NBOA President and CEO
At the end of the year, we often think about things we would like to do differently or even better come the New Year. Let's dispense with that approach for 2017 and focus instead on what we already do really well. Consider making your New Year's resolution to develop more of who you already are — in other words, to play to your strengths.
I first learned the notion “to play to your strengths” when I heard Marcus Buckingham’s theory that most people come to the workplace “pre-wired” in their dispositions and talents. Until then, I had struggled with something one of my first bosses told me, which was that managers should identify the 20 percent of what their staff don’t do well — and then “fix” it. I was relieved to hear Buckingham articulate the opposite, that leaders are most effective when they cultivate their staff’s natural strengths and talents. After all, he said, it’s unlikely you’ll successfully change anyone’s lesser qualities anyway.
Buckingham’s thinking was front and center last week during the 2016 NBOA North American Conference on the Business Office. This invitation-only gathering brings together nearly 50 business officers from almost every state, plus Canada and Mexico. During the conference, attendees used a leadership assessment tool from Gallup called StrengthsFinders and discussed not what they could do better, but what they already do very well. I also completed the StrengthsFinders assessment myself, and the results helped me develop a vocabulary of what the assessment indicates I do best as a leader. My top five strengths are, in the assessment’s terms, “strategic,” “ideation,” “communication,” “positivity” and “maximizer.” With this information, I will perform my best not by spending time on my shortcomings, but by nurturing my natural talents — identifying patterns within a mass of information, along with public speaking, motivating others and striving for excellence.
Perhaps most importantly, last week’s StrengthsFinders exercise reminded the business officers in attendance, and me, of the importance of investing in our greatest assets: exercising them and ensuring we develop them fully. To that end, here’s a useful StrengthsFinders formula:
talent x investment = strength
Of course, everyone has weaknesses, and there is nothing wrong with considering or acknowledging them. But maximizing our strengths — and the strengths of our teams — delivers a far greater impact for our schools.
Start 2017 by reflecting on what you already do well. Invest in those attributes, and perform them even better on behalf of your school, its students and the families you will lead every day in the year ahead.
Follow NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields @shieldsNBOA.
