Optimize Your Strengths: Use your leadership strengths to get the best out of you and your team

"A trove of ideas, insights and tools to guide you towards those areas of passion in your life, that will not only bring you greater personal satisfaction in your job, but also enable you to have greater impact at work."
Stuart Crabb, Director of Learning, Facebook

Discover Your Unique Edge.

Each of us has our own set of strengths, abilities and skills that allow us to shine and deliver exceptional results. But how do you understand and build upon your strengths and how do you inspire others to do the same?

Lead with your Strengths. Transform your Team.

Optimize Your Strengths provides a proven strengths–based approach to achieving peak performance for you and your team. Leadership and organizational development experts, James Brook and Dr Paul Brewerton, show you how to lead beyond boundaries and develop positive habits that drive you to continuously improve and take advantage of new opportunities.

Using the Stretch Leadership Model, you will:

Discover, analyze and grow you and your team′s natural strengths and skills in pursuit of a compelling vision. Develop an energizing and powerful leadership approach based on strengths, solutions and possibilities. Use the Stretch Leadership Toolbox of six step–by–step models to uncover your leadership edge and grow into an inspiring leader. Get hands–on experience working through chapter exercises on an accompanying website. Take real action to continually enhance your strengths and improve your weaknesses.

Optimize your strengths now to empower yourself and your team and start seeing exceptional results.

Acknowledgements vii

Foreword ix

Introduction xi

Chapter 1 The Leadership Edge 1

In which Joe comes to terms with his predicament and challenges his beliefs about leadership

Chapter 2 Habit 1: Sharing Vision (stretch goals) 21

In which Joe practises setting stretch goals

Chapter 3 Habit 1: Sharing Vision (optimizing strengths) 47

In which Joe practises optimizing his strengths

Chapter 4 Habit 2: Sparking Engagement (optimizing others strengths) 65

In which Joe practises optimizing the strengths of others and takes action to reduce performance risk

Chapter 5 Habit 3: Skilfully Executing (strengths–based culture) 77

In which Joe practises stretching the limits and reinforces a strengths–based culture

Chapter 6 Habit 3: Skilfully Executing (reinforcing a strengths–based culture) 93

In which Joe continues to stretch the limits

Chapter 7 Habit 4: Sustaining Progress 109

In which Joe recognizes achievement

Chapter 8 Postscript 121

In which Joe celebrates success and passes on his learning

Appendix The Stretch Toolbox 127

Free tools and resources to help you transform your leadership

Glossary of Terms 147

About the Authors 153