Use Your Strength and Passion to Be a Great Leader

So I was in a meeting with a group of clients the other day, and we were asked to point out one strength and one weakness.

And wouldn’t you know, it’s very difficult for people to come up with those strengths and much easier to talk about their weaknesses.

Hi, my name is Bernie Heine, and today I want to talk about strength- based leadership. Generally for people, it’s easier to talk about what’s wrong about themselves or what their weaknesses are rather than focusing on their strengths, but the truth is the more we focus on our strengths, the more we get out of our lives.

It’s easier to get growth, grow ourselves, and grow our businesses when we focus on strengths than when we are totally consumed with improving our weaknesses.

The Zone of Leadership

So what I’ll often do with my clients is do a little exercise around identifying what we’re really good at. And this is talking about knowing yourself, knowing what really important to you, what you’re good at, and what you’re really passionate about.

If we go through this exercise of listing out all the things that we’re passionate about, and then also a list of all the things that were really good at.

What are our core strengths? There’s a lot of assessment you can take to get there, but just having these two lists, and if you put those in a venn diagram in two circles, where the circles overlap, that area in the middle is what we call the zone of leadership.

Overlap of Passion and Talent

So whatever activities you engage in that are in that overlap of the two circles: things that you’re really good at, your strengths, and things you’re really passionate about. If you focus your activities on things in that zone of leadership, you really never have to work in your life.

These are the things that you’re just so happy to do that it never feels like work. So I challenge you all to take a look at what are the things that I know I’m really good at?

What are the things that I’m passionate about? And what’s in that overlap?

Let’s get in the zone. Think of yourself like that rock star that’s performing an encore at the end of a big concert. They don’t consider that to be work. In fact, they would probably continue to play all night if the venue would allow it.

That’s witnessing somebody who’s in the zone. They’re thinking “wow! We just like to play because this is so much fun.”

People in the work sense can be in the same place as long as you’re doing things you’re good at and things you’re passionate about.

About Bernhard Heine

Bernhard Heine is a business and executive coach at Professional Business Coaches, Inc. (PBC, Inc.), a company he founded to help business owners and leaders create and achieve their vision.

Bernhard has more than 25 years of experience working collaboratively with business partners in all phases of business management, restructuring, and transformation, particularly in: strategic planning, marketing, and sales, organizational design, engineering consulting, project management, coaching, and facilitation.

Bernhard holds a BS in marine engineering from the US Merchant Marine Academy in NY. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is a licensed business coach with Professional Business Coaches Alliance (PBCA), and an Authorized Client Builder Sales Trainer.

He was Executive Director for Strategy and Business Development at Textron Inc., strategy leader at Coca-Cola in Germany, and management consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. Early in his career, he worked globally as a marine engineer.

Bernhard has also achieved the “Master Coach” designation from the PBCA in Sales, Coaching, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Effectiveness, and Exit Planning.

“I help my clients become more self-aware of why their issues continue to occur and why their prior efforts have not led to success. Through regular sessions, holding them accountable for their actions, they make gradual improvements and over time achieve the success they are looking for.” – Bernhard Heine

Certifications: Professional Business Master Coach, Legal Practice Coach, Extended DISC Trainer, Everything DiSC Trainer, Client Builder Sales Trainer, Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Trainer.