weLead with Strengths

Shoes made me angry

You know, there was a time when shoes were my nemesis. It sounds odd, but bear with me. You'd think someone leaves their shoes right in the entryway on purpose, just to mess with you. That's how I used to feel, especially when it came to my wife’s collection that seemed to welcome me home by cluttering up the entrance. So, what did I do? I picked a fight, of course. Before you jump to any conclusions, I was young and dumb. But hey, 25 years of marriage is a potent learning curve!

Then, I learned about personality strengths, and lo and behold, I learned that my wife’s seeming daily acts of malevolence weren't intentional. She was already onto the next task in her mental to-do list the moment those shoes flew off her feet. Sound familiar? In the workplace, we often misinterpret actions—like a coworker being forgetful or a boss oversharing—as deliberate disruptions.

The Genius Spark

If you agree, the Genius Spark process is about to become your new best friend. This isn’t about complicated algorithms or lofty academic theories. It’s a practical, accessible roadmap to understanding your inherent strengths.

Ever have that feeling that someone’s behavior seems almost designed to push your buttons? Trust me, most people are not that organized. Usually, they're acting out of their own strengths, unaware of how it impacts others. On the whole, every person acts justly from their perspective. Just like my wife and her myriad shoes, each serving a different purpose, your strengths are multi-faceted. They're simply different sides of you, waiting for the right context to shine.

How do strengths work?

So, how do strengths work? From his book “Average to A+: Realising Strengths in Yourself and Others,” Alex Linley stated that a strength is “a pre-existing capacity for a particular way of behaving, thinking, or feeling that is authentic, energizing to the user, and enables optimal functioning, development, and performance.” A strength is a behavior, thought, or feeling that comes naturally and energizes you. That's right, energizes you!

I’m sure you’ve experienced being in a situation in which you needed to perform in areas that you are not strong in. It’s like pushing a rope…you exert so much energy but the results are…let’s just say…sub-optimal. If you do this day after day with no improvement, you can either become numb or cynical…or both!

Imagine showing up as your best self instead of dragging yourself through the day. Now that’s the magic of strengths!

Flow

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced me-high, chik-sent-me-high) introduced the concept of flow in his book, “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” It's all about hitting that sweet spot between difficulty and capability, where time seems to stand still. That's where you want to be. That's where your Genius Spark is at its brightest.

Part of living in your strengths requires consistent reminders, knowing exactly where you’re strong and how you will implement your strengths. Think Michael Phelps, who visualized every win down to the microsecond. The Genius Spark process helps you do this. Your own unique 'Genius Paragraph' that I can help you develop is your daily reminder of your unique strengths. Reading this daily subtly shifts your focus, helping your strengths come alive in ways you hadn’t noticed.

Why bother?

Why should you bother? Well, imagine a workplace where only a fraction of the team is really engaged. That's not just inefficient; it's downright frustrating. With Genius Spark, your team can become unified, tapping into everyone's inherent strengths, transforming the work environment from either a battleground or a slough of despond into a playground of productivity.

Whether it's avoiding the petty annoyances or maximizing productivity, it’s all about understanding and leveraging the strengths of you and your team members. With Genius Spark, you get to dismantle the motor that drives your team, understand each gear and sprocket, and reassemble it for optimum efficiency.

In the grand scheme of things, whether it’s stepping over shoes or stepping up your game at work, it’s all about understanding who we are and how we can show up as our best selves.

If you would like to discuss the benefits of using Genius Spark for yourself, your team, or your students, book a 15 minute intro call with me this week to see if this is right for you. No obligation, just conversation.

BOOK A CALL WITH DAN HERE

Post o’ the Week

This week’s post reflects is a response to Simon Sinek’s post that asserts that there is a cost to leadership. I added that leadership requires more sacrifice from the leader than the follower.

I would say this to people that wanted to move into administration to help them think through the sacrifice that must be made. It could be the joy of teaching (you can have a teaching approach in administration, but it isn’t the same), the sense of impact (you can impact more people, but often less personally), or the satisfaction of accomplishment (there is always more work to be done in administration).

Whatever it is, there is sacrifice associated with leadership titles that many do not understand, especially if they’ve never experienced it for themselves.

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Final Thoughts

Working from home (WFH) is a phenomenon that isn’t going away. Here’s a clip of my assertion of this and a response from Gary Corbett, one of my colleagues, who asserts that the identity of workers, especially those entering the workforce during or after the pandemic, has shifted away from the workplace to their home community.

Do you agree/disagree? What are your thoughts?

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Thanks for being great!

Dan Tubbs

weLead Growth and Development