Strengths Based Leadership: Book Summary

As a nurse leader I had the privilege to read many books. Today I opted to share with you a book summary of one of my favorite leadership book: Strengths Based Leadership: Book Summary

In this book, the authors reveal the results of more than 20,000 in-depth interviews with leaders and more than 10,000 followers around the world to ask why they followed the most important leader in their life. Three key findings emerged from the research that preceded this book. First, the most effective leaders are always investing in strengths, second, they surround themselves with the right people and maximize their team and third they understand their followers’ needs. In part one of three, Rath and Conchie speak to the importance of investing in your strengths, a long term investment. In fact, they report that people who are cognizant of their strengths and build self-confidence at a young age “reap a cumulative advantage that continues to grow over a lifetime” (Rath & Conchie, 2009, p. 16). I believe this to be of great significance for nursing leaders. Hospitals are a very complex organization and the only way nurses can lead a successful organization is to ensure they surround themselves with the proper talent. I never understood why the entire human resources process and yearly evaluation processes focused on weaknesses. It appeared to be counter-productive to me and now I have found the proper resources to change and influence our practice. In fact, I believe this to be a major common concern that many are facing today that has to be addressed.

In the second part of the book, Rath and Conchie discuss the importance of maximizing a team composed of a broad grouping of strengths including four domains of leadership: executing, influencing, relationship building and strategic thinking. In other words it serves a team well to have representation of all four domains on any team. Typically leaders with dominant strength in the executing domain get the job done, those with a dominant strength in the influencing domain are always selling the team’s idea, those with a dominant strength in the relationship building domain have a unique ability to create organizations that are greater than the sum of their parts and lastly those with dominant strengths in the strategic thinking domain continually stretch our thinking way into the future. In my opinion in order to meet to needs of our patients today and tomorrow it is crucial to develop nursing leadership teams that include individuals with strengths in all 4 domains. As I reflect on the AONE Nurse Executive competency and guiding principle for future patient care delivery, aging workforce, diversity in health care organizations, and the role of the nurse executive in patient safety, it is evident to me that the only successful CNO will be the CNO who will surround himself or herself with talent from all four domains. This is not a one women or a one man show.

In a third part of the book, Rath and Conchie demonstrate how leaders have utilized their dominant strengths to drive organizational growth. They feature Wendy Kopp, founder and CEO of Teach For America, Simon Cooper, President of The Ritz-Carlton, Mervyn Davies, Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank and Brad Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Best Buy. As you read the stories of these featured leaders, you realize as a reader how much clarity they have of who they are and who they are not. Once a leader understands the strengths of each team members and how to best leverage those same strengths, the quicker the organization finds its way to success.  Strong teams have the following things in common: conflict does not destroy them because they focus on result, they are able to prioritize what’s best for the organization and move forward, they are as committed to their personal lives as they are to their work, they embrace diversity, and they are a magnet for talent. That alone is enough to make me want to recommend this book to all nursing leaders. This book offers a key to a successful environment.

Why do people follow leaders? Gallup Poll conducted a study including a random sampling of over 10,000 followers over the years. They asked the followers: What leader has the most positive influence in your daily life? Once they identified the leader they asked this follow-up question: Now list three words that best describe what this person contributes to your life. Rath and Conchie reported that what they found is that followers have essentially four basic needs: trust, compassion, stability and hope. A serious breach in trust can destroy a leader and employees are much more engaged when they trust their leaders. Employees who feel compassion at work are significantly more likely to stay with their employer, have much more engaged customers, are more productive and they produce more profitability for the organization. Employees have a need to know that a leaders core values are stable. In addition, when employees have confidence in the financial stability of an organization, they are nine times as likely to be engaged in their job as compared to those with low confidence in the financial stability of their organization. Lastly hope gives followers something to look forward to and will act as a powerful motivator for followers.

“The most effective leaders know better than to try to be someone they are not. Whenever they spot an opportunity, they reinvest in their strengths” (Rath & Conchie, 2009, p. 93). In today’s fast-paced healthcare environment characterized by financial instability, an aging workforce and an increase acuity in the patients we serve, nursing leaders must: know their strengths, leverage them, and build a team of leaders that will possess strengths from all four domains to ensure they achieve all organizational goals.

Rath, T., Conchie, B. (2009). Strenghts based leadership; Great leaders, teams, and why people follow. New-York: New-York. Gallup Press.