Are You an “Exceptional Leader”?

Are You an

 “Exceptional Leader”?

Exceptional leaders are absolutely essential to an organization’s success, but what makes leaders exceptional? Leaders in this category have three to five identifiable, outstanding leadership strengths. Unfortunately, a “fatal flaw” – a negative behavior that impedes a leader’s effectiveness – can undermine even good managers. Therefore, before undertaking self-improvement, leaders must eliminate flaws that can have a devastating impact on the perception of their overall effectiveness.

The steps to fixing a fatal flaw are hard but effective: acknowledge and understand the flaw, set up a “measurable” program for change, say you are sorry to anyone you’ve harmed and ask forgiveness, request assistance, and give yourself an award when you succeed. After addressing fatal flaws, focus on your biggest strengths and work hard to improve them. Even if you have no single, particular area of excellence, you can become

a more effective leader if you build one profound strength. People who lack leadership strengths but who work to become great in one area generally move from around the bottom third to near the top third in leadership excellence.

Strengths over Weaknesses

Until recently, common wisdom dictated that leadership development programs should concentrate on eliminating weaknesses instead of trying to improve strengths. However, focusing on weaknesses does not make people great leaders; it just brings them up to a baseline, a starting point. All organizations have just-OK leaders. These run-of-the-mill executives do everything all right, but they don’t do anything really well. Commonplace leaders make commonplace teams; ordinary leaders produce ordinary organizations.

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Leadership development’s focus on strengths instead of weaknesses began with management expert Peter Drucker, who first wrote in 1967 that leaders should focus on what they do best and improve in their high-competency areas. He was the first to champion “strengths-based” leadership development. Just as being positive about your work is more effective than being negative, people are more forcefully motivated when they focus on boosting their strengths instead of dredging up their faults. Research shows that people who attend to their strengths rather than their weaknesses are more successful at conquering the challenge of changing themselves for the better.

Next we will look into What Exceptional Leaders Do for Their Organizations!!

 

From the book: How to Be Exceptional

Drive Leadership Success By Magnifying Your Strengths

by John H. Zenger, Joseph R. Folkman, Robert H. Sherwin Jr. and Barbara A.

Steel