The Business Benefits of Positive Leadership

In my company, management excessively focusses on weaknesses, even though they touted the strengths finder book a few years ago. However, that has been replaced by the Distinguish for High Performance system. This approach treats people like machines and scrutinizes every possible thing. The strengths approach has been left behind to our detriment.

It seems so simple to use positive reinforcement and recognition to motivate a work force. It's the standard way to teach a dog, a child, even an employee. I found myself wondering how these managers with low project performance were able to attain a management position to begin with - and to retain the position once their performance and their employees' performances were gauged. I found my answer by looking up - the opposite direction to which these managers look to resolve low performance issues within their departments.

I'd be interested to hear how organizations are balancing the strengths-based philosophy with that of managing for results. Though I'll confess I've not yet read the book, each of the articles and papers that I've read uses project management as the business case, and cites how the "good" manager assigns projects according to the employee's strengths. While I'd love to have such an option (as an employee or as a supervisor) for many, if not most of us, we don't have this flexibility. Employees in a certain role have certain duties, responsibilities and accountability for results. I'm teaching/coaching that effective performance management is not just about documenting the gaps, but documenting results, affirming strengths that led to those results and jointly determining how to sustain or further improve going forward. Unfortunately, for many of us, the required results simply don't play to our stengths, yet we have to find a way to successfully fulfill our roles (or find a job/role that's more closely aligned with our strengths.)

When it comes to projects there is an apprehension to giving praise too early before the project is finalised and the results are approved. It is therefore critical that the leader is confident about his abilities and the organizational culture is conducive to open and positive acknowledgement of ongoing achievements. Leadership that understands and embraces a strength approach is more important as ever.