I read one blog on "Weakness" recently in Linkedin which kindled my thoughts on Strengths and Weakness..
This topic is a very important one and matters most for lot of us, here is my thoughts on this..
You are what you are because of your strengths and not because of your weakness, same thing will hold good whoever you are, whatever you are and where ever you are.. Just take the best leaders in this world, they are what they are because of their strengths, everyone one of these leaders have got weaknesses much more than even an ordinary individual. So why should we worry about our weakness when even the best leaders has..
Also the fact is that you don't need to and you can't do much about your weaknesses.. Am not talking about the interpersonal flaws of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith but about the personality traits of who you are.. An introvert wanting to become an Extrovert or vice-versa, If Steve Jobs wanted to get rid of his weakness completely he would have spent his entire life time on that only.. Archimedes got killed by a soldier for his contemplation on a diagram, should we worry about his obsession as weakness.. For example, Lets say your weakness is procrastination, analyse why you have this weakness, it may be because you crave so much for perfection, you do so much of analysis, you get so much into details.. Now do you work so much on your procrastination or work on improving your analytical skills, your perfections which can make everyone forgive your procrastination and patiently wait for the completion of your work..
But why everyone is harping so much on their weaknesses.. Assuming Einstein has joined as a sales guy, what would have happened to his career, all through his lifetime he would have griped on his weaknesses and spent his entire lifetime improving his weakness, trying to convert his weakness into strength and would have tried to become a best CEO in this world..
The problem with most of us is, we do what we get and never break the barriers to do what we want or love.. The work that we do should match with the strengths (to the extent of 50%) that we possess, but when the job requirements gets deep into our weakness, the strengths that we posses becomes irrelevant in that context and we strive hard to improve on our weaknesses. Off course you can improve on your weakness a bit and you can try to become neutral but you can never reverse the pendulum.. And the effort is going to take a toll on you, the efficiency will be less, more hard work is required and the frustration levels will be high.. Lot of us get into that and settle down at some level, not what we aspire for..
So the solution is to check the career requirements Vs your strengths and if it matches to the extent of 50%, then you do not need to worry much about your weaknesses, focus on strengths and become so much good in that, that people cannot ignore you for what you have.. You just be aware of your weaknesses (which is also not easy) and a gentle reminder on that can bring you to neutral on your weaknesses.. And if the match is more than 70% then you don't need to worry about your weakness, you are just limited by your strengths and there is no limit to improve on one's strengths..
And finally, Do you Love what you do? As Steve Jobs puts it "As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it".. When you love what you do even your weakness takes a back seat, you are just limited by your passion and perseverance for what you love..
