Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Upon successful completion students should be able to:

Use an understanding of personal strengths to maximize leadership effectiveness.
Coach others in using their strengths and overcome weaknesses productively.

The class is highly interactive as well as reflective in nature. There are frequent class discussions. Several instruments are used to assess personal strengths. Planning Guides help students plan how to exert leadership in ways to take advantage of follower strengths.
A series of short videos, titled Trombone Player Wanted, are presented to gain a clear understanding of strengths and how to manage them. Students will complete a personal application plan and complete a research paper exploring personal strengths.

Various individual and/or group skill building activities such as role-plays, case studies, or other exercises geared toward critical analysis of course concepts.
Written assignments or oral reports designed to integrate course material into personal experience or experiences of others.
Exams comprised of essay and/or objective questions, or an individual and/or team project or paper which requires integration, application, and critical examination of course concepts, issues, and themes.

Themes:
Understanding one’s personal unique contributions makes stronger leaders.
Leaders understand how to develop and utilize their followers’ strengths and weaknesses.
Concepts:
Investing in your own strengths
Maximizing your team effectiveness
Understanding why people follow
Adapting work based on strengths
Strengths differ from abilities
Strength and weakness feel different
Managing weaknesses
Refining and developing strengths
Adapting to less than ideal work
Handling tasks outside of personal strengths
Helping others find and use strengths
Communicating about strengths and weaknesses
Issues:
Leaders don’t need to be well rounded, teams do.
Not understanding strengths can limit work effectiveness.
Skills:
Recognizing and using personal strengths and strengths in others
Conversing clearly about strengths
Applying personal strengths in leadership roles
Helping others engage and develop personal strengths
Planning for matching individuals to work assignments
Coaching individuals along lines of strength
Coaching individuals regarding weaknesses
Adapting and modifying work that does not engage strengths