Karen Gieseke, the Southeastern Minnesota Synod, ELCA's Children, Youth, & Family Ministry Coordinator shared this presentation on Strengths Based Leadership at the 2013 Councils as Leaders in the Church event.

1. Living Your
Strengths
……………………………….
Strengths Based Leadership

2. God’s Unique Design of Each Person…
O Before I formed O “For it was you who
formed my inward
you in the womb I parts; you knit me
knew you, before together in my
mother’s womb. I
you were born I praise you for I am
set you apart.” fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Jeremiah 1:5 Wonderful are your
works that I know very
well.”
Psalm 139:13-14

3. The “Why” of
Strengths Based Leadership
“I’ve never met an effective leader who wasn’t
aware of his talents and working to sharpen them.”
Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Wesley Clark
OWinston Churchill
OMahatma Gandhi
More Differences than Similarities: “…it is the
differences that defined them and led
them to their
success.”

4. Bible stories of
Strengths Based Leadership…
• Moses
• Jonah
• David
• Ruth
• Deborah
• Esther
• Peter
• Mary Magdelene

5. “A leader needs to know his
strengths as a carpenter knows his
tools, or as a physician know the
instruments at her disposal. What
great leaders have in common is
that each truly knows his or her
strengths-and can call on the right
strength at the right time. This
explains why there is no definitive
list of characteristics
that describes all
leaders.”

6. StrengthsFinder 2.0
Strengths
Based
Leadership

7. O EXECUTING
The
Four O INFLUENCING
Domains
O RELATIONSHIP
of
BUILDING
Leadership
Strength O STRATEGIC
THINKING

8. “…the most cohesive
and successful teams Although
possessed broader
groupings of talents.” individuals
need not be
“…it serves a team
well to have a well-rounded,
representation of
strengths in each of teams should
the four domains.”
be.

9. “When teams are able to
use a common language of
strengths, it immediately
changes the conversation,
creates more positive
dialogue, and boosts the
team’s overall
engagement.”

10. “…the leader must continue to invest in
each person’s strengths and in building
better relationships among the group
members. When leaders can do this, it
allows the entire team to spend more
time thinking about the needs of the
people they serve.”

11. “ The body is a unit, though it is made
up of many parts and though all it’s
parts are many, they form one body…
But in fact God has arranged the parts
in the body, everyone of them, just as
God wanted them to be…there are many
parts , but one body…Now you are the
body of Christ, and each one of you
is a part of it.”
I Corinthians 12: 12, 14,18,27

12. “The most effective leaders get people
to follow. Reaching the level where your
life’s work and mission continue into
perpetuity requires not only being a
leader yourself, but developing the
people who follow you to be effective
leaders as well.”

13. When they pulled in that catch of fish, awe
overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was
the same with James and John, Zebedee’s sons,
coworkers with Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “There is nothing to fear.
From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.”
They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them,
nets and all,
and followed him.
Luke 5:9-11

14. One more consideration
for you, your leadership, and
your team…

15. *Strengths & Health
“…the link between early self-confidence and
physical health may be even more
surprising…the group with low self-
confidence…reported almost three times as
many health problems 25 years later. Almost
unbelievably, the group with high self-
evaluations…reported having fewer health
problems than they did 25 years before.”

16. O EXECUTING
The
Four O INFLUENCING
Domains
O RELATIONSHIP
of
BUILDING
Leadership
Strength O STRATEGIC
THINKING

18. “The leader of the future isn’t a person. It is a
TEAM. It is a group of people gifted and called by
God to lead. It is a community drawn together by
a sense of possible with in congregation and
committed to making God’s kingdom just a bit
more real in their time and place. This fact alone
changes the notions of leadership that pastors
and congregations have operated under for
years. It breaks down barriers between
professional and lay leades. It refocuses our
attention on gifts and call as being the basis for
ministry.”
Jeffrey Jones, Exemplar Youth Ministry

19. For just as each of us has one body with
many members, and these members do not
all have the same function, so in Christ we,
though many, form one body, and each
member belongs to all the others. We have
different gifts, according to the grace given to
each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then
prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is
serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then
teach; if it is to encourage, then give
encouragement; if it is giving, then give
generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it
is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Romans 12:4-8