Strengths Not Weaknesses

When an organization looks at optimizing it’s business, they invest in leveraging the areas that give them the best ROI. Those areas are invariably where their product or service is strongest versus the competition. Where that product or service is weak, they find way to minimize or mitigate those weaknesses but that is not where they invest.

Despite doing this for their business, these same organizations often take an entirely different approach when trying to get the best from their employees.

I am sure that you have had this experience at some time in your career. You sit down for your annual performance review and your manager spends the first fifteen minutes talking about what you do well and the rest of the meeting is about your perceived weaknesses and what the development plan is for how you are going to eliminate them.

This is a mistake. Unless you have a weakness that is causing you major problems, you will get a much greater performance improvement by focusing on developing your strengths rather than trying to completely eliminate those weaknesses.

You are a great presenter? Take a course and become an amazing one. Incredible analytical skills? Do a preceptorship in market research and take it to another level.

People who truly successful spend their time doing what they are great at and find ways to compensate for or neutralize their weaknesses. This can be by finding someone else who will cover that element of the business or by adapting their job to better fit their own personal profile.

I don’t know what they do where you work but I can guarantee you this, if you want to be great at what you do, work on your strengths, not your weaknesses.