Forgiveness: the strengths advantage

Forgiveness is about letting go of hurt, resentment, or blame, and moving forward with clarity

For product and transformation leaders, it’s the strength that restores trust, resets relationships, and enables progress after setbacks

At the senior Head of, Director, General Manager, and C-Suite levels, forgiveness becomes a leadership quality that signals maturity. Our world inevitably involves missteps, conflict, and disappointment and this strength helps has move forward

Examples of underuse. A General Manager in Product and Transformation who underuses forgiveness may hold grudges against delivery teams after missed deadlines, creating tension that slows innovation. A Head of Change who refuses to let go of past stakeholder resistance and interacts with ongoing prejudice risks entrenching conflict and stalling momentum

Examples of optimal use. A Strategy Director might put aside ill feelings about actions made by other departments in the past that hindered or blocked their progress, reset expectations, then rebuild trust with stakeholders to collaboratively move forward. A Chief Product Officer might forgive rather than punish leaders who have learnt from their mistakes to signal resilience, strengthen culture, and accelerate recovery

Examples of overuse. Forgiveness taken too far can become permissiveness. A Head of Engineering who forgives repeated underperformance without accountability risks lowering standards. A Vice President in Product who continually overlooks breaches of trust to get things across the line may undermine their own credibility by association and weaken business outcomes

The sweet spot is forgiveness that clears the path forward without erasing accountability. Product and transformation leaders who use this strength well create resilience, rebuild trust, and enable initiatives to move at pace

Research shows that leaders who know, apply, and maximise their strengths experience higher resilience, stronger influence, and improved performance outcomes. Forgiveness is just one of the 24 strengths that we explore in The Strengths Advantage

The Strengths Advantage

Book your team into the half-day workshop to repair trust across your program, or choose the 90-minute 1:1 leader session to sharpen your own ability to forgive without erasing accountability!