Exploring Strengths: From Cognitive Development to Team Dynamics
Welcome to the Leadership Vision Podcast, our show helping you build a positive team culture. Our consulting firm has been doing this work for the past 25 years, ensuring that leaders are mentally engaged and emotionally healthy.
It’s the holiday season here in the United States and this time of year people often reflect on the past year and think about how they can do things differently in the new year ahead. Maybe they want to rethink elements of their job, personal life, habits or the way that they do things. It’s an appropriate time to revisit and rethink your Strengths.
In this episode, we go beyond surface-level appreciation of Strengths, and delve into their developmental roots, dynamic nature, and vulnerability. As we pause from recording new episodes, we want to share the main six lessons from our course, Seeing Strengths from a New Perspective. It’s a fascinating way to think about your Strengths in a new or different way. We invite you to wrestle with these lessons over the holiday break and engage with your Strengths in a new way in the new year. Enjoy!
More Lessons from a New Perspective
Our course, Seeing Strengths from a New Perspective shares six lessons presented by our founder, Brian Schubring. It’s an amazing way to help us experience our Strengths, think about our Strengths and give a new perspective on things that perhaps we haven’t thought about before. Below, we detail the final three lessons from the course.
Lesson 4: Strengths evolve over time
Strengths evolve with our cognitive development. By reflecting on how our Strengths manifested at various stages – infancy, childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood – we gain profound insights into their origins and evolution. Understanding the development of Strengths through the arcs of cognitive formation can be really helpful to understand why the language of Strengths can help you better understand yourself and those around you. It also highlights the importance of acknowledging where our Strengths come from and how they have been shaped by our life experiences.
Lesson 5: Strengths have phases
Just like the moon, our Strengths have a bright, fully-expressed side and a more subdued, shadow side. This analogy is a powerful tool for understanding that our Strengths can vary in visibility and impact, depending on the situation. Recognizing and accepting these phases is important. It’s a call to be empathetic towards ourselves and others when our Strengths are not in their full glory.
Lesson 6: Strengths can break
Strengths can falter or become less effective. This can happen due to various reasons, such as over-reliance on a specific Strength or exhaustion of a Strength. It’s important to take a balanced approach to using and nurturing your Strengths. Overusing them can lead to their breakdown, just as overworking a muscle can lead to injury.
Understanding Your Strengths
Understanding and nurturing your Strengths are important for individual growth and team development. This season, how can you understand and engage with your Strengths in a new way? We would love to hear from you – connect with me at nathan@leadershipvisionconsulting.com.
About The Leadership Vision Podcast
The Leadership Vision Podcast is a weekly show sharing our expertise in the discovery, practice, and implementation of a strengths-based approach to people, teams, and culture. We believe that knowing your Strengths is only the beginning. Our highest potential exists in the ongoing exploration of our talents.
Please contact us if you have ANY questions about anything you heard in this episode or if you’d like to talk to us about helping your team understand the power of Strengths.
If you’d like to be featured on the Leadership Vision Podcast, let us know how you are using Strengths and what impact it has made. Contact us here!
