Creativity is my third signature strength. The VIA Signature Strength inventory defines creativity as thinking of novel and productive ways to conceptualize and do things. Related terms for creativity include originality and ingenuity.

I have always loved the visual example of ambiguity contained in the Necker cube shown above. The cube keeps shifting foreground and background. I believe that creativity is making quick shifts from one way of seeing situations or performing to a new way of seeing or performing.

I am tired of the hackneyed injunction to think outside of the box. Abundant creative thinking can occur thinking inside “the box” or context we inhabit with others. For example, can you shift your perspective in problems from your own concerns as a leader to empathy for the people you lead? Can we find ways to make new sense out of a tough event? I often gain perspective during a tough experience by fastforwarding and thinking this will make a good story in the future. I find it helpful to to take a distant view of close things and a close view of distant things.

Click here to see a more elaborate visual explanation and demonstration of the Necker cube.

In 1964 Arthur Koestler wrote The Act of Creation and coined the term bisociation. Bisociation means the ability to bring two things together to create something new. I believe it is vital and important to pay attention to our frequently overlooked acts of bisociation-creation. Creativity is often as simple as joining two things together to create a new synergy.

For example, I think it is important in career development to do what you love. Sometimes this seems quite difficult when you are “stuck” in a job. Regardless of your work, I think you can bring what you love to what you do. If you love flying yet work in a job that is not taking off you can bring your love of flying to your work.

You might not be able to taxi a Cessna in the office but you can develop work checklists, conduct practice simulations, avoid incipient spins of downward spiraling relationships, or navigate into a new career destination. I think transfer of learning is not always trying to make the learning the same as performance but looking at how you bring different ideas, concepts, and practices into each performance.

Here are 3 ways I leverage the signature strength of creativity and contribute to my authentic happiness.

Although humor is my number one signature strength creativity is the engine that drives most of my humor and playfulness. I create humor in my other blog. Even when I am linking to another amusing site or story I like to add my own creative input.

I teach numerous courses and workshops. While I always keep the goals in mind, I spontaneously create new tools and methods as the workshop progresses. I love to find creative way of working with material to keep it fresh for me and unique for my participants. Some of the best PowerPoint slides I have ever used were created as the presentation unfolded not something prepared in advance of the presentation.

I work for many different organizations each year. What I learn in one context may be helpful in a new context. I love to cross-pollinate something I learned with police officers on Monday into my work with call center managers on Thursday.

I appreciate the creative and fresh approach of children. For example, yesterday we were out for brunch with 7 adults and the 10 year old girl from next door came along with her mother. My wife was talking about a special meal we were planning and the 10 year old from next door asked if she could come too. My wife, not wanting to disappoint the girl, responded with the adult euphemism for no. ” We’ll see,” my wife said. The little girl, not to be denied, beamed at my wife and proudly declared, “THAT’S CLOSE TO A YES.”

What a creative negotiation response to “we’ll see.” I guarantee the next time I work on conflict management or negotiation skills with leaders they will hear that story, be encouraged to move to yes, and no doubt my wife and I will see that 10 year old girl at our house for supper.

What about your third signature strength?

What is it and how do you live it?

Don’t wait by saying “We’ll see.” Examine your strength today and live it the rest of your life.

Bisociate your strengths with your life to enhance your happiness. Draw upon the strengths of others you lead to create new and fulfilling synergies of performance.

Next article: Learning a Living.

Technorati Tags : leadership, signature strengths, creativity, Zinger

CIO in organizations is short for the Chief Information Officer. In this blog it is short for curiosity, interest, and openness – my number 2 signature strength. I have a tremendous curiosity about information. This is both a strength and a pursuit that strengthens me.

If you have not taken the signature strength inventory visit: www.authentichappiness.org or contact me so that I can refer you to the best resources for the inventory. If you want a quick outline of the possible 24 strengths visit www.viasurvey.org. Look near the bottom of that page to click on another page that outlines the VIA classification of six virtues and 24 character strengths.

Remember the purpose of these five posts outlining my signature strengths is to model and encourage you to do the same for your strengths. What a wonderful world we would live in if everyone knew their strengths and made a concentrated effort to apply their strengths each day while encouraging others to apply their strengths.

I also encourage you to visit the newsletters at the authentic happiness website. Ben Dean has composed some insightful newsletters outlining individual strengths. For example, click here to read his newsletter: Curious About Curisosity?

Here are some of the ways I engage my strength of curiosity:

I start my morning off with curiosity and a cup of coffee. I love to scan the newspaper and read a few articles on the Internet. When I don’t take the time to start my day off with one of my strengths I don’t feel quite as effective. Of course, given that humor is my number one strength I am curious to read amusing stories and comic strips.

As a counsellor and a coach, I am very curious about clients. I want to understand their world and help them understand their world better. Curiosity also prevents premature judgment of their perspectives. I love the invitational reminder: Can you transform your judgment into curiosity?

I work for 50 or 60 organizations a year. I love the variety and breadth. I never teach the same course twice even though they often have the same title and goals. Even when I deliver a keynote address there is a part of me that is quite curious about what I am going to say. I know the general topic but the stories and points may spring out of the audience reactions.

My work has been enriched by the ability to visit so many different workplaces from an underground gold mine in Snow Lake to call centres in Winnipeg to Hydro dams in Northern Manitoba to a wide range of offices and factories. I gather energy by seeing where people work and how they go about their jobs.

I love to read blogs and subscribe to over 100 blogs. I also love books and I may have up to 40 books out from the library at any one time. For some people this would be a burden while for me it feeds my curiosity, happiness, and engagement.

I have designed resources and curriculum for workplace appreciation and recognition programs. I think the willingness to be curious about others is what makes recognition effective. We pay closer attention to others and realize that each person is unique and will respond to different methods and expressions of recognition. One of the most effective ways to effectively recognize others is to simply ask them how they would like to be recognized. It amazes me to see how reticent we sometimes are to take this small yet significant step.

At 51, I am much more comfortable with not-knowing. I believe not-knowing or ignorance is the seed of curiosity. Neil Postman, a critic of schooling, once said that children enter school as question marks and leave as periods. I strive to reinstall the question in the way I look at the world. I love the work of Ellen Langer on mindfulness and the work of Richard Saul Wurman on information. Langer and Wurman have demonstrated the importance of curiosity in fostering mindfulness and communicating complex information.
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As a teacher and a leader my actions frequently stem from genuine curiosity. Curiosity prevents boredom and facilitates seeing the world afresh each new day.

Curiosity is my second signature strength. I feel more alive and engaged when I consciously use this strength and offer it as a gift to others. I encourage you to be curious, open, and interested in your own strengths. Continual curiosity about your strengths might be one of the chief sources of information and action to install happiness and engagement into your career.

Next article: Creativity – From Bisociation to Neckar Cubes.

Technorati Tags : leadership, signature strengths, curiosity, Zinger

My number 1 signature strength is humor and playfulness.

When I took the VIA Signature Strength inventory a number of years ago I was not surprised by this. With a name like Zinger and growing up with 4 other Zingers I am not sure whether I was born with a sense of humor or it was cultivated by living with 4 other Zingers. The term Zinger is often used to refer to different types of humor. If you have not taken the VIA Signature Strength Inventory do so now by going to: www.authentichappiness.org.

Were you surprised by your number one signature strength?
Was the strength a confirmation of what you already knew?

My work has always involved humor and playfulness. Even my Master’s of Education thesis was: The Factors and Functions of Humour in Counselling. It was not very funny but my committee allowed me to put a few jokes in it. They would not let me call it: This Thesis is a Joke: An Examination of Humour in Counselling (American readers please note that we usually put “u” in humor and just for the “l” of it we put an extra l in counselling).

Here are some ways I cultivate my signature strength:

I love to be playful and humorous with all groups I lead…from word play to self-deprecating humor.

As a child, I was often the one to diffuse conflict through the use of humor.

I am very playful as I write and create workshops…playing with ideas and concepts. I will also play with the way I present as I am presenting. I believe Sigmund Freud said the mark of sanity is to blur the lines between work and play.

I always have funny slides in any PowerPoint presentation and I usually tell groups I work with amusing personal anecdotes or stories from the news. The real PowerPoint is not a slide but our points of connection often infused with humor that energize both of us.

I write a humor blog in conjunction with this blog: www.zingers.blogspot.com. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to resist a bad pun!

I like to laugh with people over the phone as we do business together and I will be playful in many of my emails but I don’t care to send many of those “funny” emails that people keep sending me.

I read humor blogs and odd news: I subscribe to Dave Barry’s blog and the Dilbert blog. I also scan the Odd News stories on the Yahoo News Site.

Much of my humor is simply noticing things around me with a Candid Camera like view of the world.

My favorite quote is from a woman by the name of Jane N. God grant me the laughter to see the past with perspective, face the future with hope, and celebrate today without taking myself too seriously.

Humor and playfulness comes easy to me — which is a characteristic of a strength. In writing the list above I needed to stop myself because I could keep going on and on and that would not be funny.

Sometimes we take our own strengths so much for granted that we minimize them or fail to see what a powerful resource these strengths can be for ourselves and others. Take a look at your number one signature strength.

Can you easily generate a list of how you use your strength?
Do you miss opportunities to live your top strength at work?
How many times have you demonstrated your strength today?
What can you do to get even stronger with your top strength?

Next article: CIO: Curiosity, Interest, & Openness.

P.S. I am spelling-challenged. I use the spell check that comes with www.blogger.com. It is amusing to me that is does not have the word blog in the spelling dictionary…yet that is what everyone is doing at this site. The spell check also recommends replacing Technorati, the huge blogging tag-site, with degenerate. I appreciate even small dosages of my strength!

Technorati Tags : leadership, authentic happiness, humor, Zinger

The foundation of Strength Based Leadership is the identification and application of strengths.

There are numerous pathways to strength identification but one of my favorite tools is the VIA Signature Strength Inventory at www.authentichappiness.org. There is no charge to take the inventory and examine your results. I appreciate the solid psychological research behind the inventory and the sharp focus on your top 5 signature strengths out of a possible 24 strengths.

Here are a few statements about signature strengths from Martin Seligman’s classic book, Authentic Happiness.

Our life task is to deploy our signature strengths and virtues in the major realms of living: work, love, parenting, and finding purpose.

Personal meaning is the attachment of your signature strengths to something larger than yourself.

At work, Seligman believed that re-crafting your job to deploy your strengths every day can change your career into a calling. Your work can be more satisfying than it is now by using your signature strengths at work more often.

What are you waiting for? If you have not taken the 20 to 40 minutes to complete the signature strength inventory now is a great time to do so. The results will give you a list your 5 signature strengths. If you are having difficulties finding or taking the inventory I invite you to email me at dzinger@shaw.ca.

Yet, strength training is more than listing. Strength training includes lifting and living – lifting your leadership to new levels through your strengths and living your strengths to maximize full engagement.

Strength Test: Are you listing, lifting, and living your strengths?

To model a strength training approach, the next five articles in Strength Based Leadership will focus on the applications and challenges I encounter in leveraging my signature strengths in leadership. My purpose in doing this is to encourage you to go through the same process for your signature strengths. I hope this will enhance your reflection and mindfulness of strengths while finding new ways and opportunities to make your strengths come alive at work.

The 5 strengths I will examine are:

1. Humor (playfulness)
2. Curiosity (interest, novelty-seeking, openness to experience)
3. Creativity (originality, ingenuity)
4. Love of learning
5. Spirituality (purpose)

Next post: Humor and Playfulness: When you laugh, you last.

Technorati Tags : leadership, authentic happiness, signature strengths, Zinger

Russian clown Yuri Kuklachev has learned to lead cats.

At times leading can feel like herding cats and you might benefit by how Mr. Kuklachev has learned to work with cats. There are parallels between leading cats and strength based leadership.

In his Moscow Cats Theatre cats do handstands, crawl along high wires and balance on balls. According to Mr. Kuklachev, the secret of training cats is, “you can’t force cats to do anything.”

Are you trying to force the people you lead to do something?

According to Mr. Kuklachev, each cat likes to do his or her own trick. I find the cat and see what they like to do and use that in the show.

Does this not sound parallel to the principles of Marcus Buckingham and Peter Drucker on identifying and leveraging strengths in the workplace?

Yuri said that his cat-training methods can also apply to children: parents need to watch their children to see what they like to do and encourage this. Your child will end up doing whatever she or he enjoys doing.

How well do you watch the people you lead, see what they like to do, and encourage them on the path of strong intrinsic satisfaction, motivation, and performance?

Mr Kuklachev does most of his training and rehearsing at night. He said that this was not the best time for him but it was the best time for the cats.

Do you know the best time to draw upon the energy of the people you lead?

Mr. Kuklachev said he has learned much from his feline friends and stated that to be successful in this type of training you must really love animals.

Do you love the people you lead?

Yuri wrote a book called Lessons on Kindness. In the book he encouraged children to listen to their hearts. Yuri said his work with cats taught him — to hear silence, to see the invisible, and to see with one’s heart.

What are you learning from the people you lead?

I hope this profile on cat training taps into one of your nine lives of leadership. When your workplace has gone to the dogs you can apply these perspectives on “purrfect” leadership.

Technorati Tags : leadership, cats, strength based leadership, Zinger