Beware of Your Strengths
There are several best selling books out that focus on developing and using your strengths. These include "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.
Strengths are good things.
I've always been a believer that we should put more time into developing our strengths than working on our weakness. Leaders are people who have distinguished themselves through their strengths. Of course, we all have weaknesses. But, if we are preoccupied with eliminating our weaknesses, we have a long road ahead of us. Now, that doesn't mean we should ignore our weaknesses. Rather, we should work to have our weaknesses not get in the way of our ambition and our ability to create results.
Be Aware of Your Strengths
We need to be acutely aware of both our strengths and weaknesses. I am going to state something that may be counter-intuitive:
Leaders are more likely to get into trouble by misusing their strengths than by stumbling from a weakness.
When faced with a difficult situation leaders are likely to revert to the strengths that have served them well in the past. Like and overused muscle, these strengths often get employed like a knee jerk reaction. In many cases this works for the leader. But, occasionally, the leader misuses a strength. That is, the strength has no relevance to the difficult situation but the leader employs it anyway out of instinct. Before the leader is aware of it, the situation they are trying to improve has gotten worse. Unaware of what is actually happening the leader might instinctively respond by drawing on the same strength again only to dig deeper hole. Look behind the story of a failed leader and I suspect you will find a misused strength.
Leaders are more likely to get into trouble by misusing their strengths than by stumbling from a weakness.
When faced with a difficult situation leaders are likely to revert to the strengths that have served them well in the past. Like and overused muscle, these strengths often get employed like a knee jerk reaction. In many cases this works for the leader. But, occasionally, the leader misuses a strength. That is, the strength has no relevance to the difficult situation but the leader employs it anyway out of instinct. Before the leader is aware of it, the situation they are trying to improve has gotten worse. Unaware of what is actually happening the leader might instinctively respond by drawing on the same strength again only to dig deeper hole. Look behind the story of a failed leader and I suspect you will find a misused strength.
Beware of Your Strengths
When the going gets tough, be aware of your instinctive response. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to avoid your strengths. Rather, examine each situation carefully and make conscious decisions on what actions are relevant and appropriate.
When the going gets tough, be aware of your instinctive response. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to avoid your strengths. Rather, examine each situation carefully and make conscious decisions on what actions are relevant and appropriate.
"Pushing the Edge" of Your Thinking
-
Do you know what strengths distinguish you as a leader?
-
How has that strength served your success in the past?
-
Can you remember a situation when you employed the strength out of instinct and found yourself in trouble?
-
Why did that happen?
-
What might you have done differently?