Forget About Working On Your Weakness, Play To Your Strengths: Your (Overwhelming) Reaction To The Idea

I wrote last time about how frustrasted I was, back when I was the world’s worst middle level manager, every time I tried to improve all the management skills I was bad at. (Delegating. Supporting my staff. Developing my people….the list of what  I was awful at really was endless.)

Yes, I got marginally better at all those things. But, I was still really bad and putting in all that effort for so little gain made me extremely cranky. And worse, I wasn’t having any fun.  Spending every day being reminded of what you are awful at is enough to make anyone depressed.

The response to my confession/moment-of-enlightenment was dramatic.

Not only was it one of the my most read posts, but it triggered dozens of responses. And what was most surprising (to me) is nobody said I was all wet.

Rogier van der Maas came close, though: “”I agree you should always focus on your strengths, but I also think you should not forget about your weaknesses…spend your time wisely, but don’t fall for that easy way out by saying: hey, it’s not my strength…[and]  shirk and delegate to others.”

But with that exception, those of you who commented either said–as Adma Jaharjan did–that they were going to try the approach of concentrating on their strenghs, or they had already had and were thrilled by the results. These comments are representative:

• “I sincerely believe in ‘Play to your strengths.’ One could become mediocre when he/she focus on weakness, but focusing on strengths only can take people to excellence.”  Sivakumar Palaniappan
• “It works for me. I have to work at what I’m really good at doing and learning how to maximize that. I also hire people to do what I’m terrible at which works out for the best interest of the company.” Donna Whippy.
•  ”I have tried for years and years to work on my weaknesses and improve what I was not good at. I have to say, I did grow and improve. But, my growth was at a very slow rate and with gains that didn’t meet my expectations. I was still ‘not good’ at what I used to be bad at. Basically, focusing on improving my weaknesses consumed a lot of my energy, time, and attention from excelling in my career. I truly believe now that it is one’s strength that moves you ahead in your career. Omneya Salem

Some of you even went further, saying working on our strengths could make us happier and improve our companies (and beyond) as well.

“I think it would help alot of people to focus/play to their strengths. They would find better direction for their lives,” wrote Susie Smith. Pamela Horton took the idea even further.

I find us to be a nation that focuses on the negative.  Imagine what our outcome would be, the bottom line result, the revenue generated should we finally begin to focus on our strengths and what we do right and begin to believe the possibilities.”

This, however, is primarily a business blog so it was gratifying to hear the approach can add to the bottom line.

“A good manager/leader recognizes and accepts his/her strengths and weaknesses.  This point is evident in small/startup businesses where a smart founder realizes that he/she is not good at certain things and employs competent people to those things.  The same is applicable to team-members we manage we must do everything possible to help individuals to get better at what they are good at and enjoy doing it.  It is only then that a team will work at its optimal capacity and contribute to long-term sustainable growth of a business,” wrote Vahick Yedgarian

And some have even taken it further, offering the advice to this clients. “When I’m working on business consulting to my customers I always say do your SWOT [strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat analysis] and then work strongly on your strengths,” wrote Mauro Carrusca.

As I said, I was surprised–and very pleased–by all the reactions.  It is nice to know that my 17 months, three weeks and four days as the worst middle-level manager who ever lived (it was all that I, or anyone who worked for me, could take–was not in vain.