Research has shown that only about one-third of people are aware of their strengths and the management guru, Peter Drucker said that we can only lead from strengths.

A common approach in management and  leadership development has been to measure the gap between a person’s behaviour and the desired corporate competencies; whilst this approach is valid it can downplay the application of a person’s strengths.

My top strengths are; love of learning, humor, zest, perseverance, honest, open-mindedness and perspective. I know this because I have taken a test based on the research of Dr Martin Seligman and Dr Christopher Peterson.

Seligman and Peterson’s research has found six broad categories of the best of human behaviours (virtues) that are intrinsically valued across time and cultures. Seligman and Peterson suggest that these virtues may even be biologically linked in terms of survival of the species. Within each virtue category are strengths that we all demonstrate to a greater or lesser extent.
 The list is as follows:

There is a natural tendency to consider those strengths that you don’t score highly on as weaknesses but, unlike talents, strengths can be built up.

My lowest scoring strength is modesty ( for those of you who know me this is no surprise) and yet this does not mean I am not modest in some circumstances and with the awareness of this I can build it as a strength.

Positive Psychology researchers are now validating interventions to build strengths and the work is ongoing. This has major ramifications for the field of leadership development as we can know with certainty as to how to build up individuals and teams.

At Self Leadership International we have already started to build this research into our coaching and programs. A popular activity is a partner exercise in which each party listens to a success story told by the other and reflects back the strengths that they heard. The result of this exercise are profound in that colleagues who have known each other for some time get a deeper understanding of each other and managers learn to better delegate and build up their teams rather than jump to criticism.

Posted from Singapore 27/10/2010

Now I understand where the writer was coming from;talking about  sex, politics and religion can break rapport, create conflict and ruin the career of the unwary but I have a different perspective. As humans, sex, politics and religion play a significant part of our lives and the biases and meanings we bring to these topics will significantly affect our behaviour; so to not talk about them can be equally dangerous.

Let’s start by considering why talking about sex, religion and politics is like juggling with live ammunition or walking the tight rope without a safety net.

Animals have sex to provide offspring, some are monogamous some are not; and some masturbate or engage in homosexual behaviour. Humans unlike animals have the cognitive power to make meanings and therefore judgements about the act of sex. Humans have the ability to codify behaviour and even communicate these judgements through language. We are social animals and have survived by moral codes communicated by our leaders (politicians), the first recorded being The Code of Hammurabi,King of Babylon about 2250 B.C although the Egyptians probably had an earlier code. The Code of Hammurabi contain 282 sections that set forth business, family, social, and political rules. A universally agreed moral code should remove the need for discussion but not everyone does agree. A device to make argument impossible is to suggest that your rules come from an omnipotent and omniscient deity and so therefore who are you, a mere mortal to challenge this?

Now my last sentence was probably inflammatory to millions of people who believe that their moral code is divinely inspired.  This is why talking about how to behave is fraught with danger because instead of just having a different view on how we should behave we can run foul of the ruling party or even the big G.

If we were to stop all talk of sex, politics and religion we would be effectively outlawing comedy and fun. Comedy and fun allow us step back from our ‘frames of mind’ and consider alternative views. I don’t know if Galileo had a sense of humour but he ran foul of religion when he suggested that that the earth rotates around the sun instead of the other way around. I seriously doubt the Roman Inquisition had much of a sense of humour when they held his feet to the fire to silence him.

Mahatma Gandhi ran foul of politics when he spoke up against the moral authority of the British Empire. His speaking up was successful in removing the occupiers but his pluralism was not sufficient to prevent the separation of the Indian sub-continent along religious lines.

My point is that speaking about sex, religion and politics is called for when we need to shift points of view, especially when there is injustice. The challenge will always be that to have an effective discussion we need to agree on points of reference. When discussing the 3 ‘taboo’ topics it is often not possible to agree on the reference and so we have to ‘frame’ our discussions delicately, for the moment someone feels judged or take something personally they are likely to respond defensively or aggressively.

I speak on leadership and specifically Self-Leadership and in both these disciplines it is important to know what we believe and why we believe it. It is also necessary to be able to deal with paradox and consider multiple perspectives. To this end I make it my business to be knowledgeable of other people’s beliefs and to respect them without needing to agree with them. So by all means speak about sex, politics and religion but do your homework first!

All will become clear when you understand the psychological background of personality.

The word personality comes from the Latin persona, which refers to the masks once worn by actors to give clues as to the emotions driving their behaviour. Today the term personality refers to the sets of predictable behaviours by which we profile a person. These sets of behaviours are known as types or traits and profiling tools are known as psychometric tests.

Personality profiling goes back to 2400 years to Hippocrates who suggested that one’s persona is based upon four separate temperaments (Air, Fire, Earth, and Water). This was probably the first 4-box personality type profiles which are still popular today – you may have come across tools such as DISC (Marston, 1987) or Herman Brain Dominance.

Psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, (1875 – 1961) categorised mental functioning into sensing, intuition, thinking, and feeling. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a 16-type indicator of Carl Jung’s Psychological Types (1940’s) and has been one of the most enduring of the psychometric tests used by organisations.

The weakness of MBTI is that as a ‘Type’ indicator it assumes that people are one of opposites, they are either extrovert or introvert, there is no in-between. The majority of organisational psychologists and common sense, suggest that personality is a ‘Trait’ and is more like a sliding scale (standard distrubution) where your personality can be at any point on the scale (1-10).

Using factor analysis psychologists (including Costa & McCrae 1976 and Brand 1984) have demonstrated that there exist five traits that predict personality across culture. Linking this research to Management Development gives us the Big 5 model of personality.

Using the Big 5, managers, recruiters, trainers and coaches can understand the differences between people and design work, learning and development plans to suit individuals. In addition understand the Big 5 factors can help managers and consultants to create high performing teams and winning cultures.

The 5 factors (UK labels) are Will, Control, Affection, Energy and Emotionality with 13 sub factors  (see chart).

The Big 5 Psychometric test (Facet5) is completed online and takes about 25 minutes to complete. Here is a summary of the five factors for you to do a quick self evaluation:

Will is the promotion and defence of one’s own ideas. If you score high on Will you will be good at setting objectives and pushing ideas through but you may come across as stubborn and arrogant (think autocratic boss). If you score low on Will, you will be flexible and willing to listen but you may come across as a procrastinator or too easily swayed.

Control is a measure of one’s own internal standards of the right/wrong way to do things. If you score highly on control you are organised, procedural and hard working. You may come across as overcautious, inflexible and authoritarian (think civil servant). A low score on Control indicates free thinking, casual and creative; however you may come across as disorganised with no follow-through.

Affection is a measure of how we treat and relate to others. A high score on Affection will mean you are understanding and sympathetic, very good at getting people on-side. The flip side of this is that you may be too soft even naive. A low score indicates you are pragmatic and business-like, not easily taken advantage of. The risks of low Affection are that you can come across as only looking after number one.

Energy is a measure of our interaction with the social world. A high score on Energy means you are involved, lively and enthusiastic (think extrovert). This means you may get bored easily, talk too much and interrupt others. A low score for Energy indicates that you take time to get to know people and can work independently; however you may come across as distant and a poor communicator.

The fifth factor is Emotionality which is a measure of our emotional reaction to, and our ability to cope with events and people. Emotionality is an interpreting factor which can exaggerate and distort how the other factors are seen. Highly emotional people are easily upset, anxious (lose sleep) and lack self-belief and self-confidence. Low emotionality is demonstrated by people who don’t get panicked and take things as they come. Taken to extreme low emotionality can make people appear cold and unexciting.

How did you go? Did you recognise yourself? Do you have self-awareness?

When we put all these personality factors together we get a picture of how the person might behave in a particular situation. There are 17 profiles with easily understood titles such as, promoter, producer, developer, entrepreneur etc. We can use these profiles for team dynamics, job fit or for Leadership development. In fact, Big 5 can be used to instead of the Thomas- Killman conflict handling model and Belbin’s Team Roles Model, giving a universal approach to developing people in the workplace.

If you are interested how Facet5 Psychometric or Personality testing can increase the productivity of your organisation feel free to contact  Self Leadership International in Singapore.

These words, spoken  by Professor Dumbledore to Harry Potter, are a profound reminder that leaders require self leadership.

Viktor Frankl, the Nazi death camp survivor and founder of logo therapy, said it this way, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Interestingly we do not always get the best education in making choices. I recently spoke to a father who told me that he was having difficulty disciplining his teenage son; he had said to the boy, “Whilst under my roof, you have no choice.” With some empathy I shared a perspective that he might be handicapping his son’s abilities to learn to choose. Our choices have consequences and perhaps we need a gradient of consequences as we learn the power of choice?

As Self Leadership International we take this approach with our staff, we give them tasks that require them to make choices. With new interns or employees we limit the consequenses of those choices away from business critical areas, but as they grow in confidence we give them more and more rope ( but not enough to hang themselves!).

I have been involved in training leadership for managers for many years and this concept of empowerment is one that they often struggle with. I think it might be linked to a lack of permission (as with the teenage son) to make choices for themselves that prevents them from allowing others to make choices.

Here is a simple self leadership approach to making choices:

1. Own your right to choose. You have a birthright to make choices independent of your family and culture.
2. Choices have consequences. You must take responsibility for your choices good or bad.
3. Analyse your choices before you make them. “Do I have all the facts?  Will this choice benefit me/others, in the short/long term?”
4. Get input on your choices. With a major choice do not be afraid to get input from others but remain in control.
5. Get feedback on your choices. Notice the effects of your choices and make adjustments as necessary.

It takes a high degree of self awareness to run through this process and we make many choices by ‘gut feel’ but gut feel is our unconscious processing of choices. Leaders train their gut feel or intuition by paying attention the results of their choices and the choices of others.

May you make good choices this year.

(copyright Andrew Bryant – no reproduction without permission)

In 2009 I will be writing on this blog about how to turn thoughts into actions and actions into results, so what I want to know from YOU is…

What are your resolutions for 2009?

Please respond by clicking on comments below… thanks, Andrew
Oh and have a Happy New Year!

You have! Wow that’s good I thought it was just me

To make error is human, we all screw up or we are not living.

As I write this blog I can still feel the fresh emotion of embarrasment from a recent mistake. Yesterday  I posted on a forum and had not framed my communication in line with my intention. The result was that I was publically attacked for what was perceived as a ‘superior and glib’ attitude.

When we are attacked our first reactions are to fight or run but with self leadership we can choose our response and learn from a situation.

My self leadership which creates self-awareness, caught my first thought of vengeance for the attack, and asked the question, “is this useful?”

My immediate second thought was, “how can I hide this mistake?” and again my self leadership asked the question, “is this useful?”

Once my reactivity has settled I was able to assess the situation.

• Could my post be perceived in the way my attacker said? – yes, I can now how see how it could.
• Have I made a mis-take? – yes.
• Am I perfect? – no, I am human.
• Can I learn from this – yes, this is valuable feedback, perhaps I do have the potential for a superior attitude and this is not in line with my highest intention. This is something to work on.
• What is the best response? – Aplogise, explain my intention but make no excuses, change my behaviour.

By sharing my thought process I hope I have illustrated a method to handle mis-takes.

1. Don’t react
2. Accept that you are human and not perfect
3. Aplogise and make amends
4. Learn from the experience

It has often been said that, “If we are not making mistakes, we are not doing anything worthwhile.” I would agree with this sentiment as I think we learn more from our mistakes than our successes; unfortunately we live in cultures that are often intolerant to mistakes and these are cultures that don’t learn.

Perhaps it is true that without the self leadership to handle mistakes we will never be happy and without the courage to make mistakes we will never have leaders.

(copyright Andrew Bryant, no reproduction without permission – thank you)

Later there may be further indigestion as we receive credit card bills that reflect our genorisity to ourselves and others.

Whether we are happy or sad this boxing day morning depends not on the quality of the presents or the size of the hangover but on the quality of the relationships we enjoy.

My Christmas started well, when on it’s eve I connected with a long lost friend on Facebook and then received messages from others far away. Later that day we had an open house and friends old and new graced us with their presence rather than their presents.

Christmas morning commenced with the ritual present opening under the tree with the children with it’s mixture of joy and tears as one siblings present was envied by another; and after we cleared away the wrapping paper we headed off to a hotel for a champagne brunch – all very decadent but it was the company that made it.

So as I reflect on the last 48 hours, I have to admit I am a fan of Christmas; not for the tree and the tinsel or the mad crowds in the shops, but because despite the rampant commercialism it reminds us that what makes us happy is friends and family.

May your friends and family be safe and close in 2009.

(Copyright Andrew Bryant – no reproduction without permission, thank you)

I have defined Self leadership as having a developed sense of who you are, what you can do, where you are going coupled with the ability to manage your communication,  emotions and behaviour on the way to getting there. Another definitions is, “the process by which you influence yourself to achieve your objectives.”

Self leadership equates to the leadership competencies of Self Observation and Self Management but most importantly Self-leadership impacts all aspect of  your life, your health, your career and your relationships.

Listen to Self leadership podcastFor Self leadership to occur we have met our survival needs of food and shelter and begin to look for meaning in our lives. The first skill of self leadership is to STOP and STEP BACK from the things that trigger us to react; because when we react we are being controlled by the trigger. The second skill is to consider our INTENTION. Intention is what is important to us, our values and what we are trying to achieve. By being intentional we can start to live a life of choice.

The above diagram can serve as simple illustration of the points of leverage for developing our self leadership. Intention precedes any behaviour (action). Actions have effects which we evaluate via feedback. A difference between the expected outcome (intention) and the feedback causes us to feel emotions. The meanings we make of these emotions can reinforce, reduce or distort our intentions.

To make sense of this in your own life, consider something you are trying to achieve right now such as getting healthy, increasing your wealth or developing a relationship.

Start with translating your intentions into appropriate actions.

• What is it you want to achieve?
• What actions do you need to take to achieve this?

Once action has been taken it is necessary to be receptive to the feedback that the world will give in response to your action/s. The quality of the feedback is essential – the sooner you receive it, the sooner you can make adjustments. Beware your conditioned filters that might cause you to interpret feedback as criticism or to be selective about what you take notice of.

• What are the results of your actions?
• Is this feedback accurate?
• Am I filtering the feedback?

The feedback we receive causes us sensations/emotions from which we make meaning.

• What am I feeling?
• What does this mean?
• What else could this mean?

By asking these self coaching questions you pave the way for a rapid feedback loop that will enable you to make the adjustments required in your communication/behaviour to achieve your outcome. If problems arise start first by checking your intention, then your behaviour, then the feedback and finally your emotions.

(This blog is copyright Andrew Bryant. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)