Introduction: 

• There is a slight change of direction with this piece, I want to challenge the traditional view point that everyone should focus on improving and addressing their weaknesses not their strengths. I aim to show why this is actually the wrong way to be looking at things.
• Traditionally we are told to create two lists when summing up our current performance, a strengths list and a weaknesses list. The weaknesses list can sometimes be called a ‘development’ list if people judging your performance don’t want to call them weaknesses, but it tends to mean the same thing. You are then told to look at and admire your strengths for a few seconds before immediately focusing on the weaknesses/development list.
• I believe this is completely the wrong way around. Whilst I think acknowledging your weaknesses or areas for improvement are important, the fundamentally important thing is to look at your strengths, see how you’re achieving them and focus even harder on how you can strengthen them further. In this piece I want to explain in more detail why focusing on weaknesses is the wrong approach, what you can do to break the ‘weakness focused’ fallacy, because it’s harder than you think, and finally the approaches you can look at to help you improve your strengths.

Why you shouldn’t focus on weaknesses 

• When I tell people that it is wrong to make your weaknesses your primary focus most scoff or say I’m wrong, however some very simple real life examples can explain my thinking.
  • Example 1: I’m a massive rugby fan so I’m going to use Martin Johnson (England World Cup winning captain) as my first example. Martin Johnson was a 6 foot 6in second row, who was an incredible leader, amazing line out technician and formidable enforcer on the pitch. When you look at this skillset against the full list of potential rugby skills his weakness would be his goal kicking ability. Why would Martin focus on his goal kicking ability when he could be the best second row forward of his age without it? Improving this may have made him a ‘better’ all round player, but wouldn’t help him keep his status ahead of other second rows in world rugby.
  • Example 2: Outside the world of sport and into the world of technology. You are a badass Java developer who can spot and solve defects in seconds, which take others hours to find let alone resolve, but you are socially shy and struggle to be authoritative with peers and subordinates. You love your coding and have no desire to climb the greasy management ladder, you want to focus on maximising your Java knowledge and earning potential. Focusing on your ‘weakness’ would improve your management abilities, but probably only slightly because you find it extremely difficult and unenjoyable. The same focus on your strengths as a developer would see a far greater return on investment (ROI) helping you improve the reliability of service, your importance to the company and therefore your compensation (pay and bonus).
• If you’re still not convinced just remember that spending all day, every day being reminded of what you are awful at is enough to make anyone depressed, so, for your own happiness, make your strengths your priority.

How to break focus on weaknesses 

•  I hope so far I have highlighted some key arguments and got you to re-asses and acknowledge that prioritising your weaknesses is not the most important thing. However, what I want to do now is show you how you can stop doing this in practice. As with most things in life there is a big difference between knowing something and changing your behaviour to address it as a result.
  • Acknowledge your weaknesses– Just because you shouldn’t prioritise your weaknesses doesn’t mean you should ignore them. Acknowledging your limitations is the first step, even if you then don’t do anything about them.
  • Don’t be embarrassed by your weaknesses – Everyone has weaknesses, from Larry Page (Co-founder of Google) to your average man/woman/child on the street. When you’re in a team you should be aware of each others weaknesses and ensure you have different types of people in your team to ensure all the ‘gaps’ are filled. If you are in a team of ‘drivers’ who are only focused on results and lack personable skills you are going to struggle to engage with other teams and could become alienated.
  • Delegate your weaknesses – Delegate the work you struggle with to others on your team who are more skilled at it than you,  then leave them alone and let them handle these areas for you.
  • Invest money not time in weaknesses – This is related to the point above and is especially important if you are a team leader or a entrepreneur, don’t choose people for your team with the same strengths and weaknesses as you. Returning to the rugby analogy, you don’t have 15 players who are 6 ft 6ins tall and weigh 19 stone on the pitch, the wingers of the opposition would have the best day of their lives. You need to ensure you invest money in employing individuals whose strengths are your weaknesses to compliment your team and maximise output.

How to improve your strengths 

• Now that you have re-set your priorities and you are focusing on your strengths, what should you do?
  • Define your Strengths – Definition is almost always the first step. Individuals discover their strengths by monitoring spontaneous reactions (i.e. behaviour reverted too when we are put under stress).  Strengths can also be determined from the things you enjoy doing. Your partner/house mate can be the best person here. Sub-consciously you are likely to talk to them about the fun and most enjoyable part of your job, that is also most likely the work you are best at. Ask them to list what they think your strengths are, 9 times out of 10 they’ll define your strengths better than you can!
  • Create a plan to strengthen your strengths – Just as you would do with you weaknesses, make a defined and measurable plan to strengthen your positive attributes. Regularly check in against this plan to ensure you are seeing the progress that you’d like to, if you’re not you need to assess how you should tweak your approach.
  • Feedback is gold dust – Never judge or measure your progress in isolation. Top-down feedback is the most common and plays an important role but equally important is peer-to-peer feedback and also feedback from those you manage. There are valuable things which your managers don’t see about your performance, you’re not really doing an amazing job if the individuals working around you are having a horrible time in your presence. 360-degree feedback is a powerful tool and is fundamental for you in measuring your progress, make sure you use it.
  • Be proactive, not reactive – Focusing on your weaknesses is often centred around what you’ve done wrong in the past, focusing on your strengths should be centred around what you’re going to do better in the future, based on the things you already know you are good at. This subtle change in mentality can have a significant impact on your mood and likelihood of seeing the gains you want.

Conclusion 

• I hope that you’ve read this and, at minimum, it has provided a fresh look at the standard weakness based performance review methodology. I hope I have even convinced a few of you to fully embrace the strength focused way of looking at things.
• I will end with a few words of caution: shifting to a strength focused methodology is very important, but don’t completely forget about your weaknesses. If you take strength focus to the extreme you can become very cynical about humans’ ability to evolve and grow. This can inhibit both yourself and those you work with. So recognise your weaknesses, be aware of them and try not to allow them to become determinantal to your strengths, but focus the majority of your time and effort on your strengths.

 

Photo Credit