Resource Management Innovations

Leading from Your Strengths: John Trent, Rodney Cox and Eric Tooker, Broadman & Holman Publishers

It isn’t very often that an author or a publisher will work so closely with you, that they encourage your participation in ‘getting the word out’. For those who know me or are familiar with the blog, you will also know that as a rule I will not venture out onto the slippery slope of ‘recommending’. In the case of ‘Leading from Your Strengths’ I am most comfortable making an exception. Let me explain.

For several years I have taken part in university internship programs, which in many ways is a parallel experience to an apprenticeship in the guild of trades training. A young apprentice comes alongside a journeyman who is expected to prepare the next generation with an intentional skill and knowledge transfer. Such is a day in the life of an intern and mentor.

Typically a lot of effort will go into the ‘matching’ of this intern – mentor, apprentice - journeyman relationship. As you might imagine how fraught with danger a ‘mis-match’ could be … and the intended end result being potentially compromised. Let me also say that not all apprenticeships or internships end on a platform in a cap & gown with a diploma being awarded. Some are quite painful and discouraging experiences. It is easy to understand how that might happen … but it need not be the case. There are some great tools available, that can go a long way to bringing focus and clarity to the exposures to risk that await us in the world of Aussie Rules, full contact relationship management. One tool I would not leave home without … is the Leading from Your Strengths (LFYS) family of tools and techniques. Let’s begin with the text.

Seldom do I read of institutional candor the likes of which I found in LFYS. Relationships are everything, and when something goes wrong … it is seldom the result of insufficient skills or experience. Ipsos Reid, Gallop and just about any HR professional will tell you, ‘83% of employment terminations result from incompatible characters & natures. Only 17% of terminations result from insufficient skills or experience’. The lesson for us is: ‘People join companies, but they leave supervisors.’ The importance of a good ‘fit’ before we enter into a relationship cannot (cannot) be overstated.

Dare we speak of the percentage of marriages that end in divorce? What happened? I couldn’t make a 45 degree hospital bed corner on the sheets? I left the seat up? You never turn lights out behind you? Likely not. The pain and anguish of a separation goes deep. The broken trust translates into a wound that we carry with us … and vow no one will hurt us that way again … and we go deeper and deeper into an emotional retreat. That may be logical, but it is terribly dysfunctional. Given the likelihood that an employee or a life partner has experienced a wound prior to our employment or marriage engagement … our incentive toward objective assessment should increase. The value for me is in LFYS telling the story from a number of perspectives … making the case for effective (doing the right things) and efficient (doing the right things well) recruitment and retention. Keeping in mind … this is all about relationships. LFYS will provide you with real world practical skills that you can plug in tomorrow and make a difference.

The book is based on three core principles:

1) Understanding your own God-given strengths.
2) Recognizing and respecting the God-given strengths of others. This is a key to the commitment of each team member to each other, and
3) Blending differences among team members and harnessing each person’s unique strengths. The end game … greater effectiveness and productivity. Intentionally.

Sounds like leadership doesn’t it?



The LFYS text is backed up with some amazing tools … which are a standard in my tool box. The LFYS profile is a psychometric assessment that will profile for me:

- General Characteristics
- My Value to a Team
- A Checklist for Communication (how to & how not to)
- Communicating with Others
- My Ideal Environment
- Keys to Motivating (me)
- Keys to Leading
- Areas for Improvement
- Perceptions: How others see me vs how I see myself
- My Core Style vs My Adapted Style

Imagine as a hiring manager, having that information available to you … prior to day #1 week #1. Some of your headaches might not have made it to the payroll department? The profile answers the lament I often from supervisors, (and more than a few spouses): “If I had only known.” You get the idea.

I have used LFYS successfully in my own family. That may sound a little weird … let me explain.

Family business doesn’t have the best reputation. As my son was ready to join dad at RMI, I was scared stiff that a successful run at business might fracture a relationship we have worked (so) hard to groom and develop for years. I would step away from the business before I would alienate my son as a result of unconscious incompetence. We intentionally designed and developed our own internship program, incorporating the Leading from Your Strengths profile. For each of us.



The end result being an intentional, interdependent agenda, incorporating:

- Vision Casting and Mission Building (Where are we going and how will we get there).
- Skills Management (Who does what, when).
- Performance Management (Not just what is to be done, but how it is to be done … incorporating our relational requirements to ensure we finish together, stronger).

The LFYS family of products and services are available online at: www.ministryinsights.com

The corporate missional agenda is: Discovering Uniqueness – Developing Unity.

Couldn’t we all just use more of that?

Cheers;

Rick @ RMI

Posted By: Rick Kneeshaw 2010/08/07
Categories: Book ~ Bytes