You’ve no doubt heard the saying “Play to your strengths?” I’m ALL about playing to my strengths–but I’ve also learned in the working world, it pays to put a little effort into working on those weaknesses as well. After all, so much of life in the business world CAN be learned, it pays to approach things with a student’s eye instead of the “I’ve never been good at that anyway” point of view. There’s a reason people go to business school and hitch up with mentors who show them the ropes, skills can be learned and weaknesses can be overcome.
As an example, I am, by nature, a rather impatient person. It took me over three decades to finally realize that this was not an asset and that I had actually made life harder on myself at times due to my impatience. It hadn’t dawned on me that I could really dig down and work on becoming MORE patient with things–whether in my parenting, my work, or at life in general. When it did, I set about working on this weakness (a bit impatiently I might add). Now, I know I will never be one of those totally laid back, let-life-come-to-them kind of gals. But, I have developed enough self-awareness to talk myself through most bouts of impatience–especially when it comes to business-related things. Working for so many years in fundraising also helped me learn that sometimes things take time and cultivation and we just have to work away and wait things out. I’m not thrilled about it (so much time is a-wasting!) but I’m dealing with it.
Of course, a person can’t take on too many of his or her weaknesses at once or you end up feeling horrible and immobilized. I’m thinking one or two weaknesses at a time is plenty to wrestle with while you’re working on making self-improvements. Are you disorganized? Don’t like to return phone calls? Have trouble with aggressive and unpleasant people? A procrastinator? A person can start small and just vow to make little improvements day by day. While your weaknesses may never disappear altogether, you can certainly start to train yourself to have different reactions and different skills. And, besides, isn’t life more fun when you’re working on making improvements anyway?