Every so often the leadership development world undergoes a seismic shift in direction. The latest thought shift is that instead of concentrating on improving areas of weakness, we should be exploiting strengths. Research now clearly shows that efforts to improve areas of weakness are rarely successful and that the brain processes verbal criticism in the same sites that it deals with physical pain. If we cannot materially improve weaknesses, there is more to be gained by improving strengths.
At least 20 types of strengths have been identified and it is convenient to divide them into four groups.
One way to use this list is to try to work out your top five strengths. Now ask two or three business colleagues to do the same. Using friends and family members does not work in this instance as they will not usually have experience of you in your work environment.
Now review, possibly with your line manager, what you regard as the five main strengths needed for your current role and compare it with your self-assessed list. If there are any gaps you need to establish to what extent they are relevant and important to role. It may be that they can be regarded as “allowable weaknesses.” However, if you find that despite an impressive array of strengths, you are missing one or more key strengths for the role, then further progress might be unlikely. For example, if you are an accountant with a lack of focus on details, you are probably in the wrong job.
Likewise, if you find that your list of strengths exceeds those needed for your current role you might want to consider looking for a more challenging role.
However, you need to exercise some caution. Whilst developing and playing to your strengths will definitely contribute to greater success, you need to ensure that you do not over use them. Too much self-confidence and decisiveness is often perceived by others as arrogance and bullying which may prevent further success.
