Leadership Development Requires More Than Understanding Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Part One: What Must Come Before Behavior Change

Consider This...

A leader steps into a larger role and immediately begins looking for ways to improve.

They:

• read leadership books,
• attend workshops,
• and ask for feedback.

They identify areas where they need to become:

• more decisive,
• more strategic,
• more comfortable with conflict,
• or better at delegation.

They have the right mindset—they genuinely want to grow.

That's a great place to start.

What may be missing isn't the desire to grow, but an effective system for development.

Before deciding what to develop, we should begin with a deeper question—one we don't often stop to ask.

What does it actually mean to develop—and what must be in place before that development can occur?

Because how we answer that question fundamentally changes how we approach leadership development.

Beyond Strengths and Weaknesses

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Gretchen Gavett encourages leaders to think more strategically about their development. Rather than trying to improve everything, she suggests identifying where to invest development efforts by:

• leveraging strengths,
• addressing critical weaknesses,
• and exploring untapped potential.

One idea that resonated with us was:

"Untapped potential refers to opportunities you have not yet explored because you have been highly effective at leveraging existing strengths."

We agree with this perspective.

In fact, it begins to answer our original question:

What does it actually mean to develop?

Great leaders are intentional about where they invest their development efforts.

But before deciding where or what to develop, they must first understand how development actually occurs.

Development Begins by Defining Success

Leadership development does not begin with changing behavior.
It begins with defining success.

As leaders take on new responsibilities, their definition of success often needs to evolve.

A frontline leader may define success as:

• solving daily problems,
• ensuring work gets completed,
• and helping the team execute effectively.

An executive leader thinks differently. Success becomes less about solving today's problems and more about:

• creating clarity,
• developing leaders,
• thinking strategically,
• and building systems that allow others to succeed.

Until success is clearly defined, it's difficult to know why development is necessary.

More importantly, a clear definition of success gives leaders a target to intentionally aim toward.

For example, a leader may recognize the need to improve communication skills. But, simply telling yourself to "communicate better" rarely creates lasting change.

• More often than not, it creates frustration because you unintentionally begin trying to change who you are instead of understanding how each situation my require you to adapt.

• Without awareness of how you and others communicate—and without a clear definition of what “communicate better” actually looks like in terms of success—there is no real clarity on what it means to communicate better.

When success is clearly defined, you have a stronger reason to develop.

For example, if your definition of success is defined as "creating tremendous clarity for your team—because it will increase engagement and fulfillment for them while also helping you achieve the results you are trying to achieve more effectively"—improving your communication is no longer an abstract behavioral goal. It becomes an intentional effort connected to a meaningful outcome.

(For a deeper look at this concept, read our article Redefine Success.)

Once success is clearly defined...

Awareness becomes one of the essential foundations of development.

Leadership development doesn't begin by asking:
"What behavior should I change?"

It begins by asking:
"How deep is my self-awareness, others-awareness, and situational awareness?"

David Rock's research on attention and the brain reinforces this idea. Where we direct our attention influences the neural pathways we strengthen. The more intentionally leaders observe their thoughts, assumptions, emotions, and behaviors, the more capable they become of interrupting automatic reactions and making intentional choices.

Awareness isn't simply the result of development.
It is one of the essential foundations of development.

Development Isn't About Changing Who You Are

Without awareness, we may define a development goal like this:

Become a leader who is comfortable making unpopular decisions.

Now compare it to this:

Develop the awareness to recognize when and why making an unpopular decision is necessary—and intentionally choose that behavior, even when it doesn't feel natural.
(Hint: For some leaders, it may never feel natural.)

At first glance, those goals sound similar.

They are not.

• The first assumes development means removing the internal tension.
• The second recognizes that the tension may never disappear because it is connected to how you're naturally designed.

One asks you to change who you are.

The other asks you to better understand who you are and learn to navigate the tension that exists whenever leadership requires a behavior that goes against the grain of your natural tendencies.

At Clarity Based Leadership™, we often say:

"The goal is not to develop someone into you. The goal is to create an environment for people to develop into who they were designed to be."

A truly developmental environment doesn't ask people to become someone they're not.
It helps them:

• understand who they are,
• understand the people they lead,
• assess what the situation requires,
• and intentionally adapt when necessary.

Development may not eliminate the internal tension that comes with adaptation.

But learning to:

• recognize that tension,
• understand where it comes from,
• and intentionally navigate it

is an important part of the development process.

Where Development Really Happens

Development happens inside a remarkably small—but incredibly powerful—window of time.

That window exists between:

• our natural tendencies,
• the mental maps we've developed over a lifetime,
• and the behavior we're about to choose.

Most of us move through that moment so quickly that we never realize it exists.

Without awareness, we miss it completely.

But awareness slows the process just enough to create a choice.

That small window changes everything.

David Rock describes the importance of bringing unconscious patterns into conscious awareness. Rather than reacting automatically, leaders engage the brain's executive functions and intentionally choose behaviors that better align with the outcomes they're trying to create.

• Without awareness, we repeat our habits.
• With awareness, we gain the freedom to choose.

Inside that small window, leaders start by asking better questions:

• What am I trying to accomplish?
• What does this person need from me?
• What does this situation require?
• How are my natural tendencies influencing my thinking right now?
• Will my next choice align with the definition of success I have established as a leader?

Learning to ask questions like these is an important part of the development process.

Development happens in the flow of work

At Clarity Based Leadership™, we believe much of leadership development happens intentionally in the flow of work.

The foundational process of development looks like this:

Define Success → Increase Awareness → Create an Intentional Pause → Choose Your Behavior → Reflect → Increase Awareness

Every time a leader moves through that process, awareness deepens.

Every reflection creates another opportunity to grow.

It isn't about becoming someone different.

It's about:

• becoming deeply aware of yourself,
• understanding the people you lead,
• recognizing what the situation requires,
• and using that small window of time to pause, ask a few critical questions, and intentionally choose your response.

Final Thought

Unused Human Capacity™—or what Harvard Business Review refers to as untapped potential—isn't unlocked by becoming someone you're not.

It's unlocked by:

• first becoming increasingly aware of who you are,
• understanding the people you lead,
• and recognizing what each situation requires.

Returning to our earlier example, one leader may never naturally enjoy making unpopular decisions.

Another may enjoy making them a little too much.

One leader may never feel comfortable taking significant risks.

Another may consistently take more risks than the situation requires.

Development isn't about eliminating those natural tendencies.
It's about understanding them deeply enough to intentionally choose the behavior that best serves your definition of success...for you, for the people you lead, and for the unique situations you find yourself in.

Meaningful development requires a foundation, and this article outlines some critical elements that build the foundation.

Future articles in this series will explore what comes next—how feedback deepens awareness, how leaders practice adaptation, how environments support or restrict growth, and how energy influences our ability to sustain behaviors that don't come naturally.

More Information

Have you been through Clarity Based Leadership™? If so, you have access join one of our monthly Insight Groups to continue developing alongside other leaders.

Interested in learning more about Clarity Based Leadership™? Schedule a conversation to discover how our leadership system helps organizations create cultures of clarity that improve performance, productivity, and profitability.

What is your Leadership Clarity Index™ score? Take the Leadership Clarity Index™ and discover where you can deepen your leadership awareness before your next developmental step.

Sources

• Clarity Based Leadership™
• Unused Human Capacity™ by Bob Borcherdt & Nicki McLeod
• Gretchen Gavett, Harvard Business Review
• David Rock, NeuroLeadership Institute – Your Brain at Work