The Leadership Vision Podcast

Unlocking Leadership Influence: Interpreting Strengths for Better Team Dynamics

• Nathan Freeburg • Season 7 • Episode 30

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In this episode of the Leadership Vision Podcast, Dr. Linda and Brian Schubring delve into the nuanced use of the language of Strengths to articulate the influence of leaders on their teams. Rather than allowing Strengths definitions to rigidly frame perceptions, they advocate understanding the 'how' and 'why' behind leadership actions first.

They discuss three core themes—relationships, results, and responsibilities—and explore how leaders across various industries navigate these areas using their unique strengths. Detailed examples of different leadership styles, such as benevolent disruptors and steady Eddies, illustrate how Strengths can drive relationship-building, results achievement, and responsibility-taking.

The episode emphasizes the importance of leaders and team members understanding and leveraging their strengths for effective team dynamics and positive work culture.

09:04 Relationships
09:40 Achiever and Relator
11:53 Ideation and Competition
16:22 Results
17:04 Three Types of Leaders
22:04 Leaders who get results by example
24:01 What Strengths of Yours Help You Get Results?
25:04 Responsibility
28:26 Strategic and Adaptability
30:23 Two Takeaways

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The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in discovering, practicing, and implementing a Strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. Contact us to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.

Speaker 1:

Many times, the language of strengths can inadvertently cloud our perception of a leader's influence. Instead of solely relying on strengths definitions, we advocate for first understanding how and why a leader is influencing their team, and then using the language of strengths to articulate that influence.

Speaker 2:

That's pretty good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Brian and Linda tell me about this paragraph here. What are we talking about today on the Leadership Vision Podcast?

Speaker 2:

Brian and Linda tell me about this paragraph here. What are we talking about today on the Leadership Vision Podcast? Today, we're talking about how we can use the language of strengths to better understand and interpret how a leader is influencing their people and trying to cast a clear and articulate vision for their people to follow. One of the things that we find in our practice is this challenge, or this unique sense of balance between having people understand what their strengths are and not allowing that definition to frame too rigidly how they're interpreting other people's actions, the way people are responding emotionally and so that's what we want to talk about today is how is it that we can recognize the language of strengths, not necessarily as a framework, but as a foundation to understand how our leaders are trying to lead us?

Speaker 1:

You are listening to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build positive team culture. Our consulting firm has been doing this work for the past 25 years so that leaders are mentally engaged and emotionally healthy. And so when I think about this, or I think about how we've talked about it in the past, I think of three R words we have relationships, we have results and we have responsibilities. As we think about those three words and what you just said, brian, how does that all fit together? Can you maybe paint like a bigger, broader picture of this for us and then we'll kind of dive into it?

Speaker 2:

Sure, the genesis of this podcast was a question that Linda and I asked ourselves, and that question was what were some of the common initiatives or some of the common concerns that many of the leaders had that we've been working with for the last 18 months? So over the last 18 months we've had several themes that have kind of emerged to the top as common themes, regardless of industry. These are the themes that executive leaders are trying to integrate or trying to engage with their teams, and so these three ideas really reflect that. Idea number one is relationships, whether that is an executive wanting to themselves build stronger relationships with their team or foster stronger team relationships. We often find that relationships is important because what ends up happening is Linda and I trying to help team members understand the relationship with their leader.

Speaker 2:

The second theme is results. We often have executives that are asking us to engage their teams because they want a different kind of result. They want a higher level result or they want to change the results that's happening within their team, and that's a variety of different ways that leaders are trying to do that. But trying to get a team to engage a specific way to create a specific result, that is critically important. And a third theme is the theme of responsibility. What we mean by this is many executives are asking their teams to either take greater responsibility for their role to the organization, take a different type of responsibility toward their team, or just act with responsibility. And so these three words relationships, results and responsibilities are the three different topics we want to talk about today on how it is that we're going to understand how leaders are engaging their people and how can strengths inform how we understand the ideologies and vision of these executive leaders. I like that.

Speaker 1:

So, brian, I love that explanation that warm up here. Who would you say this podcast is for? Is it for the leaders out there that want to better understand this? Is it for the team members who want to understand their leaders? Is it for everybody? Linda, how might you answer that?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think it's for everyone that's on a team or has a leader or is a leader. I feel like it's pretty all-encompassing because when we, you know, did this pause and looked at the last 18 months and we started to think about some of the leaders, this was across industry. This was different pressures that people are experiencing. The results really, in a lot of situations, were tied to profitability, but they were also just so that you know they would still be a viable part of an organization. So this is kind of for everyone who says like I want to be a strengths-based leader, and we would say, maybe hook onto these three different concepts and then ask the question how will you and your strengths make these different components really come to life? What strength are you going to use to foster meaningful relationships? How are you going to use your strengths to help people connect with one another in a meaningful kind of way?

Speaker 1:

Do you find that they're drastically different, meaning the way that I, as a leader, connect relationally versus connect to like the task or the job or which is results, or connect to like maybe a degree of ownership or, you know, getting things done. Could that be drastically different? In a person or is it all just depend?

Speaker 3:

it all depends um it's. It could be. There could be some like a through line maybe, of a strength that shows up in each one of the different areas. One of the themes of strength that shows up, that kind of informs how this person leads or why this person leads. But it could be very different, and so sometimes leaders are accused of just being a completely different person when it comes to building relationships versus trying to get things done or trying to delegate to their people.

Speaker 3:

So, like, why are you different people? Well, maybe they're just exhibiting some of their themes of strength in some different ways.

Speaker 1:

So I think we're going to talk about this via examples, right? We've got a lot of different leaders here. The names have all been changed, I think, to protect the identities of the innocent.

Speaker 3:

And the guilty.

Speaker 1:

And the guilty. How do you want to start this? Do you want to start kind of going through each R at a time? Do you want to talk about one example of a leader? What's the best way to proceed? So?

Speaker 2:

this is what happened. We had this really unique opportunity where we had worked with an executive team for a year and now it's time for the next layer of leadership to go through our program. And so it was cohort number two, and there was a lot of excitement because people obviously heard what had happened with the executive team, how meaningful it was, what happened with the coaching, and this cohort number two was really excited to get engaged themselves. So once we did our introduction, we found the energy level was high and we began to do our introduction to day one, and we were soon interrupted by several people in this cohort because they began to ask about their leaders. They said, okay, this is great, but am I going to learn about my leader's strengths? This is a great start, but when am I going to understand what five strengths the person I report to has? And what about the executive leader? What are her strengths? And all of a sudden we realized, as Linda and I were standing there, we realized they are asking for something very different. They weren't necessarily that interested in themselves right away. They were more interested in how can this language help me understand who's leading me? And that was this aha of us then zooming out and saying how often has this happened? And the answer was often. And then we asked ourselves what role do we find ourselves in?

Speaker 2:

We often find ourselves in a role of using the language of strengths to interpret what a leader is doing, and then we ask ourselves then what are some of the themes? And so, when it comes to relationships, most of the executive leaders that we work with this is their primary concern is how do I build a relationship with my people? And it's important to know that the language of strengths can inform us on how that executive is approaching relationship building, what they're expecting in return from others. And when you look at team members, it is critically important for them to understand really what their executive is asking of them when it comes to building meaningful relationships with each other and with the person that's leading them and that, like you said, nathan, that is, that looks uniquely different to each person and that can change month after month or quarter by quarter of what that person, what that executive leader, is expecting from their people. But the language of strengths can really help us better understand their approach, their intention and even sometimes their attitude and emotion.

Speaker 3:

So I think about relationships in particular, and I think about the leaders that we have worked with in the last year or so in particular, and I started to think about some of their pairings of strength that are at play when they're building relationships or they're wanting to know more about their people.

Speaker 3:

Or there's been some executives that said, well, I don't really know them very much, and then went through a detailed description of all of the people on the team, and so for me, it's what strengths are at play in some of these leaders that help the relationships be built. So there is the one that comes to mind right away is a phenomenal leader and she, I think, leads her people relationally through her strengths of achiever and relator, and in that pairing she is very connected to the work. She is helping people find success around the work. She uses the work as a rallying tool. She has high expectations of herself. She doesn't have that on everybody else, but she does operate in a way that everyone belongs. You are a part of the organization just by the nature of having the badge, and being a part of the organization and how she cultivates relationships is just, it's noteworthy, it's it should be emulated.

Speaker 2:

For her. Her strength and relator comes in the relational rapport that she establishes, and that is an intentional relational rapport that she's creating. He's also creating a relational trust and relational accountability. So rapport, trust and accountability are all extending from her strength of relator, because she's not only believing in you but she's expecting you to respond to her in a very personal and meaningful way too.

Speaker 2:

And for this leader, the reason why we are pairing the strength of achiever with relator is because her trust in you will develop over time as you are fulfilling the work that you're committed to do. And so there is a unique relationship there, meaning let's work together, but I'm not going to do your work for you. I will trust you as you accomplish what it is that your job requires you to accomplish. And she continues to create relational experiences where people can lean back, press pause, have conversations. So she's very relationally attuned to what people need to build relationships. It's not all pressure, pressure, pressure. And that's the part of the strength of Relayer that I think is so magical is that there's a relational attentiveness to what an individual needs to form a meaningful relationship, and she just has that. She just has this unique approach.

Speaker 3:

So I might feel like cheating to use the strength of Relator to talk about relationships, which led us to talking about another leader that we work with. That exhibits his strength of ideation and competition as a display of how he builds relationships. Part of what he likes to do is to brainstorm, to talk about a variety of options. He likes to engage with someone and have space to actually think about the work that they are going to do, that they have to do together. Why? Because his strength of competition wants to win, wants it to be meaningful, wants the work that they are doing to create the sense of camaraderie that it's, you know, us against the world. And so, even though he doesn't necessarily have a relating theme of strength in his top five, what I heard from him as I've learned more about him is that he has a relational hunger, and how he builds relationship is around ideas and around being on the same team with someone.

Speaker 2:

And sometimes his strength of competition can also be trying to seek what the best idea is for his audience, and so there's this sense of not just winning, for like getting something accomplished or achieving something, it's finding the best idea or sequence of ideas so that people can engage. When you see him break things down, it's like, oh, this is the pathway to success or the pathway to succeeding that he's laying out before us, and that's this unique play of strength of ideation and the strength of competition.

Speaker 1:

So the first leader, let's call her Tina, yeah. And the second leader, we'll call him Marcus, just for Tina and Marcus. What's interesting in just hearing those two stories is it seems like they're both have the same end, goal or objective they want to connect to their people, they want to build this relationship, but they're doing it in such different ways that if you are, you know someone on those teams, or let's say, you're in a team that has kind of two leaders that look so different. That could be really confusing and I know these two people are not on the same team. Um, but how? What would be advice, I guess is the question I'm getting at to someone who's on a team and their leader is trying to connect to them relationally in a way that's very foreign, that is very different. Because I imagine, if you know, let's say, someone on marcus's team is like I hate competition, I don't want any like whatever, the opposite of competitions, I don't like that at all. I can't relate to this guy. What's happening? Like, how do you try to?

Speaker 2:

do you know what I'm asking during getting out with this question? Yeah, one, I'm kind of a little anxious to say something. One of the things that strength does not touch on at all is a person's capacity or skillset, and with these two leaders, they have incredible capacity and incredible skill. Meaning to answer your question, nathan, I would encourage anyone who's reporting to these two individuals to ask questions, because one of the things that happens when you ask a person a question, a person that has high capacity and high skill, they have a way of breaking things down in that moment so people can better understand. And one of the things I know is that each of these leaders has a tremendous capacity to explain what is that they mean and what is that they're expecting.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I think, at the end of the day, it's asking the question like we didn't start with strengths, we started with what is the theme of the leaders that we've been working with? And if I look at how, do these leaders desire to knit people together, how do they want their people to connect and have meaningful relationships? And then it's asking oh well, you do it this way and I do it that way. When you begin to highlight what strengths a leader might be using, then it's a little bit. Even if it's foreign to you, it's a little bit more understandable.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'm just realizing, too, that there's a lot of assuming positive intent on both sides of this. So if you're, you know, a leader, that's like I cannot connect to this person. I'm using my achiever and the later to do that's not working. It's like, well that person might be, you know they're not. There's a lot of give and take. So even though, like, this is what this person uses to connect, there's an element of where you have to sort of I don't know meet in the middle. But let's talk about results. I want to move on to that because I think that ultimately, at the end of the day, that's all that matters. You could say, relationships are the only thing that matters, but if you're not getting results, your business isn't going to thrive, your team is going to get laid out, like all that thing. So talk a little bit about results, very high level, and then we can dive into some of these great examples.

Speaker 2:

Well, one of the things that it just seems so obvious.

Speaker 2:

Every leader is concerned about results, and that can be from the small minutia to just very, very broad goals, but they want to know some kind of progress.

Speaker 2:

And when we began to think about the leaders that we've been working with for last year, we began to see that there were three different types of leaders. Number one there's like the benevolent disruptor, like that individual that is intentionally disrupting what's going on to ensure that their vision is clearly communicated. The second one are those leaders that are really, really steady, like they're consistent, they're clear, you can count on them, and we found that those leaders are tremendously impactful. And the third one is the type of leader that is kind of saying you know, follow me. Like they're the ones that lead by example, or they lead by reputation, and they're often surprised of how influential their example and reputation is. So the first one is the disruptor. The second one is the leader that's consistent, clear. And the third one is the leader that leads by example and reputation and, like we've been talking about in this conversation, we can use the language of strengths to help us better understand how a leader is driving towards the achievement of their result.

Speaker 3:

Knowing that when pressures are high, you're going to see maybe an amplified version of some of these kinds of leaders. Now we've worked with more benevolent disruptors than I can even count on my fingers and toes.

Speaker 2:

It has Morgan 20.

Speaker 3:

It has been a lot and it's exciting and you know there's give and take with all of that. There's pluses and minuses of it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

But when you start to see a benevolent disruptor in motion, knowing that change is already coming at you with breakneck speed, and then there is some kind of disruption or added choice on purpose to change or pivot or take a different direction, it's those leaders that I think are carving a path for the future. And in some of the examples that I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about the strength of activator and the strength of ideation that pairs together like well, why not? And then just do it, and there is a a catalytic kind of movement that comes around one of these leaders.

Speaker 2:

And with that leader. What's interesting with him is when he disrupts, the disruption may last for a month or two and then it's a new disruption. So almost there is this flywheel of of disruption, meaning when it it, when people are trying to follow him, sometimes they get frustrated because he's consistently like like tweaking or nuancing what is that he's disrupting. So like, once you adapt and change, you're going to adapt and change again, but he does it in a way to keep people going, and so when people start to fall behind, it in a way to keep people going, and so when people start to fall behind, it's also kind of clear. So that's one very interesting, very, very active way of seeking results as a disruptor.

Speaker 3:

Now there's an informed kind of benevolent disruptor and it's a woman I'm thinking about that leads in a way that is very data-driven, that sees the big picture with her strength of a ranger and then just starts to make decisions and take action. She values action, but there's almost like a sitting up straight when you're working with her. There you go, like you just did Nathan, like a sitting up straight and saying, okay, we mean business, like we are going to disrupt all together. And her data-informed disruption actually causes people to be better around her and that's why it's just really it that one is exciting what's interesting about her is that she speaks about what's needed in this profession.

Speaker 2:

so her strength of a ranger speaks from what this industry is doing, what it means to be a professional in this industry, what it means for you to be a professional in this industry. So it's very, very broad and very archy in how she explains it. But then that data piece the data fuels the motion and the movement, and so when her people are following her, it's typically really easy to measure if they're keeping up or if they're not, because she has this unique combination of the strength of a ranger big, broad arcs of understanding, interpreting the world around her and this data of her strength of achievers, saying we need to do this, this and this, and that will set you in the right course towards this larger goal the other person that we talked about, or the other kind of leader that we've talked about, is the, the steady eddie.

Speaker 3:

Now, that was a term that I learned growing up, and I realized very quickly that I am not a steady eddie nope um consistency, this clarity, this desire for just you, just keep moving ahead. It's the tortoise that wins the race. And for me, I think, when I see a steady Eddie that is getting results, that has their flywheel going of achievement, of creating the right kind of spaces for people to thrive, I just think a lot of people can get behind those leaders.

Speaker 2:

And the last one is the leader who achieves results by setting the example themselves, by not necessarily touting or promoting their reputation, but that person that just lives at such a level where their reputation is known.

Speaker 3:

It could be a very intuitive kind of person, the leader that I'm thinking about. His strengths of learner are just constantly curious, wanting to learn new things, and then he also seeks to get results with relators, so he will bring unique people to the table almost surprise us from time to time when we have meetings with him, of like who's there and who he's connected with, because he's trying to build the right kind of infrastructure in his organization where people are getting results and they can all.

Speaker 2:

They can all celebrate that together and one of the reasons why his example is such a powerful one is because this individual has been in this organization for several decades and he has built strong relationships and his reputation for building strong relationships and trusting in other people. You know that reputation surrounds him, so when his team is enveloped in that, they feel that strong relational connection as well, and this individual he also is. Like linda was saying, he's seeking to learn and to be curious, and that sense of learning about others it further strengthens the relationships that he has with his team, which is such an interesting combination of how he leads. And one of the things that we are so surprised by is he often is surprised by his own influence, like he just isn't that aware of how strong his reputation is and how he has consistently led by example. But that example has been fueled by I just want to learn more. If I learn it and I trust these people, I can do more.

Speaker 1:

What would you say then is the takeaway for leaders or team members from this section Is it you know, understand kind of what which of these three benevolent disruptor steady Eddie, follow me is kind of how their strengths operate when it comes to getting results, or what would be the main takeaway that someone could, perhaps, who know their strengths, can look at them in a certain way and say, oh, this is the way I get results based on my strengths that's right and it's asking that question what strengths of yours help you get results?

Speaker 3:

you could almost pay attention to the ways that you're you're getting rewarded or you're getting noticed or you are helping advance the cause, and I think it's saying that I don't have to do it the way that everybody else does it. But I um. I can be a contributing member. I can add value. I can um, I can get the results so that we can all succeed.

Speaker 1:

So then, moving on to responsibility, because you could say that the responsibility of a leader is to get results. How?

Speaker 3:

do you?

Speaker 3:

Tell us a little bit more about this one and then we'll get into some of those examples. This theme came as a result of talking to the leaders that we're working with and we're hearing about their passionate you know they want to have relationships. They're passionate about their people knowing each other. They're passionate about getting results, the pressures that they're putting on or have been put on them in their industry. And what we're hearing is like when we say like when you're looking at your people, what are you wanting?

Speaker 3:

I want them to take responsibility. They're taking responsibility, but they want to help their people take responsibility as well, to take responsibility for their job, to be able to navigate the different challenges and changes. What we are learning is that, in order to take responsibility, I think a secret right now is to tolerate less certainty than you ever have before and still move, not get stuck. Just get stuck with where you are like. Well, I have to wait for all these pieces to come together. I think the leaders that have this hunger for their people to take more responsibility, more accountability, is really to tolerate the uncertainty of changing times.

Speaker 2:

With responsibility. What we often find as a challenge is that leaders sometimes forget the risks they took when they needed to take more responsibility, because they'll say it's so easy Well, you just got to do this, you got to do this. And people forget that that change, or how they themselves stepped up into new roles, new responsibilities, new expressions of leadership, could have taken them months of development, months of letting go, months of learning new things, and they often forget of the process it takes to build someone up into a greater level of responsibility. But what's common about it is the leaders that get this right. They're creating a moment or they're creating environments when the invitation to take more responsibility is positive. It happens within group settings and it's something that you feel an energy rising and you feel I want to be a part of this and we're working with a leader now. And you feel I want to be a part of this and we're working with a leader now.

Speaker 2:

And the way that he does this is he has a passion to invest in mid-level leaders Like think of leaders in their 30s and 40s that have a direction that they're going with their career, and what this guy is doing is he's using his strength of woo and his strength of communication to create an environment of excitement where people want to grow, where people want to risk, where people want to build relationally and build professionally into their careers. And so what? He just has this keen ability to understand what 30 or 40 people in a room might need. He knows what to say to inspire the sense of participation in being more responsible, and he does it with humor, he does it with incredible stories and he kind of diminishes the risk without ignoring the risk of what it means to step up and be more responsible to yourself, to your career and to the organizations that you're working in.

Speaker 3:

I think of another leader that has the strength of strategic and adaptability, this adaptive capacity of the strength of adaptability, to just bend and flex the strategic theme of strength. That points to the way that they can make decisions and make a plan in the moment when those two pair together. There is this demonstration that these leaders have a plan but they're willing to pivot because there's something brand new in the world that we have to respond to.

Speaker 1:

Things are always changing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, always changing, always changing. So, no matter your strengths, I think the question here is what strengths of yours? Take accountability, take ownership, when you really are owning the work that you need to do, when you have to take the risk and demonstrate a little bit of courage in order to step into the next place or to step up to what the leader is asking for you. Which strengths of yours can you use, can you leverage to take greater responsibility at work?

Speaker 2:

Because we all know that the people that we work with, they've taken these risks before They've moved up. They've taken greater responsibilities and sometimes some easy strengths. Prompts are which strengths of yours did you rely on when you had to move into that greater responsibility five years ago or a year ago? Because that kind of prompt is going to trigger something within someone's mind about a challenge that they faced, how they made it through and what some of the learning opportunities may be when they take the next step forward.

Speaker 1:

As we wrap things up here, is there any final thought or piece of advice? We've just given people a lot of info. At the end of the day, is it just understand how your strengths uniquely help you lead? Or what would be kind of the one takeaway that you would leave people with?

Speaker 2:

Well, my takeaway is almost the opposite of what you said. Oh, my takeaway is when you're wondering why your leader is acting or behaving, or something, the way that they are, don't let the language of strengths cloud your interpretation of what's happening. Let the interpretation of what's happening sink in, become familiar with what it feels like and then add a lens of strength to ask yourself what would be going on with them add a lens of strength to ask yourself what would be going on with them.

Speaker 3:

And I would do the internal reflection in order to take action, to say what strengths am I using to build relationships at work? What strengths am I using to advance the cause, to get results at work, knowing that sometimes, when you're in higher levels of leadership, those tangible wins, you don't feel that necessarily every day because you're delegating, but paying attention to where are you getting results? And then, what strengths of yours are you using to take responsibility, taking greater ownership? And when you start to pay attention to those, that would be a great conversation to either have with a peer or your leader to say this is what I'm working on and then open it up for feedback or for greater direction, because it could be very contagious.

Speaker 2:

Did you just walk through all three of those, or was that not looking?

Speaker 1:

Pretty much, yep, okay. Well, brian and Linda, thank you so much for sharing these ideas. I think this is helpful, and we know from working with all these leaders that, regardless of strengths, profiles or anything you know, the best leaders are consistently seeking growth and adaptation and learning, and leaders that prioritize building relationships, achieving results and fostering responsibility within their teams tend to do better. So that's me. I'm Nathan Friberg, I'm Linda.

Speaker 3:

Schubring. I'm Linda Schubring.

Speaker 1:

And I'm Brian Schubring and I'm half of our entire team.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening.