come to realize quite clearly what I do well. I understand what puts wind in my sails. And I work as hard as I can to play to my strengths as often as I can. Gallups research indicates that less than 2 out 10 people get to play to their strengths most of the time at work. That’s a travesty. And honestly, I couldn’t imagine being one of the 8 out 10. But I also understand what I don’t do well. I know what deflates me and what weaknesses have the potential to derail me. But a weakness is okay as long as I compensate for it. Otherwise, my weakness will turn into a liability…for me and the organization. 

I know this: If I don’t find ways to compensate for my weaknesses, the day will come where  I’ll no longer get to play to my strengths. Why? Because I’ll be out of a job. Why? Because while employers love the idea of employees playing to their strengths, there’s one thing most employers love even more…knowing that the job is getting done. All of it! The moment your weakness becomes your organization’s weakness, you’ll be standing in the unemployment line. It’s not enough to acknowledge what your weaknesses are (although that’s where all of us must start). You also need a plan that helps you navigate your weaknesses. Anything less is irresponsible.

So if you don’t know what your strengths are, find them. And once you find them, play to them. And as you play to them, hone them. But in the process, don’t forget that tiny big issue-compensate for your weaknesses. Here’s how:

1. Identify a Partner: Who can you partner with (that has a different set of strengths) allowing both of you to spend more time playing to your strengths?

2. Make People Development Your Top Priority: Most employees spend more time doing the work than developing people. The best leaders are people developers. The more people you develop, the more work you’ll get done through others.

3. Delegate Without Dumping: Who can you delegate your weaknesses to (for whom they are a strength)? This might include fellow employees, interns, or volunteers. When you delegate a weakness to someone for whom it is also a weakness, you’re not delegating…you’re dumping. Delegating is a powerful reality–for you and the person you’re delegating to–so long as it is done right.

4. Outsource: Who can you hand weaknesses off to outside of the organization via outsourcing? Are there companies, organizations, services, or hungry college students looking for extra work?

5. Evaluate Alignment: Is your role aligned so much with your weaknesses that you need to move into a new role all together? This is a tough admission, but one that requires total honesty. It’s unrealistic to expect to spend significant amounts of time playing to your strengths if your current role doesn’t need your strengths. While easier said than done, you have to put together a plan to make a change in roles…even if it requires going back to school or putting together a long-term transition plan.

Question: What does your compensation plan look like? 
In Leadership, Personal Growth Delegation, leadership development, Strengths, Weaknesses
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Putting Your Spiritual Gifts to the Test

August 20, 2009 — 1 Comment

Have you ever wondered for sure whether or not you possess a certain spiritual gift? A good first step is to take a spiritual gifts assessment (www.assessme.org might be a good place to start). However, after you take an assessment, you might still question your personal gift mix. Here’s a simple process to test whether or not you have a particular spiritual gift:


1. You Enjoy It - The use of your spiritual gifts should bring a certain amount of personal fulfillment. I’m not suggesting your giftings feed your ego, but rather, that you are not drained by the use of your gifts. If you feel zero satisfaction or fulfillment when you use a gift, then it’s probably not your gift.

2. Others Grow or Benefit from It - The purpose of spiritual gifts is to serve others. Ephesians speaks of the importance of using gifts to build up the body of Christ and to serve others. If you do not notice a positive impact or benefit for others when you exercise a gift, perhaps it’s not really a gift. Giftedness should be accompanied with fruitfulness.

3. Leaders Confirm It - Typically when you serve in your God-given gifts, others will affirm them. Be willing to seek out leaders to provide honest feedback on the use of your gifts. You’re not seeking praise, you’re seeking perspective.

4. The Kingdom is Advanced by It - When you use your spiritual gifts, the Kingdom should move forward. By no means is the Kingdom of God hinged solely on the use of your spiritual gifts. However, the use of your gifts should contribute to the advancement of God’s Kingdom agenda, not your own.

5. God is Glorified by It - This is a motive test. Who is elevated most by the use of your gifts–God or yourself?

I’m not suggesting this to be the final word on your spiritual gifts. Sensitivity to God’s leading is essential. But when you are honest about the five tests above, you can often discern whether or not God has deposited certain spiritual gifts within you. Don’t be afraid to exercise what you believe to be your gifts against the backdrop of these five tests. Whatever the outcome, admit it and accept it–then take your next step. For some, the next step will be the continued use of the gift. For others, it will be an examination and testing of other spiritual gifts. We ALL are gifted–sometimes it just takes some testing to gain clarity about those gifts. One final word of caution–your spiritual gifts need to be developed. Nobody is perfect! You will not look like Billy Graham the first time you use a gift. Keep things in perspective, remain sensitive to the Lord’s leading, be honest about your observations and the observations of others, and maintain a learning posture.
In Personal Growth Gifts, Spiritual Gifts, Strengths
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7 Questions to Help You Clarify Your Strengths

August 19, 2009 — Leave a comment

To Lead from your strengths requires clear self-awareness. In other words, you must be aware of how God has uniquely wired you before you can most accurately pursue the roles He’s calling you to serve in. Here’s seven questions to help you take that step:

1. What are my natural abilities and skills? (Consider the Strengthsfinder assessment from www.strengthsfinder.com to help you clarify your strenghts.)

2. What are my spiritual gifts? (Check out the spiritual gifts assessment from www.assessme.org or from www.uniquelyyou.com.)

3. What is my personality type and Leadership Style? (The assessme.org tool can also help you identify your personality type and leadership style. You might also check into DISC or the Myers Briggs assessments).

4. What are the issues or interests that stir my heart? (Focus on the activities that truly interest you, the problems you would enjoy solving, or the needs you feel challenged to meet. This will give you insight into your passions–an important issue if you are going to play to your strengths long-term. You might also check out www.shapediscovery.com.)

5. What are the activities that make me feel alive when I participate in them? (This is another way to address personal passions.)

6. When a book, sermon, speech, event, or activity ignites an interest in me, what’s the subject matter? (This question can help you connect the dots between what you enjoy seeing, hearing, or doing and what God may be calling you to pursue).

7. What do my past successes and failures reveal about my areas of strength and passion? (Past experience can be a valuable resource for reflecting on potential future pursuits.)

Question: What’s your next step to increase your awareness of how God has gifted you?
In Personal Growth Gifts, Passions, Personal Growth, Strengths
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The Equation for a Strengths-Based Life

August 18, 2009 — Leave a comment

In his book, Strengthsfinder 2.0, Tom Rath observes that the best use of your time is to invest in your dominant talents by adding skills, knowledge, and practice to the mix. He then presents the following equation to multiply raw talent: TALENT X INVESTMENT = STRENGTH. Here’s how it works:


TALENT is a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving. The Strengthsfinder assessment (included with Rath’s book) helps you identify your top five talent themes. INVESTMENT is the time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base. Think of investment as your personal growth plan to maximize your God-given talent. When talent is multiplied by investment, it results in a STRENGTH–the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance.

This raises two important questions:

1. What are your primary talents?

2. Have you developed a personal growth plan to help you fully invest in the growth of your talents?


Your answers to these questions may very well predict your future performance. When you understand your talent but fail to make a growth investment, you end up with untapped talent. And when you make an investment in your growth but you are unclear about your talents, you end up with an unfocused life. But when you start with talent and multiply it by continued investment, you end up with the extraordinary compounding impact of a strengths-based life.
In Personal Growth Personal Growth, Strengths
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True & False Assumptions About Playing to Your Strengths

August 17, 2009 — Leave a comment

Playing to your strengths is much more than a neat idea. It impacts you and the organization you work with. Research by the Gallup organization of two million people has revealed that there are 34 primary talent themes. You can read about them in Strengthsfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath or Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham. Based on their research, Gallup has determined that most organizations are built on two flawed assumptions:


Flawed Assumption #1: Each Person Can Learn to be Competent in Almost Anything

Flawed Assumption #2: Each Person’s Greatest Room for Growth is in his or her Areas of Greatest Weakness

This reality is much more than a personal issue. How you ask? Globally, only 20% of employees working in large organizations surveyed by the Gallup organization feel that their strengths are in play every day. Furthermore, most organizations operate at only 20% capacity. In other words, when you fail to play to your strengths, the organization you serve with takes a hit. Not only are you unfulfilled, but the company you work with is only reaching a fraction of its potential. Imagine what would happen if your entire team was fully engaged in their work by playing to their strengths the majority of the time. Employee morale would sharply increase, customer satisfaction would no doubt go up, and the mission of the organization would aggressively move forward. For this to happen, managers need to embrace what Gallup has identified as the two assumptions that guide the world’s best managers:

Assumption #1: Each Person’s Talents are Enduring and Unique.

Assumption #2: Each Person’s Room for Growth is in the Areas of His or Her Greatest Strength.

While it would be easy to lead based on the early assumptions, the truth is that playing to your strengths will deliver the greatest results. The question is, do you understand your strengths? And the follow-up question is, what are you doing to grow your strengths to their fullest potential?
In Personal Growth Assumptions, Personal Growth, Strengths
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