Development Perspective from Fiona MacNeill
I have been working in a strengths-based way even before I knew what that meant in a theoretical context. I’ve always believed that change was possible and that we all have an opportunity to be our best self. I was once accused of being ‘too motivated’ and ‘too optimistic’, I found these comments difficult to understand because I see challenges and problems just like everyone else. However, what became clear was it wasn’t about what was going wrong it was the choice about how to deal with whatever cropped up, and that, is the crux of a growth mindset and a strengths-based approach.
The mindset has served me well and I have had the privilege of using the Gallup Strengths Finder with 1000’s of people across organisations, sectors, and communities. It’s not the completion of the assessment that is the important part, it’s the individual and team conversations that emerge as a result that really make the change.
This toolbox will support that real time implementation of the thinking and practice. If at any point throughout our time together I can be of help or assistance around the work, pleased don’t hesitate to contact me on [email protected].
Introduction To This Toolbox
This toolbox has been designed to support leaders within the LAA Case Management function, irrespective of grade or role. This toolbox provides a series of resources, ideas, and challenges about how to engage more effectively with your own strengths and the strengths of others.
Leaders are functioning in unprecedented times, politically, economically, and environmentally. Macro and micro leadership environments are all directly and indirectly impacted by the wider bigger system. Leaders in a public sector system are often challenged to implement, change, and develop thinking that may not chime with personal values and a sense of purpose.
Margaret Wheatley poses some powerful questions in her recent book ‘Who do I choose to be?’, in this book, she reminds us that we have control over self and impact and that we need to consider and enact the type of leadership that can bring light and opportunity in a system that is often driven by ego and a focus on what’s not working.
Strengths-based thinking and practices are one of the lenses through which to view the system, which provides a forward impetus of what is possible. This is an antidote to learned helplessness, lack of autonomy and deficit-based conversations. None of this means avoiding looking to improve, change, learn and develop. It merely means that the change conversation begins from a place of strength, not from a place of weakness.
The processes and practices that are introduced in this toolbox invite you as a leader to bring people together in mutual respect as thinking equals, have meaningful conversations that are not just about tasks and targets, inquire into the strengths and hopes of others and listen deeply to how they believe that can work in a way more aligned to their strengths.
The things that matter most to people are not always obvious. The well-known iceberg model below illustrates this from a ‘discovering strengths’ perspective. We can see that what really matters is often hidden, and so we end up responding just to what is visible and accessible above and beyond the surface. Using the Clifton Strengths Finder to surface our own strengths and the strengths of others enables us to be our best selves as a leader and to work more effectively with other leaders from across the system.
Strategic Perspective from Alistair Adan
The Senior Leadership Team have spent the last 9 months developing their understanding of leading from a Strengths base. Of course, the underlying idea of this has always been part of our way of leading and is evidenced in our People Survey results and how we use checking in conversations as part of our process. The work that we are focussing on now is taking a much more considered look at strengths, how we can build on our individual strengths and use the strengths of our team more intentionally.
This toolbox is designed as a reference point for those of us who have already completed the initial work around strengths and as a guide for those of you joining the leadership development programme in the coming months.
Each of us who is in a line manager position will be supporting their teams to discover their strengths. This is done through the completion of an online survey designed and managed by Gallup. 31million people worldwide have completed the assessment and discovered their top 5 strengths.
This in turn will allow each of the teams within our directorate to see the pattern of their team strengths profile and that in turn encourages ownership and growth. This is not a way of ignoring development needs or issues, but it invites us to approach these conversations from a strengths-based perspective.
We will be having conversations, inviting you to short workshops and using strengths as a way of completing development plans for individuals and the team.
Throughout our journey we will be supported by Fiona MacNeill and her team. I look forward to discovering more about you all as strengths-based leadership develops across our function, as we undertake this work together.
Click the video below to listen to Alistair sharing his experiences and hopes for Strengths Based Leadership.
Listen to Andy from Fiona’s team talking about strengths.
We suggest you work though the toolbox in a specific order the first time; The Theory, The Accumulator, The Practice and The Tools/Frameworks. Thereafter the toolbox becomes a resource.