Coaching practices for How to Lead From Strengths

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How to Lead From Strengths, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I keep forcing myself to lead the way I think a leader is supposed to, even when it cuts against my grain, and I can’t actually name what I’m naturally good at
  • I’m at my best when I’m getting a room aligned and fired up
  • Where I come alive is in the human glue
  • I pour most of my effort into shoring up the things I’m bad at and it crawls
  • My mind is always running two years ahead

Practices that may help

  1. Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
    Strengths-based leadership, developed by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie building on Gallup’s decades of manager research, holds that the most effective leaders invest in their own strengths and build teams whose combined strengths cover all four leadership domains — executing, influencing, relationship building, and strategic thinking. Gallup’s correlational research consistently finds that strength-focused teams report higher engagement and performance, though the causal direction is not fully established.
  2. Identify your dominant leadership strengths — and lead from them
    Know which of the four leadership domains you naturally operate from and amplify it rather than trying to be equally strong in all four.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  3. Lead from the influencing domain — take charge, speak up, make sure others are heard
    People strong in influencing sell the team’s ideas inside and outside the organization.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  4. Lead from the relationship building domain — hold the team together
    People strong in relationship building are the glue that holds a team’s cohesion under pressure.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  5. Invest more development effort in your strengths than in your weaknesses
    Move from average to excellent in your strength areas rather than from poor to average in your weak ones.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  6. Lead from the strategic thinking domain — absorb and analyze information
    People strong in strategic thinking keep the team focused on what could be, not just what is.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  7. Build a team whose combined strengths cover all four domains
    Hire and assemble deliberately for domain coverage, not for people who think like you.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  8. Lead from the executing domain — deliver on goals consistently
    People strong in executing know how to take an idea and make it happen.
    Strengths-Based Leadership, Made Practical
  9. Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
    Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
    VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
  10. Set goals that build on your signature strengths
    Design goals that let your top strengths be the primary vehicle rather than your weak spots.
    VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice