Buckingham
November 26, 2008
I just finished listening to a speaker by the name of Marcus Buckingham, and what he talked about on leadership was fantastic. He spoke for a little over an hour so if you want to hear the whole thing buy the 2007 Summit Leadership Conference DVD that was put on by Willow Creek or go to marcusbuckingham.com. But here are three truths that he said that stood out to me.
Marcus’ whole speech was on playing to your strengths, and he gives three myths that can keep us from focusing on what we do great.
Myth #1 – As you grow your personality changes.
He joked, “just go to a high scool reunion, did anybody really change?” Here is the truth:
Truth #1 – As you grow you become more of who you already are.
Myth #2 – You grow the most in your areas of your greatest weakness.
Tiger Woods revamped his entire swing just to get better and when Shaquille O’neal went to the Lakers they focused on his abilities to play in the paint rather than to shoot free throws. Here is the truth.
Truth #2 – You grow the most in the areas of your greatest strength.
Myth #3 – A great team member puts their strengths aside and does whatever it takes to help the team.
He says that the team becomes well-rounded be cause each member is not. You help the team by taking each others strengths serious and playing to them. Here is the truth.
Truth #3 – A great team member volunteers their strengths to the team most of the time.
Marcus delivers his talk much better than I could ever blog about it, but I really like these three truths that he laid out and the idea of being a leader who develops a well-rounded team by recruiting members who are not.
I am a big fan of Marcus. I think the biggest challenge in his philosophy is in building the team. Most of us want to surround ourselves with people who are like us. The key to maximizing your own giftedness is to build a team who are not like you. I believe that takes a high level of leadership and personal security.