What Are Your Strengths?

August 26, 2011 • Blog, bloggers, Books, Leadership • by
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Leadership requires self-awareness. Great leaders are always self-aware (though not all successful “leaders” are). To be able to lead others you need to know yourself, where you are strong and where you are weak. You need to know your limits and live with a level of character that is unexpected.

One useful leadership tool is StrengthsFinder developed by people from Gallup. I first took the test 4 or 5 years ago. After answering a series of question they let you know your top 5 strengths from a list of 34 that fall into 4 broad categories: Strategic Thinking, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Executing. (Go here for an excellent description)

  • Strategic Thinking
    • Analytical
    • Context
    • Futuristic
    • Ideation
    • Intellection
    • Learner
    • Strategic
    • Input
  • Influencing
    • Maximizer
    • Self-Assurance
    • Significance
    • Woo
    • Activator
    • Command
    • Communication
    • Competition
  • Relationship Building
    • Relator
    • Positivity
    • Empathy
    • Includer
    • Harmony
    • Developer
    • Adaptability
    • Connectedness
    • Individualisation
  • Executing
    • Achiever
    • Arranger
    • Belief
    • Consistency
    • Deliberative
    • Discipline
    • Focus
    • Responsibility
    • Retorative

The premise behind discovering and identifying your strengths is that great leaders play to them, they don’t spend time trying to perfect their weaknesses, they build on their strengths. You will be at your happiest when you are in a position that will allow you to play to your strengths the majority of your day.

The StrengthsFinder exercise is also a great thing to do with a team. It will allow you to see where your team is strong and weak, where you have gaps that should be filled by your next hire. For example, I did this on a team I was on a few years ago and I had not a single relational gift while every other person on the team had at least one and often 2 or 3. (My gifts in order are 1. Futuristic 2. Strategic 3. Competition 4. Activator 5. Self-Assurance) My role on the team was thus crucial to the team’s success and they would sometimes defer to some of my thinking on strategic matters while I definitely did the same to them on relational ones.

If you are in leadership you have to know yourself. Discover your strengths. Find out your Myers Briggs. Read books. Go to conferences. Listen to feedback. You will lead better for it.

Ends, Means, and Morals

July 20, 2011 • Blog, Measurement & Evaluation • by
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Sean Stannard-Stockton of the Tactical Philanthropy blog posted in SSIR today about the need to regain morality in philanthropy, especially in the effective philanthropy movement. Much of these concepts were taken from a speech last fall from outgoing Atlantic Philanthropies president, Gara LaMarche.

He quotes LaMarche,

“At times it seems to me as if this movement has strayed too far from why anyone should be concerned about effectiveness at all, from passion about the deep and tenacious societal inequities that move anyone to philanthropy in the first place…

The effectiveness movement is now finding, I believe, that there is no real constituency for effectiveness as such… because it is values that move people to enthusiasm and action, not more sterile concepts of metrics and results.

…I have come to believe we need to re-invigorate our moral discourse.”

While my initial reaction is to say that effectiveness is really about more than numbers and metrics, I do agree with his sentiments. Effectiveness must follow mission.

The two concepts are not really separate though. To accomplish your mission you need to be effective. And to be effective, you must have a mission to be effective at. One with out the other is incomplete.

I completely agree with Sean’s belief that

“The effective philanthropy movement should be animated by strong moral clarity about ends, about creating a just and meaningful world. But the movement is right to reject the idea that there should be a moral basis to means, that the question of how we create the world we want should be based on pre-conceived beliefs about how we wish the world worked rather than on an evidence-based understanding of how the world actually does work.”

If we seek to be effective, the end is much more important than the means.

Activities vs Outcomes

July 19, 2011 • Blog, Development, Philanthropy & Giving • by
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Activities are the things we do. Outcomes are the things we produce. Outcomes are more necessary than activities and today’s donors don’t want to just fund activities, they want to purchase outcomes.

An activity is handing out food at a food pantry. An outcome is helping people move from food dependence to food independence.

An activity is running an after-school basketball league. An outcome is increasing the odds a student ends up in college.

Activities make up the day to day life of social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders. Outcomes are why they started the organization to begin with. Read More…

Purposes

July 4, 2011 • Beliefs, Blog • by
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Why did I create this blog and start MWDG?

 

Because those leaders and organizations seeking to create positive social change are the most important ones in the world.

Because I believe these organizations need to move from delivering activities to producing outcomes.

Because good intentions are not enough to create positive social change.

Because the social sector needs to hold itself accountable.

Because I believe that in the new economy social change, if produced and measured, is worth something.