Strengths or Weaknesses

Expert opinion is divided as to whether it is better to focus on strengths or weaknesses. Marcus Buckingham, author of ‘Put Your Strengths to Work’ suggests that individuals and teams playing to their strengths significantly outperform those who don’t. 
However, Bob Kaplan and Rob Kaiser, in their Harvard Business Review article ‘Stop Overdoing Your Strengths’ highlight the possible dangers of this approach: “lopsided leadership”.

Here we see how over-using a strength can turn it into a weakness.

• Analytical ... over-analysing
• Thorough ... nit-picking
• Proactive ... making rash decisions
• Confident ... controlling
• Respectful ... not taking a stand
• Valuing ... trying to please everyone
• Engaging ... over-involving others
• Adaptable ... lacking focus

OR

• Ordering facts on organisational realities and taking a strategic overview ... Getting attached to rigid protocol and analysing issues ad finitum
• Determining direction and initiating key actions ... Being overly directive and dismissive of others’ opinions
• Living your values and nurturing the development of self and others ... trying to please everyone all the time and not taking a stand on key issues
• Communicating effectively and building key relationships ... Over-involving others and getting distracted by interpersonal issues

Multi-dimensional Leadership

So, we know that focusing solely on our weaknesses can be exhausting and focusing all of our efforts on leveraging our strengths can become our Achilles heel. Is the crude labelling of strengths and weaknesses too simplistic? Remember that each person in a team will have a different perception of what constitutes a strength and a weakness. I would argue that we need to enhance our self-awareness across a number of leadership ‘dimensions’, some of which come naturally and some that don’t.

By getting hold of good quality information about both our preferences and capabilities across these dimensions we can make informed decisions about where we apply our effort.

Striking a Balance

While good leaders focus on what they do well, great leaders truly understand their strengths and weaknesses and actively choose the areas on which they need to focus. Today’s leadership models will not stand up to this challenge if they simply categorise our attributes as strengths or weaknesses. A framework is needed which allows us to work on both, and recognises that our preference and capability are an important part of the equation.

For maximum effectiveness leadership models must also take into account that our strengths and weaknesses can manifest differently in our interactions with others and suggest ways in which we can modify our behaviour to achieve better results.

Of course this is not a one-off exercise. Leadership is a skill that needs to be constantly reviewed to avoid “lopsidedness”. This means continuing to invite feedback and paying attention to our capabilities across a number of dimensions, some of which come naturally and others less so. Only then can we be sure to get the balance right.

Mike Jones (Insights Customer Solutions Manager)