Crafting a Culture of Strength in Teams and Beyond

Sifting through the pages of old notes from my mentor, the late Chip Anderson, I found myself on an emotional journey that reconnected me with the roots of strengths-based leadership. His profound wisdom, like hidden treasures, came alive in this episode, as we discussed how the unique tapestry of our strengths often reveals its richest colors in solitude. We ventured into a discussion on the often-overlooked power of personal rhythms and how honoring these can pave the way for an individual's strengths to thrive, much like an artist finds creativity in the quiet hours.

There's a special kind of magic in realizing that the strengths we carry are not just for the office or boardroom; they journey with us, adaptable and ready for every context of our lives. Through poignant stories and reflections, we explored how these personal assets, comparable to a 'backpack' of tools, equip us for roles as varied as leadership and parenting, and how inviting others into our community can bolster our capabilities. This episode wasn't just about self-improvement—it was an invitation to weave your unique strengths through the fabric of every role you occupy.

As we wrapped up, the conversation turned towards the enduring philosophy of strengths and how they ebb and flow within us, crafting the narrative of who we are in each moment. Listeners were invited to reflect on their own relationships and the strength they draw from connections, much like the bond between a grandparent and grandchild. Whether you're navigating the seas of leadership or seeking to inspire your team, this episode served as a compass, guiding you towards a strengths-based culture where every individual's unique contributions are celebrated and nurtured.

You are invited to join Leadership Vision Online, free to the next 150 members! This new community allows you to connect with like-valued individuals, network, and learn from others while elevating your leadership skills through exclusive resources, live events, Q&As, workshops, and member-led discussions.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to the Leadership Vision podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. Our consulting firm has been doing this for the past 25 years so that people are mentally engaged and emotionally healthy. Hello everyone, my name is Nathan Freeberg and today on the podcast, we're going to be revisiting just a delightful gem of an episode from our archives. This is an episode that we think has really resonated with so many of you over the past year and, given the passage of time and sort of the evolving landscape of leadership and team dynamics, we thought that it could just be really fitting and helpful to reintroduce this conversation with a couple of fresh insights and some reflections.

Speaker 1: 0:42

This was an episode that Dr Linda and Brian Schubering and I recorded a little over a year ago and it has really sparked some fun and interesting and meaningful discussions among our listeners, both in our online community and just on social media, and it was kind of an exploration of our lost lessons in strengths, if you will.

Speaker 1: 1:02

That was drawn from some of the wisdom of Chip Anderson, the grandfather or godfather, I guess, if you will of the strengths movement, some of those foundational years that Brian happened to be a part of that and has just really proven to be both timeless and timely, and so we're going to present this episode again, and, as we do, we'll invite you to engage with these ideas both anew maybe for the first time, or perhaps revisiting them and consider both how they've shaped your understanding of strengths over the years and how their relevance has perhaps only deepened in today's complex and ever-changing organizational environments. This is a Leadership Vision podcast. Enjoy, brian. Before we dive into these three lessons, can you set up just a little bit more about Chip Anderson, who he was, and just maybe briefly, the context where all of these notes were taken?

Speaker 2: 1:58

Chip Anderson was a partner, collaborator and co-creator of Strengths with Donald Clifton. Chip Anderson and Donald Clifton met, I think, in the 1960s. They both had this idea on how to focus on what is good and right about people and together they created what we now know as the Clifton Strengths Finder. And what happened was it was my good fortune that I happened to meet Chip Anderson right away, like in 1999. And we formed a relationship and what happened was Chip Anderson just said to me you know, I would love to kind of take you under my wing and mentor you along the way.

Speaker 2: 2:39

And, of course, knowing who he was, of course I said yes. And so I entered into a multi-year relationship with Chip Anderson until he passed from cancer. And the notes that I found surprised me because, yes, nathan, I was looking for something on my computer and I found this 10 to 12 page Word document that had Chip's name on it. I had no idea I had this. I don't even remember even compiling this, but it was, like I said, 10 to 12 pages of notes that I took while he was mentoring me over a period of many, many years.

Speaker 3: 3:18

And I don't know about you, but sometimes when you come across something that you've either written about, that you have kept, that maybe a handout from a special talk or something, it almost brings you back, and so Brian was sending the notes to me, as well as to you, nathan. But what was happening in you, brian?

Speaker 2: 3:40

What was happening in me was I first had this sense of euphoria, of like, oh my gosh, I cannot believe that I found this.

Speaker 2: 3:48

And then, as I started reading, I just I had a very strong emotional reaction because I could hear Chip's voice.

Speaker 2: 3:55

I could hear Chip's voice talking to me as I read some of the things I'd written down, some of the quotes of his.

Speaker 2: 4:02

I also could hear the intonation of his voice, the things that he would get passionate about, the things that were concerning him, how he was asking for help from me and certain things that were projects of his, and he just saw something in me that I think I'm now living. And there was like this, like one of the last conversations I ever had with him. He was definitely pushing me in a very specific direction and I could feel that push just in the reading of the notes and realizing that I had captured the notes of the conversation that released me to really take the current tact that we're taking with leadership vision 15 years ago, actually read that note of him sending me and that was a very emotional time for me to just feel like you know, the last 20 years have been something of like living out a legacy, living out a dream that he had of what could be done with strengths and what I could do with strengths, and so it was a very, it was a wonderful, wonderful little moment.

Speaker 3: 5:04

So, as Brian was unpacking some of the thoughts and ideas and memories that he had, it was unlocking other memories. I know that happens to all of us, like once you start remembering something, more things come. But what really moved me about what was happening with Brian is he's like we're doing it, we're doing it, we're doing it, and to feel that satisfaction and to know, as most leaders, we're always standing on the shoulders of someone else, of people that have gone before us, and hopefully that there are people standing on our, on our shoulders as well, and so we want to share with you a little bit about some of the lessons.

Speaker 1: 5:45

So let's, let's do this, nathan. Yeah, let's do this. When Brian sent me what he found, for some reason it was in the form of a text message, and it's the longest text I've ever gotten in my life, oh dear.

Speaker 3: 5:57

It was family group text.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Oh yeah, because it was one text that was just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. But I read it. I was like, oh, this is interesting, this is interesting. And there's kind of three. I mean there's so much that we could talk about. This could be, you know, several episodes, but there's three things that stood out to me, and so I think what what I'd like to do is I'd like to read each three of these and then we'll go back and do two things with each one of them.

Speaker 1: 6:24

One what does this mean? Like what was kind of the original intent behind it? How do you understand it? And then, so kind of like, what did it mean then and what does it mean now? And is it still relevant? And still, you know, as eye opening as it was. So the first one is strengths are not silos, they are mixtures. Number two some people are at their best when no one else is around. And number three all strengths are transportable to different areas of life. Some good stuff there in all of that. So number one strengths are not silos, they're mixtures. Does this, brian, have to do with? You know what we know about? No strength works alone. The combining of strengths, all of that I assume that's kind of what this one is talking about. Yes.

Speaker 2: 7:10

And if we think of this in context, this quote came from a conversation like 22 years ago. So 22 years ago, a lot of our work at that time was in understanding the depth of each strength and there wasn't much overlap. There were fractions of the population that were studying strengths in the early 2000s that were talking about how strengths always worked together, like there was an intermingling, a co-mingling, a communication between strengths, if you will, and this quote from Chip. Strengths are not silos, they are mixtures. This quote of his was a theme that he consistently played over and over again is that they're a mixture, they're a combination of, and he often talked about. You know, erase the boundaries around the strengths and let the talents interplay with each other. I know, at leadership vision, part of our vocabulary is no strengths work alone, all strengths work in pairs, and it comes from the mentorship of Chip.

Speaker 2: 8:09

Over the last 22 years, we have seen over and over again how this quote is true. Strengths mix, strengths blend, strengths work in close synchronicity with each other. Oftentimes you lose track of what strength you're listening or observing because there's more than one thing happening, and that's where you know. My encouragement to strengths practitioners is you know, gain some way such a dexterity of what each strength means, so that you can observe the beauty of the mixture actually happening when someone's talking about their strengths and when you're just sitting there and listening. Now, when I think of mixtures, I think of like mixing paints or cocktails, or like mixing different fashion trends, but in this case, it's giving us the freedom to really let strengths intermingle, let strengths mix together in ways that can surprise us, and I just think this is one of the most beautiful parts of strengths that I'm just super grateful that this was one of the main themes that that chip read it to me.

Speaker 1: 9:16

So can I ask a question around that analogy then? So I've done a lot of paint mixing, or Sherman Sherman Williams has. When you, when you take different colors and mix them together, it creates something totally different. Maybe not totally different, but you see like, oh yeah, there's a shade of this and that in there. When you do that with a cocktail, it's kind of the same way. So is this strengths or not silos? They're mixtures. Is this the same idea that when you take combination of your five strengths, you mix them all up? You can still see some of the ideation and communication and adaptability, but really it creates this new adaptomizer word is sometimes we've joked about mashing adaptability and maximizer. Does that that makes sense?

Speaker 2: 9:59

Oh, absolutely, because my first challenge to strengths practitioners is to like release your mental hold on what you know a strength to look and sound like, so that you can see the strengths working together. Then my pro challenge you know my, my professional, like one up that challenge is when you see strengths mixing, when you see strengths blending, when you see strengths pairing, explain that to us, explain that to someone, and don't use strengths language. And that's the pro challenge is let yourself come up with new words, new ways to describe what you're seeing, feeling and experiencing when someone is demonstrating their strengths.

Speaker 3: 11:14

Because if you have a, you have a mix. You're mixing and say you put red and blue together and you have purple. I think the you can look at a purple and say there's a lot of red in that. Or you can look at a blue and say there's a lot of blue and that. So you get some. You get some indicators, but I think the practical application, like how do we actually do?

Speaker 3: 11:35

this is what what Brian said in kind of a throwaway comment, and that is when Chip said erase the boundary of what you know of a strength, so you erase the boundary. Strength is still there, it's alive. There are certain talents that make up that theme of strength that really resonate with you, that that are expressed in the world, that people come to see and come to rely on. When you erase the boundaries and let some of the talents from, like you said, adaptability and maximizer, when you start to see them playing together, are we seeing more of the, the blue of maximizer, or more of the red of adaptability? And so?

Speaker 3: 12:16

when we're playing, we're playing with it. It's not like oh, this is addition, so the mixture means this plus this equals that. Instead it's and I've joked like it's sometimes the Bob Ross of understanding like you're just, you're mixing some colors, you're playing with a little bit, and to hear that and read that, then it isn't. I see you have this strength, talk about it.

Speaker 2: 12:43

I see you have this strength.

Speaker 3: 12:44

Instead, it's what's the story that's coming together, so we can understand the expression in some different ways.

Speaker 1: 12:51

And I don't want to beat this metaphor to death, but when you think about mixing music.

Speaker 1: 12:56

There's this great YouTube video where Rick Rubin, the famous producer, is playing some super heavy metal song for Paul McCartney and they've got this giant mixing board and he's like listen to this. And he'll like do different faders, and it's like just the drums. Or he's like listen to how the song changes if I take out some of the bass, if I add way more guitar. And so, to kind of your point, linda, of like more purple, or more blue, more red, different shades of purple, I'm wondering, now, 20, what do you say 22 years later, how have you seen this idea of mixing play out in ways that are generative or maybe different or taken further than you thought they would have that long ago? Because I know, when I first took Strengths in 2002, it was like here's my ideation, learn about this. Now, here's my communication and learn about this. And then, brian, when, when you and I met and started working together in 2007, it was like no, how is the ideation and communication working together?

Speaker 2: 13:58

And so I think about this all the time, like well, nathan, here's something for you, I just had a Strengths one-on-one conversation this morning and this woman that I was talking to, she had her five strengths and she was just talking through the whole conversation. We got to the end and I wanted to do a play on an exercise that we often do with people that we're talking to about strengths, and that is strengths in your own words. And instead of doing that not because of for any reason in particular, I just said this. I said to her here's what I'm hearing, and what I shared with her was the talents of the strengths that I was hearing. I said here's what I'm hearing, here's what I'm hearing, here's what I'm hearing. And I didn't identify any of the talents to a strength. I just gave her the behaviors, the thoughts, the feelings and the motivations that I was picking up in my notes and I said, when I say those eight things, what do you see? What do you hear? Where does this happen? And she took all of those together and she created her own narrative on how those behaviors of strengths actually were taking place or at play in her life.

Speaker 2: 15:14

And that, to me, was the most beautiful way of offering up the different talents of a strength to give her the opportunity to mix them together herself.

Speaker 2: 15:22

Because, nathan, if you can visualize, each talent of a strength is like a little fortune of a fortune cookie. It's a little piece of paper. Now imagine if you had all five of your strengths 14 talents times five, you have 120 little pieces of fortune cookie paper on a kitchen island. And the idea of a strengths conversation is to let someone kind of walk through this conversation and pick up a bunch of those little fortune cookies, make their own narrative, give them the freedom to create their own story around their strengths, to break apart any framework that we need to interpret strengths, and let the actual author of the person's life have them tell the story of what they see and what their lived experiences through this language of strength. I think that's one of the things that this mixing is actually offering is the freedom for someone who's learning about the language of strengths to not be confined to the silo of the word, but to be free to explore the expression of each of their talents of strength. I love that.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Number two some people are at their best when no one else is around. This one I have so many questions about it. I immediately think of if a tree falls in the wood. Does it make a sound If no one's around to hear it in the woods? Unpack this, because we talk about so much of how strengths are most alive in groups, on teams, like the majority of our work is building strong, healthy teams. Unpack this one, brian.

Speaker 2: 17:05

All right this is again. This is a quote here we go 20, 20 to 24 years ago.

Speaker 2: 17:11

Yeah, some people are at their best when no one's around. We at leadership vision say that a strength is Generative when it brings life to what to you, you and to others, others we always say together we rarely parse out those two audiences to self, into others. When you look at this quote, when you listen to this quote, how do you respond to that? For most of us, for those of us that have been immersed and dipped into and shellacked with the language of Strengths, we know that many things have been written, there's a lot of materials from ourselves included, that talk about the need to put our strengths on display, to put our strengths in A place where they're demonstrated, where we can bring definition to our life through language of strengths. Then, what happens when your strength comes most alive when no one else is around?

Speaker 2: 18:01

Think about these people, for example. Think about the authors who spend hours and hours researching and writing when no one else is looking. Think about the artists who are painting alone in a sun-filled studio. No one's watching them paint, no one's watching them do their art. Think about the, the musician who's composing music and Practicing hours and hours on end when no one else is around.

Speaker 2: 18:26

I just can't help but imagine that it's in those moments of isolation, in those moments of solitude that some people's strengths are the most bright and the most alive. It's almost like you can see these beams of light shooting up from under the door of their studio, because they're just so alive and they're so energetic in those moments, and that piece of art, the things that they're writing, may only be listened to, heard or read or observed and cherished when they're not around, and they and they have, and that individual has no way of knowing how it's affecting others. But their strength was on display, was being demonstrated when no one else is around. And I believe that there are so many people that fall into this category. And the challenge I have for strengths professionals is how do we give people the freedom to truly embrace that their strengths may be the most alive, the most beautiful and brilliant when no one else is immediately around?

Speaker 3: 19:28

So what does that look like? Some practically right Brian has been writing for about 40 years.

Speaker 1: 19:36

He has a daily practice of writing Brian's only 41 years.

Speaker 3: 19:42

He gets up really early the started in high school and Spends time Getting himself centered. He also writes, he, but not just writes, he works out and then the rest of us usually get out of bed. Then he wonders why we're wasting the day. But and I'm like, it's 6 30 so I feel like that's early. But I say that to say it's easy for me to look on the outside, or it's easy for some people to look on the outside and help change Behavior and say well, brian, if you're tired and you feel like you can't stay awake really late at night, why don't you sleep in? Why don't you do like? And we push people to move to a norm that is comfortable for us and.

Speaker 3: 20:29

The longer that I've been Married to Brian, the more that I have learned that His morning time is so precious. I used to say like, well, and maybe you don't need to teach, maybe you don't need to, you know, keep teaching that cycling class. But I also know that part of the teaching the cycling class that starts at 6 in the morning Is his chance to be with athletes. And if I zoom out and look at a strengths application, his connectedness and Intellection are weaving meaning and he's ordering his mind in ways that then is productive and generates life in the rest of us. If he doesn't have that time, it Looks a lot different and I say I think it's an example Brian's very Extraordinary individual. So it is applicable to many people.

Speaker 3: 21:20

But I would say, don't take that approach of I need to fix you in your space. Instead, get curious about the things that make someone come to life, that prepare them for their day. Some people get most prepared at night and they're the night owls that are awake until 2 am working on new things and cataloging new ideas or, you know, working on the next best thing or how they're gonna get their team to work, work better together. So this is important, important one. Get curious about how that person is generating life, because it's not a selfish thing, it's actually if they can do more. If someone can do a little bit more of what they're great at when no one else is watching, I Would say they would have a chance to be better prepared to be in the world in relationship with other people. They'd be a more full and whole person and and that's why that conversation isn't just let's not just judge what we see.

Speaker 2: 22:25

So here's my challenge ask people where and when do you feel that you are at your best? Of course, in this context, with this conversation, this is a strengths question when and when. Give someone the opportunity, like Linda said, for me to be able to say I'm not my best between three and six in the morning, because what does that do if we sit back and listen to someone tell us when they feel they're out there at best? It's gonna give us context as to when they believe they're the most on, the most ready, the most energetic. So it's context. The second is going to give us indication to what is their capacity, because if they're isolated, then they're alone. That means the rest of us are not observing that, so we don't have any Demonstration to their capacity because no one else is around.

Speaker 2: 23:16

And third is creativity. This question may point us to the type of creativity that an individual can bring to a team, because now we know how this person spends their time when they're at their best. In what ways are they Capacitate and how are they being creative? Because even though Someone may not be at their best, around other people or in the middle of the day, this question will lead us to better understand who this person is and what they can contribute, and when a leader or Team member has this level of knowledge of someone, they can then know what specific questions to ask for, specific contributions that won't weigh this person down. It actually buoy them up to have a stronger voice and a stronger presence, or more sensitive voice and a more sensitive presence for the creativity that they can actually offer.

Speaker 1: 24:09

I Feel like in this number two, some people are at their best when no one else is around is really an invitation, you know, 20 plus years later, to Let let people find kind of the best way to be themselves.

Speaker 1: 24:23

To kind of summarize everything that we've just been said, and it seems like In the last 10 or 15 years, with authors like Susan Kane and others doing some research around introversion you know, I was just looking at an article about, you know, don't make introverts be extroverts and the world is so geared towards, like the typical extroverted, gregarious leader Maybe. What strengths so, you know, trying to connect 2023 with 2002 or whatever, when this you took these notes, really giving people permission to kind of lean into that and to not say there's no one-size-fits-all, you know, similar to what we were saying in the first one, and so allowing different expressions of something like whoo, which is of typically a very Boystress, stereotypical strength maybe, and say you know it could be more, more introverted. Any other connections to you know, two plus decades after you took these notes, that might be more Applicable to our listeners with this quote from Chip.

Speaker 2: 25:23

Some people are at their best when no one else is around. It's interesting for me to ruminate on that 20, 22 years later, because Oftentimes, when the right intentioned leader or Individual asks for someone to, you know, act out of their strengths or to contribute through their strengths which is there's nothing wrong with the question it's that question is oftentimes perceived as asking for someone to be in control of the team or in control of the conversation, when it could just be a contribution, and I just believe that an understanding of when, where and with whom a strength comes most alive. Those three prompts when, where and with whom. Every answer is okay, including by myself, early in the morning when no one can see me that that could be the right answer for that person.

Speaker 3: 26:23

And then I would say, to your point with Susan Kane. So my, my closing thought on this number two would be when I think about Susan Kane and her important work around introversion. Extroverts give us more data points. Introverts we don't quite know, and so sometimes they're misunderstood on teams, and so I think it's you know, instead of forcing an introvert to be an extrovert or like what does this strength look like alive and you know, present in you, or I need to see a little bit more. Sometimes in really extroverted leaders. We have seen frustrated managers who, like I, don't know what to do with this person, and we will often say ask them, talk to them, ask them what they see, ask them what they notice and, you know, help them in a way One-on-one to extrovert some of the things that they're seeing and noticing, because, for example, a ranger can be a very introverted expression who also can be a very introverted expression. They may be picking up all the social elements of a room, but they're not necessarily doing something with it.

Speaker 1: 27:30

And so to that end I would say continued to get to know your people and not just assume that your eyes are telling you what you see and what you should know the third one all strengths are Transportable to different areas of life and what I, what I love about this one is I remember Again back 2005 ish six s there the team I was on at the time. The leader of that team, was told that he didn't have the right quote-unquote leadership strengths, and there was this idea that there are certain strengths that do this job and Certain strengths that are best for this job and certain strengths that are best for this other job. And when I the first thing I thought of was that story, when I read this quote that you sent me, is that kind of what we're talking about with this one? The strengths, any strengths can do any job anywhere. Is that it All right, nathan?

Speaker 2: 28:23

Help. That helped guide me on this one, because the answer is yes, thank you. That mindset that you gave in your example, that's, I don't have the strengths for this job, that's still a current mindset. Oh, all that's still a way of interpreting and applying strengths Mm-hmm, but I would like to, if I may have your permission, you you may have a more to thank you.

Speaker 2: 28:44

To put this quote of chips in context, please do so. The study and creation of strengths was embedded in the research of the best performers in Some of the top positions the best performers in athletics, the best performers and whatever their job was. So Strengths were identified in birth, within a specific discipline, a Specific professional job. The names emerged out of that type of thinking, and so most of our examples from the very beginning, like the first five or six years, were all anchored to specific Context or specific jobs that a person held, because that's where the demonstration of their strength was sure, like a firefighter, has these types of strengths, a doctor, a teacher, blah, blah, blah or someone who's doing similar jobs.

Speaker 2: 29:38

Sure, and so you took these combinations of strengths and you almost like, took these five strengths and you put them, like maybe in this directional lane and you interpreted strengths from that perspective. And so if you were to like veer out of that lane the thinking was 20, some years ago Is that as you merged or drifted out of that lane, your strengths would diminish in their capacity to be applied and generative. Chip, on the other hand, said nope, that's not really what my Observation and, as a behavioral psychologist, he said this is not really what was really going on. What's really going on is Strengths are like in a container, and his idea was that this container you took with you and he would often say like you have your strengths in your backpack. Wherever you go, whatever audience, your strengths are in your backpack for you to resource and for you to take out whenever needed, wherever you are, among whomever you were.

Speaker 2: 30:34

That was the genesis of this quote. Is this illustration chip would use about strengths in your backpack that they were always with you and they weren't isolated to a specific context or a specific audience or a specific time. Strengths are transportable to different areas of life, and I would add different areas, different relationships, different social contexts, different emotional expressions, that strengths have this ability to be pliable in their demonstration, to shape, shift or bend themselves into a situation that you're facing. Again back to the the first quote strengths are not silos, they are mixtures. That also lends itself to this third quote that strengths are transportable to different areas of life.

Speaker 3: 31:24

I cannot tell you how many times people will say oh Well, I was thinking about my job when I, you know, took the assessment, and so that's probably why I have these strengths right, but I'm at home, yeah, I don't have.

Speaker 3: 31:36

I don't have strengths like this at home. Should I retake it to see about home, which is again kind of the, the flossity and foundation of how the tool was designed. And so I do like the backpack, I do like the transportable nature of strengths, because there are times where Certain strengths are kicked into gear at work, sometimes it's because of survival, sometimes it's because you receive accolades because of it. People rely on you to act and interact a certain way. And then at home, maybe it has to be softer, maybe there's some strengths that you put away, and and the other thing that we'll hear from people is then well then, I'm two different people. Well, it goes back to what we say, and that is context shapes everything. So context has a shaping nature of how people show up, how, how they grow and in what kind of context your, your strengths will, will be on display.

Speaker 2: 32:36

So it's not like you lost it at home and you don't have a place to To express it, but maybe it's, it's needed in some, some other areas so much of the general interpretation of strengths, and this statement is Not a faulting statement, it's not a blaming statement, it's not a framing statement, it's just an informational statement.

Speaker 2: 32:57

Most of our interpretation and translation of strengths is done within specific contexts, with specific examples and the, and one of the reasons for that is because that's an easy way to understand. When you're, when you're taking the familiarity of strengths with the familiarity of context, you put those two together. It deepens your ability to retain the knowledge. My challenge for people is to ask ourselves how does this strength demonstrate itself in and fill in the blank in this context, in this relationship, while listening to this song, while watching this movie? It's, it's that level of transport ability, and I just think that there's so much beneficial Practice that can be done on teams. When you give people the ability To speak to how their strengths come alive and how their strengths are demonstrated within specific contexts and let them choose the context is, again, all you're doing is deepening your knowledge of who that person is.

Speaker 3: 34:03

So so one of the things that that we will ask in teams or maybe even a big group, is which one of your strengths or pairing of strengths do you use to build relationships? And guess what? The answers are all over the board. Yeah, some people have spouses where they they connect about things that they're learning or ways that they're going on adventures, or it's not just like. These are my emotional ways that I connect and build a relationship, because what we're trying to unearth is how people connect and how humans can connect better. And usually, if someone's dissatisfied or they're saying like I can't even use my strengths at work, maybe it means they haven't figured out the mix or pulled out the right strengths from their, from their backpack, and maybe, maybe, maybe there's just not the human connection or satisfaction or productivity that's happening in that environment.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Yeah, where I was, linda, after you you spoke earlier I was just sort of like stumped, is because I was thinking about you had said people when they take it they're like, oh, I was thinking of myself in the work context, no, can I take it for home? And I was just kind of thinking that when I first took the assessment, psychometric was before I got married. I then took it a couple years after I was married. We've now been married almost 19 years and then the most recent time I took it was shortly after my son was born. That's almost 10 years ago now, and my results have Been pretty much the same. There's been like one or two this kind of flipped in and out of there, and so what? I bring that up just to say like it's really interesting how you know now 20, the first time it took it was 21 years ago. I Guess it. All that to say is like yes, this is all All transportable.

Speaker 1: 35:51

You know, the first time I was kind of only thinking about work, because that's sort of all. I had work and you know. You know a couple years out of college and then it was like work and now trying to figure out this marriage thing, and then it was work and this marriage thing and there were other relationships and parenting, and it's impossible for me to separate, to say, well, at work I only use these strengths and at home I only use these strengths. Or you know, man, if I, if I only had some more of the certain strength I could do, I could do this better or this differently, sort of a tangent. But my father-in-law was over last week kind of coaching my son basketball and I was just listening to him out out through the window and thinking that Is the voice of a developer. Like he is going so methodical and so patient and as a maximizer, I'm like, yeah, I'm, I just get so frustrated with him because I told you how to do it once. Why are you not doing it that way? And what?

Speaker 1: 36:54

In light of this conversation, I was thinking about it. So how do I? Because I still have to be a parent, I still have to be a coach, I still have to have patience in teaching people things. So how do I take the strengths that I do have? And I don't have an answer for this, so we're not going to get into right now, but for everyone to think of, like I can't just like be like alright, fine, I'm never gonna like help teach my kids new things. So how do I transport the strengths that I do have into that environment and that setting? And that's something I think I'm I'm wrestling with and trying to figure out, but I just, this is just so we kind of skipped right ahead to like what does this mean for us today? This is like such a relevant, such a relevant thing for us today, right?

Speaker 3: 37:35

Yeah, yeah, because it takes a village. So the goal is to be even more for your son right. It is to Cherish the relationship that he has with his grandfather.

Speaker 1: 37:45

Yeah, yeah, totally.

Speaker 3: 37:46

It's not jealous, I'm like I need that yeah. So for me it's what are ways that I can help? You know, connect our Grandparent, you know, the grandparents to each other to benefit our daughter? How do I Build these right connections so that people feel a certain way, because I know I can't give them that.

Speaker 2: 38:05

I can't give them this.

Speaker 3: 38:07

And so sometimes it's even applying a strengths-based philosophy like not deficit minded, but Whoa, like I won't, I won't just provide this, make peace. So I make peace with that. And then I invite other people into into my community to make something.

Speaker 1: 38:24

That's good.

Speaker 3: 38:25

Why are you smiling?

Speaker 2: 38:28

I'm just smiling at listening to you kids Just kind of give these examples over and over.

Speaker 1: 38:34

You know, it's really funny to think about. For me, brian, is that you?

Speaker 2: 38:37

said grandpa and pointed at me.

Speaker 1: 38:42

Now it's Jews referring to your parents.

Speaker 3: 38:44

I was part of your grandpa. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:45

Yeah, you know, it's just tangent.

Speaker 1: 38:47

It's funny for me to think about when I first took this in, like the summer of 2002, right around the same time when Brian was all learning this, and you know, if, brian, if we had met each other, then it'd be just interesting because, as you know, as you have grown as a person, as you have developed both of you I've you know, because I've actually known Linda longer like we have all kind of Grown up and learn the strength stuff together, right, like as we've been figuring out things About how this tool works, how it can work, how it works in our own lives, how we've, you know, oh, I understand this strength to be more like this.

Speaker 1: 39:30

And maybe if I don't want to have the final thought here, but maybe if there's one giant takeaway from all of this, is that this is an ever-evolving process. This is a constant. It's something that you never you stop doing to think that you can like go through a course, or you know it takes time, it takes commitment, it takes investment. So, you know, just pulling up his giant text again, brian, there's at least five more, five more of these types of conversations that we can have. So Nathan.

Speaker 2: 40:00

One of the things I think is funny is just this quote from Chip that I think is hilarious because I've been in these situations and it's that like. I remember writing this down. I was sitting in the back of this auditorium and some young woman Raises her hand in the audience. As Chip was presenting strengths, a young woman asked him this question, boy quote does a person with the strength of command had trouble submitting to authority, to which Chip Anderson quickly answered why, yes, everyone has trouble submitting to authority.

Speaker 2: 40:34

Right, exactly, I just love how, you know, we tend to approach strengths like that. We just tend to approach strength as you know, one strength has one perspective and one set of problems and one set of opportunities and yeah, just that responsive chip is.

Speaker 2: 40:50

The answer is yes, we all have those challenges and you know how those opportunities matter what our strengths are I think that's like a final word for me is Strengths. For me at this point, you know, in my 25 year journey with strengths, strengths are more like a liquid than anything else. They they shape and shift to the environment that they're in. You can add different tastes to liquid. Liquid can change its form. You can mix liquid with different things to create different outcomes. And if we think of strengths that way, it kind of you know it fits each one of of these quotes you can mix things with strength. Sometimes Liquids are in forms that may or may not recognize, and liquid is transportable, no matter how you want to give one place another. And For me, there's just something about this openness, this curiosity and this freedom to interpreting and understanding strengths. That is one of my great takeaways from some of the early lessons that chip Anderson was teaching me.

Speaker 3: 41:49

And it's an honor to share it with the listeners, because we want to share the lessons that we've learned. We don't hold them for ourselves.

Speaker 1: 41:57

Thank you for listening to the Leadership Vision podcast and joining on this special journey back in time, revisiting one of our more compelling episodes we've had in the last year this conversation that Brian, linda and I had.

Speaker 1: 42:10

I think it not only highlights some of the enduring wisdom found 20 some years ago, back in the early days of the strengths movement, but it also challenges us to consider how these insights continue to influence our approach to leadership, to team building and to creating strong organizational culture.

Speaker 1: 42:29

Now, as we all reflect on these lost lessons shared here in this episode today, I know that I'm reminded that the journey of discovering and leveraging our strengths it's ongoing.

Speaker 1: 42:39

Right, it's this constantly evolving process as we navigate new challenges, new opportunities, work with new team members, new teammates just grow and who we are as people and the insights from Chip Anderson, brought well back to life through Brian's memories and some of this thoughtful discussion that followed. They serve as a testament, I think, really, to the foundational principles of the strengths philosophy that each individual's unique talents are a source of strength, not just for personal growth but and here's the key but for the collective success of teams and organizations. Right, it's for everybody, not just for ourselves. Now we hope that this episode has inspired you to revisit your own strengths journey or, if you haven't taken your strengths assessment yet, that you take time to do that. And they also explore the nuances of how those talents, those building blocks of your strengths, how they intersect with the needs of your team and your organization and also continue fostering a culture where everyone's unique contributions are valued and celebrated now as always, we are here to support you in this endeavor.

Speaker 1: 43:44

It's a lot of work, it's very hard, it's challenging, it can be very frustrating. A lot of stops and starts and false starts and false stops along the way. So for more resources and any guidance that you might have about implementing a strengths-based approach in your team context, you can visit our website at leadershipvisionconsultingcom. You can also send us an email. Connect at leadershipvisionconsultingcom also. Please reach out to us on any social media channels or platforms, whatever you want. We are here to help you build positive team culture wherever you are. My name is Nathan Freeberg and, on behalf of our entire team, thanks for listening.