The Metiss Group's Blog

“Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?” — Benjamin Franklin

Whether it’s the strengths based books from Marcus Buckingham and Tom Rath, your high school sports coach, or your grandmother’s cagy advise, we’ve all heard the maxim “use your strengths for success.”  Many leaders go as far as to assess their direct reports to determine their strengths and encourage them to capitalize on their unique abilities.  But what happens when those strengths are taken to an extreme?

An excess of anything can result in undesirable consequences.  Leaders need to be aware how this might impact their team.  One of the more common workplace challenges is the domineering associate recognized for delivering results and overcoming obstacles who, when taking their strength to the extreme, alienates those around them.  Another is the deep thinking, reflective associate successful for their profound problem solving abilities who, when getting too wrapped up in collecting and crunching data, fails to meet deadlines.

Empower your direct reports to identify, leverage, and capitalize on their talents.  Praise them when they succeed in this approach; but be prepared to offer course corrections if the behavior becomes too extreme.

This entry was posted on April 2, 2011 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Leadership, Performance Acceleration. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.