Presentations for the Virginia Agriculture Leaders Obtaining Results (VALOR) program. Highlights perceptions of leadership, principles of strengths-based leadership, and framework for courageous followership.

1. Strengths-Based Leadership
(and Followership)
Presented by Eric K. Kaufman
July 23, 2013

2. Who is Eric Kaufman?
• Associate Professor &
Extension Specialist
• Lead researcher for
VALOR program launch
• Coordinator of VT’s
Graduate Certificate in
Collaborative Community
Leadership
• Former H.S. AgriScience
Teacher

3. Our Agenda…
1. Personalizing
Leadership
2. Principles of Strengths-
Based Leadership
3. Partnering with
Courageous Followers
4. Strategies for
Application

4. Virginia Agriculture’s Interest
(Kaufman et al., 2010)
“Growing new leaders and enhancing the skills of
current leaders is vitally important to the future of
agriculture.”
“I believe that the more involved one becomes in
problem solving, working in team/group settings with a
strong community commitment the more people can
work together to solve any and all problems their
community is faced with. Since agriculture is so critical
anything we can do to provide leadership learning in
this area would be extremely beneficial.”

5. VALOR Vision Statement
The Virginia Agriculture Leaders Obtaining
Results (VALOR) program will provide a
sustainable future for Virginia's agricultural
community by maximizing potential for
successful growth through a system of
networking, collaborative decision-making,
and development of strong leaders.

6. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT
LEADERSHIP?

7. GALLUP POLL – LEADERSHIP ABILITY
Out of 1,001 U.S. adults
surveyed, 97% rated their
ability to lead as being at or
above average.
97%
3%
At or Above Average
Below Average
What % of U.S. adults rate their leadership ability
as being at or above average?

8. GALLUP POLL – LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
Out of 1,001 U.S. adults
surveyed, more than two-
thirds reported that they
have led a group or team.
67%
33%
Led a Group or Team
Yes No
What % of U.S. adults have led a group or team?

9. How Do You Define Leadership?
• Defining Leadership through
Personalized Plates
– Use template to create a
personalized license plate that
identifies a characteristic of
leadership.
– Your plate may have a
combination of up to seven
letters, numbers, and/or special
characters.
– Creativity is encouraged.

10. Leadership Lessons
from Dancing Guy

12. How Do You Define Leadership?
• Defining Leadership through
Personalized Plates
– Use template to create a
personalized license plate that
identifies a characteristic of
leadership.
– Your plate may have a
combination of up to seven
letters, numbers, and/or special
characters.
– Creativity is encouraged.

13. Caveat on Studying Leadership
“The distinctive feature of leadership is that it would
appear the more we learn about leadership, the more
we realize we have to and want to learn.”
(Jackson & Parry, 2008, p. 9)

14. Leadership Defined
“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the
science of management says is possible.”
– Colin Powell, American statesman and retired four-star general in the
United States Army
“Leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to
struggle for shared aspirations.”
– James Kouzes & Barry Posner, leadership researchers and authors of
The Leadership Challenge
“Leadership is a process whereby an individual
influences a group of individuals to achieve a common
goal.”
– Peter Northouse, professor of communication and author of Leadership:
Theory and Practice

15. Five Ways to Study Leadership
(Jackson & Parry, 2008)
• Attempt to lead
• Observe leadership in action
• Talk about leadership
• Read about leadership
• Write about leadership

16. Exemplary Leadership Practices
(Kouzes & Posner, 2007)
Challenging the Process
Inspiring a Shared Vision
Enabling Others to Act
Modeling the Way
Encouraging the Heart

17. FINDING YOURSELF AS A
LEADER

18. Multi-Level View of Leadership Development
(Avolio, 2005)
Life
Experiences
Talents &
Capacities
Self
Aware
Self-
Regulate
Self-
Develop
Triggers
Culture
Vision
How am I Supported?
Where do I come from?
Who am I?

19. Personal SWOT Analysis
Strengths
•What do you do well?
•What do others see as your
strengths?
Weaknesses
•What could you improve?
•What are others likely to see as
weaknesses?
Opportunities
•What trends could you take
advantage of?
•How can you turn your strengths
into opportunities?
Threats
•What trends could harm you?
•What threats do your weaknesses
expose you to?

20. Time Remaining:
Personal SWOT
•Complete the SWOT worksheet

21. STOP!

22. What do we do with the SWOT
data?
According to Gallup’s research the most
effective leaders:
1. Are always investing in strengths
2. Surround themselves with the right people
and then maximize their team
3. Understand their followers needs
• Reference: Rath & Conchie’s (2008) Strengths Based Leadership

23. STRENGTHS-BASED
LEADERSHIP

24. Early Leadership Theory: Traits
• Premise:
– All great leaders have
common traits
• Challenge:
1. Identify the
leadership traits
2. Make people with
those traits the
leaders

25. Explaining Leadership Differences:
Style Approaches to Leadership
Leadership Grid Situational Leadership

26. Strengths-Based Leadership
• Argues that we all have
innate talents to be
developed into strengths
• Views leadership as a
collective process
• Recommends different
strengths for different
leadership situations

27. Leadership Myths and Truths
Myths
– Each of us can be anything we want to be if
we just work hard.
– We grow most where we are weakest.
– Strengths will take care of themselves.
Truths
– You can be anything your strengths allow you
to be.
– We grow most in the areas we are already
strong.
– I can be taught knowledge and skills, but I
can’t learn talents.

28. “A leader needs to know his strengths as a
carpenter knows his tools, or as a physician
knows the instruments at her disposal. What
great leaders have in common is that each truly
knows his or her strengths – and can call on the
right strength at the right time. This explains why
there is no definitive list of characteristics that
describes all leaders.”
- Donald O. Clifton, Gallup Researcher and
Father of Strengths Psychology

29. What is a Strength? Weakness?
STRENGTH
• Consistent, near perfect performance
in an activity
= STRENGTH
WEAKNESS
• Something that gets in the way of
excellent performance
Knowledge + Skills + Talents

30. INDICATORS OF WEAKNESS
• Feel defensive about performance
– Develop obsessive behavior
• Exhibit slow learning
– Do not profit from with repeated experience
• Experience a reduction of confidence
from performing the activity
• Lack futuristic thinking about the activity
• Suffer burnout while practicing

31. How Do I Find My Strengths?
 Listen to your yearnings
 Watch for satisfactions
 Watch for rapid learning
 Glimpses of excellence
 Total performance of excellence

32. Domains of Leadership Strength
Executing Relationship Building
Strategic Thinking Influencing
Task-
Oriented
People-
Oriented
Future-Oriented
Present-Oriented

33. Executing Domain
Description
• Know how to make things
happen
• Have ability to “catch” an
idea and make it happen
Talent Themes
• Achiever
• Arranger
• Belief
• Consistency
• Deliberative
• Discipline
• Focus
• Responsibility
• Restorative

34. Relationship Building Domain
Talent Themes
• Adaptability
• Developer
• Connectedness
• Empathy
• Harmony
• Includer
• Individualization
• Positivity
• Relator
Description
• Provide essential glue
that holds the team
together
• Create groups and
organizations that are
much greater than the
sum of their parts

35. Strategic Thinking Domain
Description
• Keep us all focused on
what could be
• Constantly absorbing and
analyzing information and
helping the team make
better decisions
Talent Themes
• Analytical
• Context
• Futuristic
• Ideation
• Input
• Intellection
• Learner
• Strategic

36. Influencing Domain
Talent Themes Description
• Help the team reach a
broader audience
• Take charge, speak
up, and make sure the
group is heard
• Activator
• Command
• Communication
• Competition
• Maximizer
• Self-Assurance
• Significance
• Woo

38. What Are Others’ Strengths?
• Discover the strengths and domains of others
– Complete the worksheet with those around you
• Draw one inclusive picture of the main strengths
of those in your group
– Include in the picture
• The Strengths
• The Domains

39. Time Remaining:
Prepare a hieroglyphic that
represents collaborative use of
strengths represented in your
group

40. STOP!

41. Gallup’s Approach to Strengths-
Based Development

42. COURAGEOUS FOLLOWERS

43. Leaders vs. Followers

44. Common
Purpose
A New Model of Leader-
Follower Relationships
Leader Followers
Shared Values
Leaders and Followers
Serve a Common Purpose
Pursued Within Shared Values

45. Leading and Following Through Tango

46. 46
Leader-Follower Organization
Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower
Leader-follower Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower
Leader-follower
Source: Gene Dixon

47. Five Dimensions of
Courageous Followership
Courage
to
Assume Responsibility
for common purpose
Support
leader and
group
energetically
Take moral action
when needed
Participate in
transformation
Constructively
challenge
counterproductive
policies &
behaviors

48. FOLLOWERS’ BASIC NEEDS
(ACCORDING TO GALLUP POLLS; RATH & CONCHIE, 2008)
• Trust
– Chances of being engaged at work when the
individual does not trust the company’s leaders is just
1 in 12.
• Compassion
– Those who indicate “My supervisor, or someone at
work, seems to care about me as a person” are:
• Significantly more likely to stay with the
organization
• Substantially more productive

49. FOLLOWERS’ BASIC NEEDS (continued) (ACCORDING TO
GALLUP POLLS; RATH & CONCHIE, 2008)
• Stability
– Those with high confidence in their company’s
financial future are nine times more likely to be
engaged in their jobs.
• Hope
– Among those who disagreed that their company’s
leadership made them “feel enthusiastic about the
future,” only 1% were engaged in their jobs.

50. Leader-Follower Organization
Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower
Leader-follower Leader-follower Leader-follower
Leader-follower
Leader-follower
50
Source: Gene Dixon

51. What Strong Teams Have in
Common (Rath & Conchie, 2008)
1. Conflict doesn’t destroy strong teams
because strong teams focus on results
2. Strong teams prioritize what’s best for the
organization and then move forward
3. Members of strong teams are as
committed to their personal lives as they
are to their work
4. Strong teams embrace diversity
5. Strong teams are magnets for talent

52. APPLYING WHAT WE HAVE
LEARNED

53. Lesson for Practice
“A leader is someone who can get
things done through other people.”
-Warren Buffet

54. Where Can We Apply Leadership?
• Business
• Community
• Family
• Professional
Organizations

55. Multi-Level View of Leadership Development
(Avolio, 2005)
Life
Experiences
Talents &
Capacities
Self
Aware
Self-
Regulate
Self-
Develop
Triggers
Culture
Vision
How am I Supported?
What am I Experiencing?
How do I develop and behave?
Where do I come from?
Who am I?
What am I becoming?

56. Your Individual Development Plan
• Name It
• Claim It
• Aim It

57. Implications for You and Others?

58. Thank you!
Let me know how I can help
• Eric Kaufman
– EKaufman@VT.Edu