Strengths-Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow

The book draws from over twenty thousand in–depth interviews that the polling company Gallup carried out over the last fifty years. Leaders in dozens of industries all over the world took part, including global leaders and heads of state.

The research team also interviewed over ten thousand followers, to find out why they look up to their leaders. The results Gallup found were surprising, to say the least, and you can discover what they were in this book.

In short, "Strengths Based Leadership" dispels the notion that you should hop on every new leadership fad that shows up every few months. You may already be a great leader. You just have to identify what your strengths are, and start using them in the most effective way.

The authors are both experts in the field of leadership.

Tom Rath is a global Gallup practice leader, and has written two international bestsellers that have sold more than a million copies. He currently heads Gallup's workplace research and consulting worldwide.

Barry Conchie is a renowned leadership consultant who works with chief executives worldwide to help align their business and talent strategies. He now heads Gallup's executive leadership consulting division.

Are you wondering if "Strengths Based Leadership" is for you? Well, if you're in a leadership position then you can't afford to miss this book. And even if you're not, you can still gain a lot from what "Strengths Based Leadership" has to offer. After all, aren't you interested to know what you're truly best at? And, don't you think you'd benefit from knowing your weaknesses?

Yep, that's what we thought.

So keep listening to find out why your earning power might go up once you identify your strengths, what skills you need to look for when putting together your next team, and what your followers really need from you.

Now before we dive into what this book covers, we need to point out something important. "Strengths Based Leadership" is not a book that's meant to be read cover to cover.

Why? Because although it has 216 pages in total, there are only 77 pages of actual 'book' here.

These 77 pages come first, and are divided into three sections. The first looks at how you can start investing in your strengths, and why it's so vital that you play to them.

The second section looks at why it's so important to maximize your team's strengths. The topic is largely explored through case studies from four influential leaders in very different industries. These case studies offer a fascinating insight into what makes these leaders so great.

The last section looks at why people follow leaders, and what followers are really looking for in the people at the helm. This last section is especially illuminating because so few leadership books examine things from this perspective.

After these first three sections, you're encouraged to take the StrengthsFinder 2.0 program. As well as being the name of one of author Rath's bestsellers, StrengthsFinder 2.0 is an online assessment tool that helps people discover what their true talents are. If you buy this book, you're given a unique access code that allows you to take the latest version of StrengthsFinder for free.

As you can imagine, this is a major perk to buying the book. The authors say that the StrengthsFinder program has helped millions of leaders around the globe identify their strengths. And the test is well worth the time it takes to complete it.

After you've finished the test, you get a profile of exactly what your true strengths are. There are 34 in total, and the later half of the book is a breakdown of each of these 34 themes.

Not only will these breakdowns help you work smarter, but reading through them will also help you identify the strengths of those on your team. And once you know their strengths, you can use the second half of this book to lead them better.

So, let's start at the beginning and take a look at why it's so important for leaders to invest in their strengths.

The authors start the first chapter with a quick look at two of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi. They may have had completely different leadership styles, but they were both able to change the world dramatically.

Do you think that Gandhi would have been as effective if he'd tried to lead like Churchill? And conversely, would Churchill have been as great if he'd tried to lead like Gandhi?

Of course, the answer's no. All leaders have their own style, and their own strengths. Finding what style suits them should be everyone's main goal when they step into a leadership position.

The authors give us an insightful graph in this chapter that shows how many of us actually get to use our strengths at work. This information is extracted from the Gallup research you heard about earlier. In the United States, only 37 percent of those interviewed said they got to use their strengths on a daily basis. And that number was even lower for those in the U.K., which came in at only 17 percent.

Another interesting statistic the authors found was that once people are aware of their strengths, their self–confidence, health, and earning power all improve. From that we can deduce that the earlier in life you can identify your strengths, the better off you're likely to be. Statistically, you're going to have more confidence, earn more, and be healthier than your counterparts who just drift through their careers.

This first chapter is enjoyable for the information it contains, but some readers might find it a little bit short on content. It comes in at a mere 10 pages, and once you've read it, you feel like you've just started scratching the surface of why you should invest in your strengths.

Yes, these authors clearly lay out their case here, but the chapter is over very quickly. You might be left with questions that may not be answered until you've taken the StrengthsFinder 2.0 test, and started to apply your strengths to daily life.

The next chapter, on maximizing your team, is a bit meatier, and offers a fascinating look at team dynamics.

As you may already know, most teams are put together based on skill level or job function. For instance, the best salesperson is chosen to manage the new sales training team. The smartest person in accounting gets chosen as the chief financial officer.

While this strategy is the most common, it's a long shot from being the most effective. For instance, the new CFO might be a great accountant, but he's lousy at communicating and building relationships. How's he going to lead and inspire others when he can't talk effectively to those on his team? How's he going to plan for the future when he doesn't have much vision?

The point here is that he won't be an effective leader. His strengths lie in accuracy and numbers, and not in building relationships or having vision.

Another mistake that happens during team recruitment is when leaders don't choose people for their own particular strengths. Instead, they pick team members who mirror themselves. This can often result in groupthink, and this can hamper the growth and progress of the group and the project.

So, what are we supposed to look for in our team members? How do we know who to pick? Well, the authors don't leave us with any questions in this chapter.

In the thousands of interviews Gallup researchers have done through the years, they've found that the most successful teams are those that possess a broad grouping of strengths. There are four that are most prominent. These are: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking.

The researchers discovered that while it's not necessary, or even desirable, for any one member to excel at all four of these strengths, the best teams have at least one person who is good at each one.

So, let's take a quick look at each of these strengths, to see what they're about.

The first skill is Executing, and it's found in people who know how to get the ball rolling. They're the ones who get everyone on board with a project, and then work tirelessly to make sure it gets done.

The Influencing strength is found in those people who know how to 'sell' an idea to others, either within or outside an organization. Influencers can get people excited about a concept, and will work to make sure the group's voice is heard.

The Relationship Building strength is found in people who can reach across the aisle and get everyone working as a whole. They're the glue of the team, and can sometimes be the most vital.

The Strategic Thinking strength is found in those who are always thinking about the future. Strategic thinkers analyze information, and help the team make better decisions.

Now, remember those 34 strengths you heard about a few minutes ago? Well, during their research the authors found that these four prominent strengths make up four pillars that naturally encompass the other 30 strengths.

Here's what they mean. If you're naturally good at relationship building, you're probably also going to be empathetic towards other people. You might be a positive person who's adaptable, is good at creating harmony, and is skilled at involving others.

These are just a few strengths that naturally fall under the main theme of Relationship Building.

The authors finish off this chapter with four fascinating case studies. They look at four leaders, each of whom embodies one of the four major strengths you just heard about.

By taking time to analyze these case studies, we can clearly see how each leader used his or her main strengths to become the success they are today. The authors helpfully point out which strength each leader used at critical junctures, and why it was so effective at the time.

One of the book's most interesting portions is the last section, which analyzes why people follow. Very few leadership books ever take the time to look at leadership from this perspective, but once you've read this section, you immediately realize how important it is to know what inspires followership.

The authors asked thousands of followers what they look for in their leaders. And the answers were quite surprising. Out of the 170,000 words in the English language, the same four kept coming up again and again when people identified what they wanted in their leaders.

And what were the four most common traits? Trust. Compassion. Stability. And hope. In this last chapter, the authors do a good job of breaking down those four strengths, and revealing why they're so important to people.

But be warned: If you want to learn how to instill hope and stability in your team, you won't find out how to do it here. The authors have left the 'how to's' for other leadership resources to tackle. So, if you need to learn how to get your team to start trusting you, head over to Mind Tools for a primer on how to get started.

Strengths Based Leadership doesn't set out to give you tools you can take and implement at the office tomorrow. Instead, it's an introduction to why it's so vital for leaders to identify what they're best at. When they know their strengths – and those of their team – they can develop their own strategies for leading that use everyone's skills to the full.

Although "Strengths Based Leadership" is a bit unorthodox in the way it's set up, it's still very much worth your time. The first 77 pages go by extremely quickly, and taking the online StrengthsFinder 2.0 test gives you a fascinating look at some qualities within yourself that you might not have even known you had.

The book is also valuable because it breaks down each strength in the second half, and includes a section on how to lead others with those same strengths. You get detailed strategies on what you can do and say to help people perform better, and this is bound to be useful for anyone in a leadership role.

Even if you don't go online and take the StrengthsFinder test yourself, this second section is worth its weight in gold.

All in all, "Strengths Based Leadership" is a short, punchy book that gets quickly to the point, and takes us to the finish line in record time. And, with the added value of getting to take StrengthsFinder 2.0 for free, this is one book you don't want to miss.

"Strengths Based Leadership," by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, is published by Gallup Press.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.