Rita Williams-Bogar, CPCU,

MBA, AINS, AU, ARM, ChFC © 2014 Personal Development Solutions, LLC

• Identify your top three personal leadership strengths

• Assess the strengths of team/staff members

• Create an action plan to strategically engage others to achieve

optimal outcomes

Objectives

"The effective executive makes strengths productive. To achieve results

one has to use all the available strengths—the strengths of

associates, the strength of the superior, and one's own strengths.

These strengths are the true opportunities. To make strength

productive is the unique purpose of the organization. It cannot

overcome the weaknesses with which each of us is endowed, but it

can make them irrelevant." Peter Drucker 50 years ago.

Qtd. in Zenger and Folkman (2013)

Strengths and Weaknesses

• Change in thinking from “fixing” what’s wrong about us.

• Suspend the belief that we can be anything we want to be.

• Instead of working on what we “can’t” do, let’s focus on what we do best.

A Different Perspective

When Evaluating Your Strengths, Consider…

• Knowledge

• Skills

• Talent

Evaluate strengths from the perspective of leadership competencies.

Individual Activity

• Influencing others to meet deadlines and quality requirements

• Communicating your intentions and expectations effectively

• Increasing shared and individual accountability

• Managing projects and project teams

• Problem solving and decision making

• Completing and conducting performance appraisals

Some Leadership Competencies

• Coaching and training

• Motivating employees

• Building teams

• Providing positive and constructive feedback

• Being assertive

• Resolving conflict

• Facilitating meetings

Some Leadership Competencies

• Managing stress

• Managing difficult people

• Goal setting and managing your time effectively

• Effectively delegating

• Managing multiple priorities

• Managing up

• Other

Some Leadership Competencies

• Communicating a vision

• Systems thinking

• Challenge the status quo

• Demonstrating sound judgment

• Innovative

• Other

Some Leadership Competencies

• What’s your top strength?

• How can you use your strengths in your roles?

• How can we leverage each other’s strengths to build a supportive

community?

Table Discussion

Groups report out of answers

1. Top strengths

2. Use in roles

3. Leveraging to build community

Large Group Debrief

From Individual to

Team Focus

What are some strengths of your workgroup?

Discussion

• What are the top strengths of our team members?

• How do we interact?

• What motivates my team members?

• How do we demonstrate and maintain trust?

• Do we celebrate success?

Questions to Ask About Your Team

• How do I, as the leader, encourage my team to use their strengths?

• What assignment or project may I provide to build on their strengths?

• Am I creating an environment or culture that supports members’

strengths?

• How clearly do I demonstrate my commitment to their success?

Questions to Ask About Your Actions as the

Leader of Your Team

Developing a Strategy

You need to know where you’re going; lay out a map for the

trip in order to get where you want to be.

Action Plan

• What is your overarching priority for your development or of your

workgroup?

• Can you articulate it in a sentence or two?

• Identify the resources you have available.

• When rallying support, be sure to answer the WII-FM for your

stakeholders.

Crystallize Your Plan

Best-practices exchange—in table groups

What’s working well in your area of responsibility?

How do you know you are successful in working from the perspective of

strengths rather than weaknesses?

Table Discussion—Measuring Success

Table groups report out discussion results.

Debrief

What will you

Start

Stop

Change

Continue

As a Result of This Seminar:

Commit to a series of steps:

Identify the date on which you will implement the first item.

From your resources identified earlier, select one who may hold you

accountable.

Set a follow-up for 30 days from that date.

What progress have you made?

What changes have you noticed as a result of your plan?

What has worked well? Why?

What did not work? Why?

Revise your plan if needed, then use the same questions to review the

adjustments.

Implementing these Changes

Questions?

• Buckingham, M. and Clifton, D. O. (2001) Now, Discover Your

Strengths. The Free Press. NY.

• LinkedIn Strengths Finders Group—

www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1269617&goback=.anp_1269617_13

76880641533_1.

• Neff, T. J. & Citrin, J. M. (2005) You’re in Charge – Now What?

Crown Publishing, NY.

• Rath, T. (2007) “Strengths Finder 2.0.”

• Rath, T. and Conchie, B. (2008) Strengths-Based Leadership.

• Zenger, J. and Folkman, J. (2013) “Three Myths About Your

Strengths.” http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/07/three-myths-about-your-

strengths/.

Resources

Rita Williams-Bogar, CPCU, MBA, AINS, AU, ARM, ChFC,

is president and CEO of Personal Development Solutions, LLC, which she founded

after a highly successful corporate career in the insurance industry. Her firm has

just celebrated its 10th anniversary of providing consultative services to the industry

in the areas of leadership development, ethics, diversity and insurance technical

education.

linkedin.com/in/ritawilliamsbogar

@PersDevSolu

(201) 404-7960

About Your Presenter

Continuing your

Development as Leaders

1:00 – 2 PM

Competencies for Leaders and Managers

Monday, September 29 Module 1 - Essential Competencies

Monday, October 20 Module 2 - Making the Transition from Individual Contributor to Manager

Monday, November 3 Module 3 - The Power of Language – Communicating with Authority…and Respect

Monday, November 17 Module 4 - Leadership Styles – Part I

Monday, December 8 Module 5 - Leadership Styles – Part 2

Leadership Development Webinar Series