Companies are great when they have leaders that are capable of building great teams. And the only way these leaders can build great teams is when they are first great leaders themselves. And all great leaders know their strengths.
Yesterday, my team and I spent one amazing day using the CliftonStrengths (Strengthsfinder) tool with a SHELL Leadership Team in discovering and using their leadership strengths at their Singapore office. And in my personal opinion, these are great leaders. And SHELL is so very fortunate to have them.
Why are they great?
Because they are open, confident and courageously vulnerable leaders.
I could not ask for anything better in terms of their openness and curiosity to learn, the confidence they have in themselves and in each other, and the courage and vulnerability they displayed in areas that are lacking and the willingness for feedback.
What StrengthsAsia did for these SHELL leaders was to help them acquire a common language through the CliftonStrengths (Strengthsfinder) tool in understanding and engaging each other. With the new strengths language, they could better understand, appreciate and intentionally develop their own strengths.
And when leaders are able to do this, they simply just become better and in turn … greater.
Why?
Because it is the fundamentals. It is fundamental that when leaders know their own strengths, they are more confident and more appreciative of the strengths of others. And in turn, they also more willing to acknowledge their own weaknesses. In other words, they become more courageously vulnerable in their weaknesses.
Leaders that are confidently strong and courageously vulnerable are great leaders. They create environments in embracing strengths and provide safety in acknowledging weaknesses. And great leaders lead themselves and their teams to focus on strengths and actively cooperate and collaborate with one another.
And this was what we saw happened yesterday with the SHELL leadership team.
This team has gone through many seasons with each other throughout their years in SHELL. And yesterday, they had the unique opportunity to use their newly acquired strengths language to articulate and describe the leadership strengths, weaknesses and potentials of one another.
Now this is significant. Why?
Because when leaders have the capability and are able to articulate and accept the strengths and weaknesses of each other openly, they posses what I call the Strengths DNA – the display of trust and confidence in each other and a demonstration of courageous vulnerability with one another.
And in turn, these great leaders pass the Strengths DNA to their great teams. And we saw this yesterday with this SHELL Leadership Team!
Kim Pong is the CEO and Founder of StrengthsAsia, Creator of the REFRAME MasterClass and the first 20 Gallup Certified Strengths Coaches in the world. He is based in Singapore and works with organizations in Asia in creating an engaged workplace culture for leaders, managers and executives to thrive.