Defining Your Strengths as a Leader

4 MIN READ

This article is the 1st in a series on "Breaking Knowledge Barriers".

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This article is the 1st in a series on "Defining Your Strengths as a Leader"

​I have read my fair share of what some might term “self-help” books. I like to think of them as “self-awaken” books. The “help” part in “self-help” alludes to something being broken that needs fixing. What I appreciate about the books I’ve read since I was little, as well as today, is that self-awaken books point to the strengths, potential, and inner wisdom deep inside of us, already alive and ready, yet often untapped and tucked away hidden from sight. This wisdom manifests as skills and intuition, and I’m keen on developing my ability to tap this wisdom. Self-evaluation is critical for me as a leader, as a manager of teams and projects, and as a woman of color.

The Center for Creative Leadership reminds us in their report 7 Emerging Trends for Transformative Leaders that some managers may struggle with interpersonal relationships, affecting their ability to build and lead teams or adapt to change, which can lead to career derailment. To avoid this, “organizations must design programs that develop [managers’] self-awareness, political savviness, communication skills, and ability to influence others...skills that are essential to effectively heading a team.” 

In addition to reading self-awaken books (see my Bookcase for recommendations!) I’ve taken many different personal, career, and intelligence tests and assessments. Examples of assessments that executives and leaders should take are:

• The Clifton StrengthsFinder
• Emotional intelligence assessments
• DiSC
• ​Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

As a professional, whether you are an employee of a company or an entrepreneur, understanding your strengths and skill sets is key to building the confidence, resourcefulness, and grit to adapt to any situation. As human beings who have way more going on than just our jobs, you can bet that your personal, educational, emotional, societal, cultural, economical, and religious identities are often at play when you negotiate professional situations.

​Most of us do not know how these identities manifest themselves in our decisions, risk tolerance, and self-reliance. Most of us have comrades and loved ones we can turn to for advice and feedback, but our hearing is often screening and interpreting with the bias of that relationship and all of its power dynamics. So why take a personality assessment? Because we often don’t know the questions to ask. And even if we did, would we really answer honestly, free of unconscious bias, shame, guilt, regret, or fear?

Define Your Strengths as a Leader Activity
Take out a pad of post-its, ideally in two different colors (e.g. green and yellow). Find a blank wall or space where you can lay out two sets of post-its and set aside a total of one hour.
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1. Consider your Strengths and select one color of post-its, for example yellow. Take 5 minutes to write one strength on each yellow post-it, for example: detail-oriented, no ego, organized, I enjoy working people and they enjoy working with me.
2. Consider your Challenges and use the other color of post-its, for example green. Take 5 minutes to write one challenge on each green post-it, for example: perfectionism, over-thinking, always looking at the clock, second-guessing myself, judgmental.
3. After the 10 minutes of writing, take a 30-minute break like go for a walk or watch a show or listen to several songs of your favorite music.
4. Then come back to your two lists, review them, and give yourself 10 minutes to reflect and write down ONE goal for the next 7 days on either a Strength that you would like to deepen or a Challenge that you want to work on.

We know from the Council of National Psychological Associations for the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Interests “Test bias is a primary issue of selecting and using testing and assessment instruments with racial/ethnic minority groups. Past research has shown that tests can produce misleading results with culturally different groups in terms of slope and intercept (or unfairness) bias.” Thus, if you are a person of color, you will need an assessment that will address and consider this intersection of your identity, as well as many others, if you are to feel good about doing anything at all with the results.
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I’d like to give you a review of a few assessments because, 1) I have taken them in more than one sitting or format, and 2) I have heard from and worked with others who have taken one or a combination of assessments as part of developing themselves professionally at work. I have written a separate blog post for each assessment in this "Defining Your Strengths as a Leader" series. Click here to go to Assessment #1 on DiSC.

Related articles

• Article 1: Defining Your Strengths as a Leader Series
• Article 2: Defining Your Strengths as a Leader Series: #1 Defining Your Strengths with DiSC
• Article 3: Defining Your Strengths as a Leader Series: #2 Defining Your Emotional Intelligence Strengths
• Article 4: Defining Your Strengths as a Leader Series: #3 Ranking Your Strengths with Gallup StrengthsFinder (stay tuned!)
• Article 5: Defining Your Strengths as a Leader Series: #2 Defining Your Personality Style with Myers-Briggs (stay tuned!)

About Author: Meredith "Mer" Curry

Mer has always had a passion for education and helping historically underrepresented groups achieve access and success to higher opportunities. She has consulted nonprofits, educational institutions, and businesses in addition to her volunteerism and mentorship of students.
Learn more about Mer at www.meredithcurry.com.