Leading from a place of strength

I really don’t care for personality tests, unless it is telling me what kind of doughnut I am most like.

I just do not feel a test encapsulates in full who I am, or anyone is. Plus, I feel like the results change depending on my sleep cycle and how well work is going.

That said, to be successful at anything, it is true that it helps when you know yourself. To know what you bring to the table. To know what it is that you dream. To know what excites you and where you struggle.

I took a test called “Strength Finder” and felt like it gave me some words to describe myself that I didn’t have before.

It also came with a short book with leadership principles and I would like to share some of the things that stood out to me. We all lead in some capacity as we influence the world around us. May we do so responsibly and to the best of our ability.

• Agency over imitation.

  This is an easy trap to fall into. For me, it is easy to look at other pastors and see what they are doing to be successful and mimic the things that they are doing. There is no ill intent. It simply comes from the desire to see the good fruit over in that place to also grow here in this place. But fruit that grows in the South is different than the fruit in the North. God did not make us to be someone else, but has given us gifts to produce good things in the places we are. We need to be ourselves if we are going to do good things.

• Leaders are not well rounded, but teams are.

  You cannot do everything, but a team can accomplish most anything. I think the biblical picture of our gifts being a part of a body is the most excellent picture we have about how we function in the world. If I am a finger, I should focus on being really good at being a finger and connecting myself to a body that performs the tasks I am not good at.

• Knowing your strengths and being confident.

  When you know your strengths and lead from your giftings, the people on your team benefit. Teams that focus on their strengths find that they are engaged at work at a rate of 73%, compared to just 9% of team members feeling engaged in places where working from strengths are not in focus. Living out of your strengths also builds confidence, which is linked to higher income, higher job satisfaction, and better long term health outcomes.

• Why people follow.

  My favorite section of the book was the last one. After huge studies compiled by Gallup, they found that the people on your team, the people you have influence with, are looking for four things: trust, compassion, stability, and hope. I could speak at length for any of these, but trust sticks out the most. We live in an age where trust in institutions is at an all time low. So how can we build trust with a people who are more skeptical than ever? Authenticity. Know who you are, become happy with who you are, and live out loud. Don’t work to convince someone to trust you, just be someone worth trusting.

Source: Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath.

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