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| Although I loved high school, I was more like this robot than a person |
Perfectionism was a nasty habit I had in high school. It wasn’t just in school, or sports, or FFA, it was everything. In high school it was safe to say that I was more similar to a robot than a human. I was always so focused on “fixing” what I was bad at in order to get ahead. The result was a very stressful and socially lacking high school experience outside of school responsibilities and extracurricular activities. I’m not saying that I hated high school. I really did love it, but looking back now I probably could’ve gotten more out of it if I had focused more on my strengths rather than weaknesses.
The summer following high school graduation I was appointed as Virginia FFA State Secretary. In the beginning of our leadership and team training we completed the Strengthsfinder Assessment. During this time I still had the mindset of a perfectionist was confused by my results. My top five strengths were: Achiever, Consistency, Includer, Harmony, and Restorative. Looking back now I can’t remember which specific ones I did not agree with, because I eventually embraced them and never looked back.
After I began to focus more on my strengths rather than my weaknesses, there was a noticeable difference in my performance as a state officer and as a student. Fortunately I’ve been in environments where my leaders, teammates, and teachers have engaged in helping to build myself through my strengths. Sadly, this isn’t the case in many work situations. Carol Hymowitz brings this up in her article: “Managers Lose Talent When They Neglect To Coach Their Staffs.” She discusses the negativity of employers managing instead of coaching their staff, and also the benefits of an engaged boss.
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| The more you focus on your strengths, the more apt you are to hit your target. FFA enables many students to do just that. |
How can we create a better tomorrow through leadership? From my own experience I know that utilizing strengths and being coached instead of simply being managed will result in better critical thinking skills, more motivation, and overall performance. I suggest that high schools and community colleges utilize Strengths Based Leadership practices in order to prepare their students for further education and the work force. Even though the book Strengths Based Leadership focuses around leadership, those who are not interested in becoming a leader can benefit. Understanding one’s self can create better teamwork in careers; therefore anyone can perform better by using this concept. As a future educator I hope to somehow utilize the concept of strength based leadership and always coach my students so that they can provide a better tomorrow.
