Rise of leaders means enhancing strengths, not worry

Imagine if Messi and his parents had given up on his dream of playing professional football. Today Real Madrid would be king of La Liga, with Barcelona playing second fiddle. Maybe too, Sir Alex Ferguson would have won his third and fourth Champions League crowns with Manchester United in Rome (2009) and in London (2012).
But thank God – Messi pursued his dreams.
In the definition of former Harvard professor Tal Ben Shahar and his colleague Angus Ridgway, ex-McKinsey head of leadership development, Messi is a “10x leader” (a Jedi master). He achieved this status by using his strengths, the “S” of the SHARP model. Strengths consist of two components: one’s passion and one’s natural talents.
Passion refers to career interests and motivation – things that excite you. In Messi’s case, we can see that he lived, breathed and consumed football from a very young age. Football was his life.
But that’s not enough to be a 10x leader. One must also have the natural talent: ability, skills or competencies.
In Messi’s case, his short, strong legs allow him to excel in short bursts of acceleration, while his quick feet enable him to retain control of the ball when dribbling at speed. His former Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola, once stated: “Messi is the only player that runs faster with the ball than he does without it.”
Messi harnessed his strengths and didn’t try to fix his weaknesses. Some 634 games for club and country later, Messi has scored 532 goals and 204 assists, and still counting.
Mind you, had Messi been playing in a typical English centre-forward position that did not leverage his strength, he would probably do OK. He would have had an average career; in other words, he would be an average leader.
Similarly, human-resources personnel and managers alike must learn to discover and recognise the inherent strengths of their employees. Companies still need to be aware of employees’ weaknesses, but rather than spending scarce resources and time to improve weakness, companies should encourage employees to play to their strengths every day.
To that end, companies must help employees discover their strengths. Do not assume that everyone is aware of them.
There are many reliable tools available in the market to do just that. Or if you want to go old school, ask fellow colleagues and managers to share stories in which employees have excelled. Ask them to identify what the employee did well to achieve a particular goal.
The next step is to encourage employees to use that inherent strength every day both at work and in their personal life. Employees’ performance and productivity will be way off the charts. Instead of feeling tired, employees will be full of energy and happy.
According to Gallup, employees who know their strengths are 7.8 per cent more productive, and teams that focus on strengths every day have 12.5 per cent greater productivity.
So, fellow Jedi, start leveraging your strengths and you will notice the force within you.

Suvit Chansrichawla is next-generation HR consultant under the brand Serendipity & Co, partner of the Curve Group in Thailand.