Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths are our innate patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving. These character traits and skills are often easily recognizable to who we are and how we operate.
Weaknesses encompass our flaws, character gaps, and areas of incompetence. Identifying these demands candid self-reflection. And even when we don’t self-assess, they’re often revealed to us through the feedback we receive from others.
Blindspots are areas we tend to over-rely on our strengths, sometimes causing them to appear more like liabilities. For instance, an efficiency-driven individual may be misconstrued as nit-picky or critical. We tend to be strongest in the things we value, and we tend to operate most in our blindspot areas when our values feel violated. The result can obstruct our ability to accurately perceive our effectiveness in leading people and executing tasks.
Every strength has a blindspot. And in any role, the ability to discern between your strength and its corresponding blindspot is crucial. It might look like the following:
Deciphering between analyzing data and succumbing to tunnel vision.
Recognizing the boundary between implementation and inadvertently steamrolling your team.
Distinguishing between creative ideation and vision drift.
For me, it's like walking a tightrope between valuing excellence and submitting to perfectionism. One side urges me to elevate standards and redefine what's possible. The other side suffocates my efforts and drains the vitality from myself and those around me by incessantly declaring it's never good enough.
If you’ve undergone any interview process, you’ve likely had to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses before. But have you ever taken the time to consider your blindspot areas?
What blindspots might be draining the vitality from your strengths and hindering your effectiveness in your role?
Operating in your blindspot areas undermines your leadership and trust across all roles – parent, leader, spouse, friend, etc.
To make this practical, use the graphic below as a guide to consider and list your strengths, blindspots, and weaknesses. It may help to consider the negative feedback you've received, linking it to underlying values you hold. For example, valuing achievement might lead to bulldozing behavior when progress is delayed, prioritizing task completion at any cost.
Your columns could resemble:
Strength: Achievement / Getting things done
Blind spot: Bulldozing
Weakness: Difficulty pivoting when plans aren't executed perfectly
Continuing the example above, a next step would be to identify people with strong agility and partner with them when plans derail, asking questions like: "What do you think needs to be considered to move forward?" They'll likely be able to offer multiple ideas when disappointment clouds your ability to deviate from the original plan.
This helps you leverage your strengths, avoid your blindspots, and defer to others who excel in your weakness category.