Build strengths while neutralizing weaknesses. We do have some instruments that help you find your strengths that are well-tested, but when we have groups of people working together, we’ll put their strengths on the table, and you can kind of see where they’re coming from, how they perform a task. So you try to get a strengths quotient, not only on the individual but also the group. Then you have performance reviews when people set goals and so forth. We’ll show people their strengths and how they can use it to help us here at Marian and how we’re going to support them.
You manage weaknesses by making sure they don’t ruin your strengths. And look for technology and other team members, assigning other people to support that. At least manage the weaknesses so they don’t trip up your strengths. You can do that in a lot of various ways. First and foremost, if a person has weaknesses, don’t give a job where their weaknesses are going to be a constant burden for them. Make sure it’s manageable in a certain situation.
Set the cultural tone. You have to know people and you have to like them. If you’re going to be in a leadership position, it’s a requirement that you have to stand in awe of a person’s goodness and giftedness and what they can achieve.
Being an educator is a great training ground to be a leader. When you teach and you’re part of an organization that teaches and learns, you see how people develop, and you can do amazing things. They can grow so much if you encourage and affirm and get to know them, spend time with them and listen to them. You can do it informally, by getting to know people, spend time with people and listening to people. But you get much better at this when you put it into your philosophy on personnel management and hiring. If you put it front and center in the beginning, talk about it in seminars, develop your capacity to understand strength management in the organization, it becomes a way of life.
It’s also quite interesting that as you work to make it systematically part of your operation, people are less likely to just get angry with someone because they don’t do something. They’re less likely to become frustrated with their bosses. Most performance reviews spend about 90 percent of the time talking about what you’re not good at. But you’re much better off working from someone’s strengths and building them up, and manage those things where they’re not naturally inclined. So you really have to make it a part of your approach to personnel management and selection.
How to reach: Marian University, (317) 955-6000 or www.marian.edu