If you could boil down rules for success to only one, what would it be?
Over the course of the last two years we’ve frequently discussed the value of knowing and exercising one’s strengths. Regarding my last blog, “One Key To Happiness: Being ME Can Be A Bummer,” I was asked by a reader if what I said applies to success as well. Just to remind you…in the blog, I built a case for the importance of coming to terms with who you aren’t, and argued that it is equally, if not more important, than knowing who you are.
Have you ever noticed that the most successful people have no reservations about stating their weaknesses? They are at perfect peace saying, “I’m terrible at…” this or that. They know as much about where they are weak, as they do about where they are strong.
It seems to me that people who haven’t experienced much success in business or in life know very little about their strengths and weaknesses. The reason is that people in the above category haven’t taken on enough risk or experimented sufficiently with with their work life to build awareness around where they shine and where they flounder, where they succeed and where they fail.
It’s unfortunate, but our educational system is set up in a way that individuals can’t figure this out in school. It’s generally young adults who want engaging work and perhaps even purposely set out to figure out what they are good at, who slowly learn that what they want to do doesn’t necessarily mesh with their strengths. Only then do they begin to understand who they are and what their true strengths and weaknesses are.
Often what we are good at isn’t really what we enjoy… and what we enjoy, we may not be good at. But when we hone in on the overlap… Eureka!
Here are some examples from my own family: My oldest son is in commercial production work. He has realized that he enjoys the conceptualization and creative end more than the editing and production details. My next son is a salesman for a radio station and realizes he enjoys “closing deals.” He says, “I love overcoming objections.. if I could do that all day I’d be happy.” (No, I’m not giving you his contact info.) But, he doesn’t like fulfilling orders, producing the ads, etc. My recently graduated daughter is just starting in PR work, and is just beginning to discover what she doesn’t like and/or is not good at.
As a manager, do you know your weaknesses? Do you know the weaknesses of your agents and staff? How often do you talk about them?
Editor’s Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you’re an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the “comments” link below.
