Leading with Emotional Intelligence: Hands-On ... - always yours

ARE YOU A STAR PERFORMER OR JUST AVERAGE? 61
Martin Seligman, one of the fathers
of Positive Psychology and the author
of Authentic Happiness, found that the
“highest success in living and deepest
emotional satisfaction comes from building
and using your signature strengths.” His
research shows that the happiest people
are the ones who are using their strengths
the most. “Signature strengths” are defi ned
as strengths that are deeply characteristic
. . . the best way
to be happy and
more successful
is to identify
what you do
well and do
more of it . . .
of you. Seligman defi nes the “good life” as “using your signature
strengths to obtain abundant gratification in the main realms of
your life.” A “meaningful life” he defi nes as “using your signature
strengths and virtues in service of something much larger than
yourself.”
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is the author of Good Business and
creator of the term flow used in sports and other performances.
He states that in “creating oneself, it makes sense to build on one’s
strength.” People who are blessed with a particular gift will typically
pursue what comes easily to them.
Dan Sullivan coaches thousands of executives to focus on their
“unique abilities” and delegate as much as possible the areas they
are not good at.
Finally, Marcus Buckingham, who for years worked at Gallup,
describes in his new book, The One Thing You Need to Know, the
difference between good and great management. “Great managers
turn a person’s talent into performance.” He states that the three
things you must know about a person to manage him or her effectively
are strengths and weaknesses, triggers, and his or her unique
style of learning. Buckingham sums it up well:
I’ve found that while there are many styles of managers,
there is one quality that sets truly great managers apart
from the rest: They discover what is unique about each