Should you ignore your weaknesses and focus only on your strengths?

Over the past 20 years, the Strengths movement has had an enormous influence on the way people think about their development.

Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton was published in 2001 and is one of the most popular business books of all time. Over 20 million people have taken the related Strengths Finder assessment according to Gallup.

This movement became so popular that in 2008, Marcus Buckingham appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

The book, assessment, and movement are popular because they emphasize an important point. We have a tendency to over-emphasize our weaknesses, and ignore our strengths. Many of us greatly benefit from fully understanding and nurturing our strengths.

A more extreme belief that I’ve heard repeated often is, “don’t waste time working on your weaknesses. Focus only on your strengths.”

It’s tempting to believe this. It feels good, at least in the short-term, to believe that we don’t have to worry about weaknesses and that just leveraging our strengths is the ticket to the success we’ve always craved.

But in reality, a pure strength-based approach is only effective when certain conditions are true.

Three Conditions Needed for a Successful Strengths-Based Development Approach

1. You are elite in a skill that’s extremely valuable.

It’s not enough to be good at something.

You must be elite or rapidly moving in that direction. And, the skill must be valuable enough that your employer will organize around you.

This is rare.

I know salespeople who bring in 80%+ of their firm’s revenue. They’re fantastic at building relationships, understanding client needs, and making sales. They’re so valuable as salespeople that their weaknesses are irrelevant. Their companies don’t want them wasting time on non-revenue generating activities.

When a leader has skills that allow them to make this type of out-sized impact, weaknesses are often overlooked and tolerated. (Sometimes they really shouldn’t be, but I digress.)

When that’s not the case, weaknesses are often the barriers holding leaders back from their career ambitions.

2. Stakeholders’ expectations align with your strengths.

The most critical stakeholders - those who make hiring / firing / promotion decisions - must view your role the way you do.

If you’re amazing at execution but terrible at strategy, that’s fine as long as the most critical stakeholders agree that what’s important in your role is execution, but not strategy. Double down on execution when that’s the case.

If not, either find a role where execution is most important or improve your strategic acumen.

3. You surround yourself with people who fill your gaps AND fully empower them.

This can be an especially powerful strategy.

Gino Wickman, the author of Traction and creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System, recommends having two roles at the top of an organization - A Visionary and an Integrator. A Visionary focuses on big-picture thinking, idea generation, and strategy. An Integrator focuses on organization and day-to-day execution.

Many leaders would benefit from empowering others to take on the responsibilities that are outside of their areas of strength. Great strategists would often benefit from empowering a Chief of Staff or Chief Operating Officer.

This type of teamwork can create incredible results!

Unfortunately, few leaders, in my experience, will trust and empower others fully in this type of partnership. Giving up control is difficult. But it’s absolutely essential for this strategy to work.

So, as you work towards your goals, carefully consider your approach to development. Will ignoring your weaknesses and focusing only on your strengths work for you?

Or will a balanced approach be more effective?

For most people, I find a balanced approach is the right choice. → Fully leverage your strengths while continuing to develop in those areas that aren’t strengths yet.

P.S. - I’m on a quick vacation for several days next week. My next newsletter will be out in a couple weeks. Thanks for reading!

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