Matthew Kohut

Strength

S
trength gets things done

As a personal quality, strength is a measure of how much a person can impose their will on our world

People who project it command our attention, in part because we need to know if they are going to use their strength in ways that help us or in ways that harm us

Grudgingly or gladly, we respect people who project strength

When people seem weak, we are not as concerned with what they want, because they cannot make it happen anyway

We do not pay much attention to them unless we want something specific, and they generally have less to offer

Our personal ethical code may well dictate that we treasure them as our fellow human beings, but they lack the ability to affect our world

Leadership and strength are inextricably bound together

We look to strong people as leaders because they can protect us from threats to our group

Strength consists of two basic elements: the ability to affect the world, and the gumption to take action