Focus on Strengths—What Extraordinary Leaders Do Differently

FOCUS ON STRENGTHSWhat Extraordinary Leaders

Do Differently Jack Zenger, CEO

Zenger Folkman

• Peter Drucker in the 1960s.

• Martin Seligman launches the positive psychology movement—Learned Optimism, published 1990.

• Gallup: Buckingham and Clifton—Now, Discover Your Strengths, 2001– Strength combines talent, skill, and knowledge.– Talent is fixed by age 15.– Book focused on individual contributors more than leaders.– A strength is consistent, near perfect performance.

Evolution of Thinking on Strengths

• Talents are natural gifts that can’t be learned.

• Talents are your strongest synaptic connections in the brain.

• Developing a strength requires natural talent.– They say: “Confronting others is a talent, while

selling is a skill.”

• Success comes from using your talents more of the time, every day.

• What the organization needs from the individual is not addressed.

Buckingham & Clifton

• Zenger Folkman—2002, The Extraordinary Leader– Focus was on leaders.– Emphasized the importance of

developing strengths.– Introduced the importance of

considering the organization’s need in addition to the individual’s passion and competence.

– Advocated 360-degree feedback as best measure of strengths.

• How To Be Exceptional, published 2011, describes how strengths are developed.

Zenger Folkman

Marcus Buckingham

• Left Gallup—2011, Stand Out• New definition of strength.

• Being good at something doesn’t make it a strength.

• Most important test:– Something that makes you stronger

• You eagerly anticipate doing it • You lose track of time• You feel stronger afterward

– Opposed to 360-degree feedback, arguing that you are the best judge of your strengths.

Buckingham (cont.)

• No longer uses “Strengthfinder” as way of identifying strengths.

• Pays no attention to what the organization needs from its employees.

• Has done much to popularize the strengths movement.

• We think 360-degree feedback is best measure of strength.

• As people move up in organizations, their answers indicate that they have less opportunity to do the things they enjoy.

• We think the organization’s needs must be given strong consideration. One can’t expect that the world will give you a job that exactly matches your passion.

© 2016 Zenger Folkman

From These Differing Points of View, Make a Choice


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One of More Fatal Flaws—No Profound Strengths

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Fatal flaws have a profound negative impact on a leader’s effectiveness and the engagement of direct reports. Our advice to leaders with fatal flaws: fix them!

Impact of Fatal Flaws


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No Fatal Flaws with the Majority of Competencies Be-low Average


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Leaders focusing on weaknesses would work to develop their lowest scoring competencies.

Below Average Effectiveness


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No Fatal Flaws with the Majority of Competencies Above Average


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With a weakness focus, leaders try to maintain consistent effectiveness across all their competencies which positively impacts overall leadership effectiveness.

Above Average Effectiveness


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No Fatal Flaws and One Profound Strength


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Leaders with just one profound strength achieve approximately the same level of leadership effectiveness. However, it’s apparent they have some weaknesses.

Impact of One Profound Strength


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No Fatal Flaws and Three Profound Strengths


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Leaders with three profound strengths are in the top 20% of leaders, in terms of their effectiveness.

Impact of Three Profound Strength

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Average Per-centile Ranking

on 360 Results


Number of Profound Strengths(Competencies at the 90th percentile)

Results based on assessments of 65,745 leaders

Three Strengths Raises Leadership Effectiveness to the 80th Percentile

You do not have to be perfect to be an extraordinary leader!

Impact of Strengths for Male versus Female

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Average Percentile Ranking on 360 Results


One strength gives a bigger boost to females

Results based on assessments of 16,902 Males and 8,981 Female Leaders

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Younger Leaders Get Slightly More Impact from Strengths

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Strengths Have a Significant Impact Across the World

Fatal Flaws - No

Strengths

Below Average

Above Average -

No Strengths

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The More Profound Strengths Leaders Have, the Higher the Employee Engagement


Discovering Strengths Building Strengths

Discovering Strengths and Building Strengths

• Something you are passionate about, you enjoy doing, that energizes you?


What is a Strength?

This is your PassionBUT

Are your passions your strengths?


CO

MPE

TEN

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PASSION

HIGH

HIGHLOW

LOW

Passion is about

what energizes

you

And passion generally

correlates to competence

But not always!

The people around us may hold a

different view

Passion and Competence—Some Things to Consider


Something others would assess you as being exceptional

What is a Strength?

People Can Move From Good to Great

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Can Leaders Develop Strengths?

Ave

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treng

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In a study of leaders who participated in a pre-post test study, 57% show a positive improvement in their overall effectiveness. Looking at the number of strengths in the pre-test, we found on average leaders had 1.56. In the post-test number more than doubled to 4.29.


?How to Build a Strength in Self-Improvement?

Research That Can Help You Develop a Strengths-building Plan

• What did people who were very effective at improving themselves do?

• Our research on thousands of leaders shows the answer in the data.


Research Methodology

14,466

Found specific behaviors used by people who developed themselves.

183,463


Honesty And

Integrity

RespectsOthers

Willing to takeRisks -

ChallengeStatus Quo

Take Initiative

Foster Innovation

Listen

Open to theIdeas of Others

EffectiveFeedback &

Development

Self-Development

Cross-training Companion Behaviors

Take Risks. I also realize that I am too comfortable in my current role and tend to avoid risks. I need to challenge myself to develop. I identified 3 new skills I am going to work on next year.

Listening. I realize that most of the time I am defensive and I rarely listen to others. I asked all of my direct reports, my spouse and children to rate my listening effectiveness weakly.

Development Plan

1

2


The Theory of Companion Competencies

• Linear development helps leaders move from poor performance to good performance.

• Linear development methods “run out of gas” when leaders are attempting to build strengths.

• Multiple datasets from thousands of leaders showed that certain “companion competencies” were consistently correlated with high performance on another competency (e.g., assertiveness was correlated with high integrity and honesty).

• Our theory was that improving the companion competency would result in improvement of the competency that was in need of development.

Do we have solid evidence that improving “companion” competencies causes improvement in the competency being developed?

• Looked at a dataset of 882 leaders who had participated in The Extraordinary Leader assessment and had both pre- and post- test data.

• 157 of the leaders made a significant improvement in the competency “Inspires and Motivates Others.”

• We examined the data from these individuals to see if there was a linkage between the improvement of a competency and the improvement of the companion behaviors.


Research Identified 10 Companion Behaviors for Inspires and Motivates Others

Inspires and

Motivates Others


Looking at Pre- versus Post-test Differences on Individual Behaviors• The change in effectiveness for the 157

leaders who significantly improved their ability to Inspire and Motivate Others, went from the 33rd to the 73rd percentile!

• Each of the remaining 46 behaviors in the survey were compared between pre- and post-test results.


22 of the top 25 behaviors showing the largest significant differences, connected to 9 of the companion behaviors in the model

Companion Competency Item Pre-test Post-test t-value Sig.

Stretch Goals

Ni115 15. Creates an atmosphere of continual improvement in which self and others push to exceed the expected results. 29.6 60.5 -16.7 0

CollaborationNi137 37. Promotes a high level of cooperation between all members of the work group. 30.7 60.1 -16.3 0Ni108 8. Is trusted by others to use good judgment when making decisions. 33.4 56.9 -15.6 0

Stretch Goals

Ni120 20. Is skillful at getting people to stretch for goals that go beyond what they originally thought possible. 29.7 58.2 -15.3 0

Develops OthersNi135 35. Is truly concerned about developing others. 30.2 58.3 -15.2 0

CommunicatesNi127 27. Helps people understand how their work contributes to broader business objectives. 30.7 59.7 -15.0 0

Role ModelNi101 1. Is a role model and sets a good example for his or her work group. 32.2 56.8 -15.0 0

Develops Ni136 36. Gives honest feedback in a helpful way. 30.9 58.6 -14.7 0Collaboration Ni138 38. Resolves conflict within the work group. 30.9 60.6 -14.6 0

Role ModelNi102 2. Works hard to walk the talk and avoids saying one thing and doing another. 32.6 57.1 -14.5 0

Develops OthersNi134 34. Provides coaching and acts as a mentor to others. 29.4 56.3 -14.4 0

CommunicatesNi125 25. Provides others with a definite sense of direction and purpose. 30.9 56.5 -14.2 0

Make the Emotional Conn

Ni133 33. Stays in touch with issues and concerns of individuals in the work group. 31.9 59.3 -14.0 0

CommunicatesNi126 26. Skilled at communicating insights and understanding of issues or problems. 32.2 57.1 -13.9 0

Strategic Ni141 41. Maintains a clear perspective between the overall picture and the details. 33.8 59.9 -13.7 0Ni106 6. Teammates trust his or her ideas and opinions because of in-depth knowledge and experience. 33.8 57.0 -13.6 0

Collaboration

Ni139 39. Achieves objectives requiring a high level of cooperation from people in other parts of the organization. 32.7 58.8 -13.5 0

Innovation

Ni110 10. Frequently encourages others to consider new approaches and ideas (e.g., avoids getting stuck in a one right way approach). 31.5 56.6 -13.4 0


Ni132 32. Is trusted by all members of the work group. 33.4 58.0 -13.4 0

Takes InitiativeNi122 22. Can always be counted on to follow through on commitments. 34.6 56.4 -13.4 0

Innovation

Ni112 12. Constructively challenges the standard approaches and finds improved processes to get work done. 31.4 58.5 -13.3 0

InnovationNi111 11. Finds ways to improve new ideas rather than discourage them. 31.3 58.0 -13.3 0


Ni131 31. Balances getting results with a concern for others needs. 33.1 58.9 -13.2 0

Stretch GoalsNi119 19. Establishes high standards of excellence for the work group. 32.3 55.2 -13.1 0Ni104 4. Many people seek after his or her opinions. 34.1 56.9 -13.1 0

Top 25 Behaviors

Inspires and

Motivates Others

ChampionsChange

It is apparent that most of the shift in effectiveness could be attributed to a shift on the companion competencies and their supporting behaviors.


Pre- and Post-test Results

Inspires and Motivates Others

Clear Vision and Direction

Being Collaborative and a Team Player

Communicates Powerfully and Prolifically

Establishes Stretch Goals

Fosters Innovation

Champions Change

Develops Others

Takes Initiative

Making an Emotional Connection

Role Model

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Pre- & Post-test Changes on Companion CompetenciesPost-Test Pre-Test


Does A Cause B? Does B Cause A? Do Both Impact Each Other?

• While this study does provide additional evidence for the usefulness of the approach, cause and effect continue to be difficult to prove.

• We know that this process works. – We know that leaders can improve. – Poor leaders can become good leaders and good leaders can

become great leaders.

• Companion behaviors provide a variety of different paths to improvement and individual leaders can choose the path that fits them best.

• Our competitors provide only a linear path to improvement. They get leaders to good. However, we have the ONLY technology to help people get to great.

Benefits of Strength-based Development

• Clients love the change (typical comments):– “Our past leadership development felt a bit like a witch hunt. Participants felt that

all we were interested in was identifying their weakest skills and forcing them to improve.”

– “The attitude and atmosphere when getting 360 feedback changed overnight from doom and gloom to optimism and excitement.”

– “Now people want to change and improve; before they just wanted to avoid begin assessed.”

• Our studies show more people are making greater improvements.

• Those with fatal flaws are even making significant efforts to improve. – In a study of 80 leaders, 15 had fatal flaws. Of these, 11 made significant

improvements and moved from the 20th to the 50th percentile in 18 months.



If You Are a High Potential Executive…

and you have no profound strengths, the probability that you will be asked to create an action plan for immediate improvement…

82%


In Performance Reviews…

if you have no profound strengths, the probability that you will be given a rating of “Meets Expectations,” in other words “your average”…

64%

What is the Difference in Sales for Store Managers in Mexico with Profound Strengths?

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Difference in Employee Engagement for Leaders Across the Globe with Profound Strengths


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What % of Employees Who “Think About Quitting” had Leaders with Profound Strengths?


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What % of Employees are Willing to Give 100% Effort for Leaders with Profound Strengths?


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[email protected] or visit us at: www.zengerfolkman.com

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http://www.zengerfolkman.com/

Leadership & Management

Focus on Strengths—What Extraordinary Leaders Do Differently