When Your Strengths Become Your Biggest Weaknesses
“Say you’re a leader writing a policy on workplace harassment,” he says. “You’re an expert on the subject. You can write this thing in your own little world and implement it right away. The problem is that you have to have other perspectives because people may see harassment in different ways, and they’ll plug up holes that you haven’t seen.”
Last year, the Forbes Coaches Council released an excellent article identifying 7 additional signs that your strength is accidentally becoming a weakness and the consequences. Interestingly enough, they all seem to be rooted in the overuse of expertise. See if you notice any of these happening in your business:
You act too quickly and rush to make decisions
You overlook your strength gaps
Your strengths become a comfort zone where you spend all your time
You approach everything reactively instead of creatively
You talk your way out of deals
Your lose the ability to judge objectively
You shoulder too much burden, burning yourself out and keeping others from growing.
Overcoming the Problem
So how can you keep your strengths from diminishing your team? From Sisodiya’s perspective, it is quite simple: Ask for help. It is the true strength of any leader.
“The strength is the ability to see your own weakness and ask for support,” he says. “Better to admit to your weakness, then I can get you the help and expertise that you need.”
As a basic practice, you should always solicit feedback from others. Even when you’re an expert, other perspectives can catch things that might be missed. Before you implement a policy or a new strategy, press the pause button and give others on your leadership team the opportunity to shape and perfect it. When you include them, you’ll find that their input will help close gaps or trigger additional new ideas. This promotes communication, leverage the expertise and buy-in from your team.
Take some time to reflect on your past performance and decisions to see if you’re falling into any of the 7 problem areas we listed above. Where have you spent most of your time? Are you drowning in work while others have little to do? Are you making immediate, knee-jerk reactions to issues? Have you included other perspectives in your decision-making?
Talk to us about other ways strengths can become weaknesses, and what a business leader can do to avoid the issue!
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Who is your ideal Core Customer? What is your customer’s Problem to Solve and the Brand Promise you make to solve it? What is your Customer Lifecyle and have you optimized it? Would you like help solving that?
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Pat “Coach” Frazier
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