Last week, we began a series that discusses five leadership behavior areas, from an article on the McKinsey and Company website. Those areas are:

  • Your Strengths: It’s important to identify the strengths and skills you love using so that you can lead authentically.
  • Pausing: Consider regularly checking in with yourself and asking something like, “Is what I’m about to do or say in alignment with my leadership goal?”
  • Building Trust: When people can trust that you’ll own up to mistakes, ask for support when needed, share in successes, and follow through on your commitments, you’ll find that they’re more engaged and productive.
  • Being Curious: Be consistent about having conversations where you’re curious about how people are doing.
  • Your Wellbeing: Learning how to take care of yourself is critical so you can live with energy, success, and satisfaction, and model the same for your team.

Today, we’re focusing on
your strengths as a leader.
When you’re at your best,
what are you doing?
How are you interacting with others?

We know that when teams, leaders, and organizations focus on strengths, they’re more productive and successful. They experience the power of WE, which is that the whole of the team is stronger than any one individual.

As coaches and consultants for over 25 years, we’ve seen and used many different types of assessments and frameworks to support people in identifying and showing up as their authentic selves.

Below you’ll find a list of some of our top assessment suggestions. Take a look and consider if one of these might be helpful for you or your team:

  • Everything DiSC® and The Five Behaviors™
    • Everything DiSC® is an assessment-based learning experience that deepens self-awareness, inspires appreciation of others, and fosters effective collaboration in the workplace.
    • The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team® helps individuals understand how their DiSC® style brings value to the team and how they can each drive team effectiveness and productivity, together.
  • Clifton Strengthsfinder 2.0 and Strengths Based Leadership
    • StrengthsFinder 2.0 maps out your top natural strengths and provides strategies for applying them regularly in everyday life.
    • Strengths Based Leadership maps out your natural strengths and strategies but also provides you with specific strategies for leading with your top five strengths and enables you to plot the strengths of your team based on the four domains of leadership strength revealed in the book.
  • Brené Brown’s The Gifts of Imperfection can help you to identify and navigate old stories and behaviors that are holding you back from showing up authentically and fully.
  • Susan Cain’s Quiet takes a look at introverts and extroverts and the spectrum in between, to help you as an individual, leader, parent, or teacher.

We know you’re busy, so if you’d like to do a quick check in on your skills and strengths, consider downloading an abbreviated version of our own skill assessment exercise here.

If you’d like to learn more about any of these options or are interested in what coaching could look like, please reach out to us at: contact@carpentersmith.com.

We look forward to supporting you in your leadership!

Stay tuned for next week’s post when we’ll discuss the importance of The Pause, in being a successful leader.

We’d love to know what leadership looks like for you!

If you’d like support
leading at your best
contact us today.