Building a Strengths-Based Leadership Approach
NATIONAL REPORT — When you think about the best leader you've ever had, why were they the best leader? What was it about their style that got the best out of you and the best out of others on the team? How did they make you feel? How did they challenge you? How did they help you to grow?
This was the scenario posed by Jen Recla, leadership coach and trainer, during Convenience Store News' third Future Leaders Learning Lab webinar, "Getting the Best Out of Your Team," which delved into how strengths-based leadership can create a dynamic and positive workplace culture. The quarterly webinar series aims to give participants techniques and tools they can use to take their careers to the next level.
"Hold onto those positive thoughts that you have about that leader because that's the way you want your team to feel about you," Recla said. "We want to create teams that are engaged. They're excited to come to work. They learn, grow and produce positive results. ... They are effective at collaboration. They work productively together; they're cohesive. They lean into supporting each other and showing appreciation to their colleagues, and they're resilient."
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Strengthening engagement, collaboration and resilience in others can transform teams and individual leadership outcomes. To build a team that looks like the one she described, Recla laid out a three-piece foundational approach:
1. Embrace a People-First Mentality
When we step into a space where we look at people as barriers or objects, we diminish their needs, wants and challenges. But, when we lead with a people-first mentality, we build trust and authentic connections by leaning into empathy, Recla explained.
To support a people-first mindset, she introduced a model called "The Outward Mindset," created by the Arben Institute, that uses the acronym SAM:
- See others — Am I seeing this individual as a person or object? What can I better do to recognize their needs, objectives and challenges?
- Adjust efforts — How might I adjust my efforts in how I approach this person moving forward?
- Measure impact — How will I measure my impact with this individual moving forward?
Citing the "2024 Culture Study" from O.C. Tanner Institute, Recla noted that only 59% of employees feel their leaders' expressions of empathy are accompanied by meaningful action and support, and only 58% of organizations take action to improve after receiving employee feedback. Yet, when leaders and organizations do act, employees are much more likely to feel engaged and fulfilled.
"Leaning into a people-first mindset is not just a good feeling or the right thing to do. When we leaders demonstrate more empathy, it increases fulfillment at work, it increases engagement and it increases belonging," Recla said.
2. Cultivate a Growth Mindset
A growth mindset involves embracing challenges, viewing failure as a stepping stone rather than a roadblock, and continually developing one's skills and intelligence.
Recla used sports figures Michael Jordan (a growth mindset) and John McEnroe (a fixed mindset) as an example. Jordan, who didn't make the cut on his varsity basketball team, excelled as part of the junior varsity roster and later became one of the greatest professional basketball players of all time. McEnroe, a former tennis player, was known for his tantrums on the tennis court. Later in life, he became a commentator for the sport and demonstrated a growth mindset, indicating people are capable of changing and growing, she pointed out.
"With a growth mindset, failure is an opportunity. I look at feedback as something that's really constructive. I believe that we all can get a little bit better," she said. "Do you gravitate more toward [a growth mindset], or do you gravitate more toward a fixed mindset, where you believe that you either have [the capabilities] or you don't?"
Recla recommends that leaders who want to strengthen their growth mindset journal to reflect on past wins or failures. Then, they can share those stories with their team to demonstrate vulnerability.
Another way to strengthen a growth mindset is creating a culture of feedback. "Asking really specific questions, listening to the feedback, appreciating that people are giving it to you, and then saying how you're going to follow through on that," Recla said.
3. Strengths-Based Approach
The basic concept of a strengths-based approach is identifying individuals' strengths as a leader, identifying the strengths of the team, and then working out how to best collaborate and delegate work according to individual strengths.
"So, we're not ignoring weaknesses, we're just not going to spend most of our time trying to get better at the things that weaken us," the leadership coach told attendees.
Recla recommends this exercise for individuals and teams:
- Mark down on one side of paper all of the things that brought you joy, energized you and strengthened you. On the other side of the paper, write everything that was draining and a struggle.
- Identify five to 10 themes on the strengths side and ask your team if these sound like your top strengths.
"That's one exercise that you can do individually and as a team to identify strengths, and then figure out how can we best partner with each other so that everybody's really leaning into their strengths the majority of the time with their work," Recla said.
Another strategy that helps in this space is to have regular conversations around professional development. "I recommend [this] two times a year at least, or maybe even once a quarter. Spend 30 minutes to an hour with each of your direct reports to just talk through what their goals are around professional development and career development," she said.
The Future Leaders Learning Lab is a new element of CSNews' Future Leaders in Convenience (FLIC) program. Now in its seventh year, FLIC is designed to help celebrate and develop the next generation of c-store industry leaders. It provides a forum for talented young business people to hone their leadership skills and also recognizes the achievements of a select few rising stars already making significant contributions to the industry.
The next 30-minute Future Leaders Learning Lab session, "Unlock the Power of Mentorship," will be held Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. ET. Click here to register.
An on-demand replay of the "Getting the Best Out of Your Team" webinar is available here.