Personal leadership: play to your strengths

To be an effective leader, it is important to play to your strengths. Research backs this perspective, indicating people who know and use their strengths are six times more likely to be engaged at work and be almost eight percent more productive in their role (Gallup Strengths Centre, 2017a). Marcus Buckingham, co-author of Now, Discover Your Strengths (Buckingham & Clifton, 2001) says, “when people spend the majority of each day on the job using their greatest talents and engaged in their favorite tasks, basically doing exactly what they want to do, both they and their organizations will win” (Buckingham, 2017, para. 2).

I used Clifton’s StrengthsFinder Assessment (2009) and Seligman’s Values in Action (VIA) Signature Strengths Test (2013) to define my personal strengths.  As a result, two strengths on which I have built my professional practice are strategic thinking and creativity. Embodying a strategic and creative mindset has influenced my personal leadership style and has helped me lead clients through digital learning projects. 

Strategic thinking and creativity

Strategic thinking is about making good decisions. It means analyzing information, identifying problems, looking at situations from multiple perspectives, not making assumptions, and using evidence to inform decisions (Seligman, 2013; Clifton, 2009).

Creativity is about coming up with new ideas and exploring different ways of doing things. From a personal perspective, it means, “You are never content with doing something the conventional way if a better way is possible” (VIA Institute of Character, 2018), while organizationally, it means “being able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena” (Gallup Strengths Centre, 2012b, Ideation).

I have seen real-life evidence in my professional life, both through my own practice and by observing others, that strategic thinking and creativity are two attributes of effective leadership. Academic literature grounds this evidence in theory.

Connecting leadership theories to personal strengths

Strategic and creative personal strengths can be underpinned by multiple theories of leadership, only two of which I will explore here: reflective leadership and adaptive leadership. Both reflective and adaptive leadership connect to strategic thinking through analytical, problem-solving, critical thinking, questioning, and decision-making skills. Similarly, reflective and adaptive leadership connect to creativity through the ability to be innovative and generate new ideas. 

Castelli (2015) speaks to the strategic and creative mindsets required of leaders, saying, “Internal characteristics such as critical thinking, long-term planning and finding innovative ways to solve problems with an equal focus on people and profit is the basis for reflective leadership” (p. 218).

In the context of adaptive leadership, Khan (2017) also speaks to the need for leaders to be strategic, saying “Adaptive leaders are adept in knowing what the problems are, defining them carefully, and finding appropriate solutions” (p. 179). However, Khan cautions that adaptive leadership is not always well-received within organizations. Resistance to change can hamper a leader’s willingness to be creative and propose innovative ideas that may help solve organizational issues.

Leadership through organizational change

After drawing a connection between strategic thinking, creativity, and leadership, I would describe my leadership approach as not only strategic and creative but also reflective and adaptive. Adaptive and reflective theories of leadership share some commonalities, one of which is the ability to help organizations manage change. My career in organizational change management is no coincidence. 

Starting my career in corporate communications, I was soon drawn to change management, which was characterized by a working environment that evolved daily in response to new and changing circumstances. I thrived on the challenge of analyzing problems and coming up with solutions, and I prided myself on ideas that were not only pragmatic but also new and innovative. (For example, I created a comic strip that gave employees a voice during a challenging enterprise-wise business transformation program; the comic strip enabled the organization to address employee concerns in a human, empathetic way.)

Having supported multiple enterprise-wide technology implementations and business improvement initiatives over the last ten years, I agree with both Castelli (2015) and Khan (2017) that now, more than ever, today’s leaders need to manage change effectively.

Leaders need to take a more thoughtful approach to decision making to achieve organizational goals, especially the pace of change in a global marketplace continues to accelerate and grow in complexity (Castelli, 2015). At the same time, leaders need to pay attention to the external environment, because factors outside their control are creating pressure on organizations to change (Khan, 2017).

While Castelli (2015) and Khan (2017) both advocate for managing change effectively, one author advocates for a highly introspective approach while the other advocates for a focus on the surrounding environment. I would argue managing change requires both an inward (reflective) and outward (adaptive) perspective. Only by balancing reflective and adaptive leadership approaches can leaders be effective in managing change.

Digital leadership and change

If strategic thinking and creativity are part of reflective and adaptive leadership, and if both theories of leadership are helpful in leading organizational change, how might strategic thinking and creativity help leaders manage ever-changing digital learning environments?

Sheninger (2014), says “Digital leadership is not about flashy tools, but a strategic mindset that leverages available resources to improve what we do, while anticipating the changes needed to cultivate a …culture focused on engagement and achievement” (p. 2). He continues, “Leaders must begin to establish a vision and strategic plan …dedicated to learning in a more digital world” (p. 4). To see how Sheninger’s statements might play out in real life, I turned to my own professional practice.

Many clients have asked for help managing change within their digital learning environment, and one example in particular comes to mind. Notoriously slow to adopt new technologies, a client is finally venturing into the world of e-learning. Unfortunately, the organization has no desire to create e-learning courses suitable for mobile devices. With the trend toward organizational Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs and Gartner (2016) confirming use of personal smartphones for business as a workplace standard, I believe my client is being short-sighted in their desktop-only approach to e-learning. 

After considering both my client’s long-term and short-term needs (reflective leadership) and being aware of external trends (adaptive leadership), I proposed an authoring tool with a fully responsive e-learning platform (a strategic, creative solution). My client accepted the proposal, so even though the organization is not ready for mobile learning just yet, it will be prepared for mobile learning in the future, without needing to rebuild all of its desktop e-learning courses from scratch.

This is the power of adaptive and reflective leadership, and the power of playing to your strengths.

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