What is your biggest strength? What is your biggest weakness? Do you have them in mind? Now ponder this question. What’s more likely to make you as successful and satisfied as possible: continually improving your strengths or continually trying to fix your biggest weaknesses?
Those of you who have read “Now, Discover your Strengths” or “StrengthsFinder 2.0” the updated version of the book published in 2009 know the answer. Research and empirical evidence shows time and time again that people are more successful and happier when they are given the opportunity to focus on their strengths.
I’m not suggesting that serious and critical weakness in your life and career should be ignored entirely. But I do encourage you to be aware of what makes you tick and what you are best at. Maximizing those talents will almost always have a more profound impact on your life than obsessively worrying about your weaknesses.
I generally don’t recommend business books. There are some great ones but there are literally thousands of them out there and most of them can be boiled down to a few pithy concepts or platitudes. But, I always encourage folks to read StrenghtsFinder 2.0. It will open your mind to key principles that will unlock your potential and make you a better manager. One of my favorite components is the scarily accurate strength based assessment test that comes with it. Andy Leonard, my business partner at Linchpin People (www.linchpinpeople.com) and I have encouraged everyone in our company to read it and take the test. I can’t say that we are experts on acting on the insights that the book and test provide us and our team. But, it’s changed the way that I think about leading and managing people as well as myself.
