Coaching for Leaders - 691: Bringing Your Strengths to a Big Job, with General CQ Brown, Jr.

691: Bringing Your Strengths to a Big Job, with General CQ Brown, Jr.

07/29/24 • 35 min

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General CQ Brown, Jr.: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General CQ Brown, Jr. is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. As Chairman, he is the principal military advisor to the President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council. Prior to this role, he was the first Black officer in American history to head one of our military branches as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. Time Magazine has named him one of the top 100 most influential people in the world. Effective leaders discover how to best use their strengths, and of course, champion the strengths of others. In this conversation, General Brown and I discuss how he uses his strengths and what he does to bring those strengths into people development, high-level meetings, and problem-solving. Key Points If you are well below average at something, don’t spend time and effort trying to improve. Instead, partner with others who have it as a superpower. Give people work that is aligned with their strengths. Fight for feedback, especially in a top job. Find people who will give it to you straight. Listen well so they keep offering it. Leverage your strengths in communication. For General Brown, using his engineering training to solve problems and using metaphors and analogies to create clarity. Have the meeting after the meeting in the meeting. Tell people where your strengths might get in the way. For General Brown, highlighting that silence that could appear intimidating is often him just listening and thinking. Related Episodes Leadership in the Midst of Chaos, with Jim Mattis (episode 440) Your Leadership Motive, with Patrick Lencioni (episode 505) Engaging People Through Change, with Cassandra Worthy (episode 571) How to Connect with People Better, with Charles Duhigg (episode 670) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

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690: How to Shift Behavior for Better Results, with Mitch Warner

Mitch Warner: Leadership and Self-Deception Mitch Warner is a managing partner of the Arbinger Institute. The Institute has authored three best-selling books and helps leaders transform their organizations by enabling the fundamental shift in mindset that leads to exceptional results. Now in its fourth edition, Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships & Unleashing Results*, is today one of the top fifty best-selling leadership books of all time. Shifting behavior in a sustainable way requires us to change our mindset. In this conversation, Mitch and I explore how self-deception gets in our way and how we can take the first step by seeing others as people. Key Points In many cases, we are the carriers of the very problems we are complaining about. We often resist this reality. We often assume we aren’t the cause of problems because of our good intentions. Mindset drives our behaviors and the effectiveness and influence of those behaviors. Seeing someone as less than a person causes us to see the world in a way that justifies our judgement. Too often, conflicts manifest as people provoking another’s behavior in order to justify themselves. Our own justification is an indicator that we may be wrong to being with. Viewing others as either better or worse than ourselves creates justification that prevents awareness and change. Get outside of yourself by meeting to learn about them. If the relationship has been strained, consider meeting to give. Resources Mentioned Leadership and Self-Deception: The Secret to Transforming Relationships & Unleashing Results* by The Arbinger Institute The Arbinger Institute Interview Notes Download my interview notes in PDF format (free membership required). Related Episodes How to Compare Yourself to Others, with Mollie West Duffy (episode 582) Help Your Team Embrace Growth Mindset, with Eduardo Briceño (episode 644) The Way to Handle Oblivious Leadership, with Robert Sutton (episode 667) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.

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692: Transcend Leadership Struggles Through Your Strengths, with Lisa Cummings

Lisa Cummings: Lead Through Strengths Lisa Cummings is the founder of Lead Through Strengths, a firm supporting building strengths into your team's culture. She's also the host of the Lead Through Strengths podcast. Lisa is a Gallup-certified strengths coach and has trained over 20,000 people in 14 countries. Today, she facilitates offsites and retreats to help leaders and their teams go deep on utilizing their strengths well. When challenges arise in leadership, we sometimes miss what’s right in front of us. In this conversation, Lisa and I discuss how to zero in on your core strengths and utilize them to address new challenges that arise. Key Points Lisa began her StrengthsFinder journey through the First Break All the Rules book. Dave began his with the Soar With Your Strengths book. Many of us value what we’ve worked hardest to achieve, but those areas aren’t typically our core strengths. The talents appearing on the bottom of your StrengthsFinder assessment are the approaches that tend to drain you and lead to burnout. It’s helpful to focus on removing blind spots. Those are most often hidden in our top strengths. When new leadership issues come up, aim your top strengths at them. Often, there’s an opportunity to reframe challenges in the context of your strengths. Resources Mentioned CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) assessment StrengthsFinder Talents overview by Lisa Cummings Contact Lisa for a question or workshop Related Episodes How Teams Use StrengthsFinder Results, with Lisa Cummings (episode 293) Craft a Career to Fit Your Strengths, with Scott Anthony Barlow (episode 424) Bringing Your Strengths to a Big Job, with General CQ Brown, Jr. (episode 691) Discover More Activate your free membership for full access to the entire library of interviews since 2011, searchable by topic. To accelerate your learning, uncover more inside Coaching for Leaders Plus.