Northouse, Introduction to Leadership: Concepts and Practice, 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2018
Discussion Questions
Chapter 3: Engaging Strengths
1. The text notes that most people are hesitant to talk about their strengths. Does that apply to
you? Do you think that leaders are generally different from “most people” on this point?
2. What do you see as the key advantages of focusing upon one’s strengths as a leader? What
are the drawbacks of this approach?
3. Which of the three approaches to defining and analyzing strengths seems best suited to
effective leadership in your opinion?
4. A common adage is for leaders to “staff to their weaknesses.” How does that relate to the
material in this chapter on strengths?
5. Aside from changing group members, what should leaders do if they find their team lacks
certain key strengths?
6. How does building upon your strengths fit with the idea of “getting out of your comfort
zone”?
7. Is it wise to simply ignore one’s weaknesses? If not, then what approach would you
recommend from this chapter?
8. Knowing your strengths as the leader is important. How important is it to know the
strengths of followers? What strategies might leaders use to gain this information?
10. Can you think of an example where a person successfully worked on a weakness and
turned it into a strength?
11. How can people honestly learn what their weaknesses are?