Leveraging Cognitive Diversity for Team Success

Lisa Cummings: Lead Through Strengths

Lisa Cummings is the founder and CEO of Lead Through Strengths, a firm that exists to help people find and use their strengths at work. Lisa and her team serve large teams and organizations to help them leverage the results of the CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) assessment. She is also the host of the popular Lead Through Strengths podcast.

Some leaders see different StrengthsFinder talents as obstacles, but these same difference can make our teams shine. In this conversation, Lisa and I examine the four demands of leadership and how we can honor the talents of each person.

Key Points

• Our true strengths are the things we don’t often see as strengths because they come easily to us.
• Do the things you do well and find other people are good at the things you aren’t.
• Many people think they’re very similar to others, but there are a lot of underlying differences they don’t give themselves credit for.
• The Four Demands of Leadership are Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Thinking.

Resources Mentioned

• CliftonStrengths (formerly StrengthsFinder) assessment
• Four Demands of Leadership
• Lead Through Strengths podcast
• The Ultimate Guide to Using Your Strengths to Get Hired*
• Soar With Your Strengths* by Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson

Related Episodes

• How to Interpret Your StrengthsFinder and CliftonStrengths Results, with Steve Dosier (episode 90)
• How to Succeed with Leadership and Management, with John Kotter (episode 249)
• How Teams Use StrengthsFinder Results, with Lisa Cummings (episode 293)

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