Shift to What’s Strong

The world has enough people who excel at identifying what’s wrong. What it desperately needs are people who can see what’s strong. That means people who ask better questions, lead with assets, see the opportunity instead of only barriers, and create conditions where people thrive in a real way.

Ditch the Deficit Stories and Start Seeing the World Through a Strength-Based Lens

Learn six habits that shift how you see and interact with the world and bring out the best in others and yourself.

You've likely been trained since childhood find the deficits in any situation. You can list your weaknesses in detail. You catalog mistakes with precision. You immediately spot what needs fixing in your students, your colleagues, your own children, and especially yourself. This deficit lens feels responsible, mature, realistic.

But it's also why you're exhausted, frustrated, and on the verge of burnout.

In Shift to What's Strong, Dr. Byron McClure reveals six practical habits that fundamentally change how you see yourself and the world around you. These aren't mindset tricks or positive thinking exercises. They're specific practices that rewire the deficit-focused patterns programmed into your brain, replacing them with an automatic ability to spot strengths, build on assets, and create solutions from what's already working.

The Six Habits:

• See the Good: Train yourself to notice strengths in real time.
• Lead with Strength: Use your natural talents instead of exhausting yourself fixing weaknesses.
• Own Your Story: Reframe your struggles as sources of strength, not evidence of inadequacy.
• Ask What's Strong: Start with questions that reveal solutions, not catalog problems.
• Set Strong Goals: Build on your talents instead of fighting against them.
• Live in Your Strength: Design your environment to bring out your best.

These habits work in the real world, not just in ideal conditions. They work when you're facing thirty students with different needs. They work when your boss only focuses on problems. They work when your family thinks you're avoiding reality. 

McClure draws from his experience as a school psychologist who shifted how IEP meetings run, his development of the SWAG program that helped struggling students achieve GPAs above 3.25, and his work with thousands of educators who needed practical tools they could use Monday morning.

You'll learn exactly how to shift your automatic response from "What's wrong?" to "What's strong?" through specific practices you can start tomorrow. You'll learn why your brain defaults to deficit thinking and how to build new neural pathways through deliberate daily actions. Most importantly, you'll recognize that the struggles you've been trying to fix are actually sources of strength you haven't learned to see yet.

Your students need someone who sees their potential, not just their test scores. Your colleagues need someone who asks better questions. Your family needs someone who builds on what's working. And you need to stop fighting against who you are and start building on the strengths that are already there.

This book shows you how, one habit at a time, starting with your very next interaction.

Learn more about Byron McClure.

"In his book, Leading School Change, Todd Whitaker calls some educators Superstars (also known as The Irreplaceables). Their educational impact is so indescribable that you don’t even like to imagine your organization without them.  Dr. Byron McClure is that sort of educator. When it comes to educational leadership—particularly in the area of social emotional learning—he is a giant in the field." 

— Dr. David Pinder, Ed.D., Superintendent of the Maryland Juvenile Services Education Program