Leadership skills are more important than ever in our constantly changing workplaces. Being able to keep and flourish great employees today has become a tricky balance. 

As many companies navigate returning to the office in some shape or form, there are a number of new challenges for leaders. Questions such as: 

• How do we develop connections across in-person and remote staff? 

• How do we meet the wide range of hybrid work needs for employees? 

• How do we pivot and communicate effectively as things continue to shift? 

• How do we lead in a way that motivates people and fosters a sense of engagement? 

At Leadology, we help organizations build a more empowered, capable, and human-focused workplace. Which means, leaders must consider — now more than ever before — how to develop and prioritize the most important resource any organization has: its employees. 

In this article, we’re exploring how managers can set the right tone, communicate policies and procedures, and collaborate in a more effective way during (and after!) a hybrid transition by using strengths-based development.

In addition to the free resources we provide on the future of hybrid work, we offer customized learning journeys and support through our group coaching program Activate. You can also reach out to our team here, with any questions or needs.

Why Take a Strengths-Based Approach for Leadership Skills? 

We believe the first step in nurturing a successful workplace is recognizing, feeding, and leveraging employees strengths. According to Gallup research, taking a strengths-based approach to supporting your team will see your people six times more engaged in their jobs and 38% more productive. Or as Tom Rath puts it in his book Strengths Based Leadership 2.0, “You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a whole lot more of who you already are.” Curious about other benefits of strengths-based leadership? Be sure to explore the below article which breaks down how strengths can help your people feel more confident, empowered, and appreciated - as an individual and a team. 

How Do I Discover my Leadership Superpowers 

Pro Tip: If you’re interested in discovering, developing, and deepening your talents, be sure to join Leadology’s 21-Day Strengths Challenge. 

How Can Strengths Help Managers Right Now? 

Big news! Gallup has recently launched a new product, ClifftonStrengths for Managers. This report leverages Gallup’s years of research to shine a light on how leaders can use their unique talents to improve Performance, Engagement, Culture, and Wellbeing. Through this report, you’ll also be able to discover manager-specific insights, including your top 10 themes as well as action ideas that will help you address pressing items around hybrid work. 

How Can a Strengths-Based Approach Work With My Leadership Skills to Help Teams Right Now?

Now more than ever, we need to find ways to bond and connect. 

Figuring out how to get teams to operate in alignment is no easy task - especially in this new paradigm of hybrid work. Practicing a strengths-based approach will allow employees to learn to depend on one another to drive progress and help teams achieve goals together regardless of where they are located. Or as Gallup explains, “Strengths is a common language. This common language of CliftonStrengths gives people a sort of shortcut for getting to know one another and create trust among each other. It fosters productive, ongoing conversations about what talents people bring to certain situations. And it's a language that bridges cultural and organizational demographics, giving individual team members ways to communicate why they're unique and how that uniqueness can benefit the team.” 

We must understand our blind spots, especially during transitions. 

Practicing strengths-based leadership is powerful because it removes unrealistic expectations that a manager has to be good at everything. All the time. Especially during a global pandemic when there are unprecedented levels of personal and professional stress. Through strengths, leaders can learn to accept that being good at everything is unrealistic, focusing their attention on deepening their strengths and using those to perform at high levels of excellence even during uncertain times.  

Managers can focus on clear action items 

Armed with your personalized CliftonStrengths report, you’ll be able to use the suggested action items to approach your daily responsibilities with the awareness of your natural talents. Here’s a sample action item, taken from a CliftonStrengths report for your reference: 

Discover the audience — or person — whom your team members consider the most important. Ask each team member the following questions: Whose approval do you value most? Whose feedback do you appreciate most? Whose endorsement do you care about most? Use this information to ensure employees get the recognition that is most meaningful to them.

Inside this sample report you can see examples of other action items. 

From Theory to Practice: Leadership Skills 

After reviewing the results of your report, we recommend taking some time to think about how you can apply your findings to the way you’re managing through the hybrid transition. Some questions to consider include:

• What leadership responsibilities do you need to delegate? 

• How are you the most valuable to your team? 

• Where should you be spending your time right now?

• How can you lead with your talents? 

• How will you deliberately use your strengths to achieve all this?
  

Pro Tip: If you’re looking for more practical advice on how to navigate hybrid work as a leader, be sure to check out this guide. 

How Can Strengths Help Your Team in the Future? 

We love this quote by legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson: "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team." 

Strengths-based teams know not only how to excel as individuals, but as a group. Why is this so important to the future of work? According to Gallup, “researchers conducted a meta-analysis study of 49,495 business units comprised of 1.2 million employees across 22 organizations in 45 countries. The research examined six outcomes: sales, profit, customer engagement, turnover, employee engagement and safety. The study found that, on average, workgroups that received a strengths-based intervention improved significantly on these key performance measures compared with groups that received little to no strengths-based development.”

When you know what your team's strengths are, you will see how to utilize these skills to create a team that is engaged and excited about their work. Having a team that understands what their strengths are and having them utilize these strengths will see an improvement not only in their work but also for your business. 

Want to build a Strengths-Based team? We encourage you to learn more about Activate, our group coaching program for managers.