Strengths & Weaknesses
At work, we have been doing what we call “Summer School”. It is a groundbreaking learning experience in which we read and discuss primarily business books and then attend conferences remotely (oh, the power of the internet).
Well, we just finished The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team yesterday, which I highly recommend (of course, I must note that it contained PG language).
One of the most beneficial things that we did was share our strengths and weaknesses as they related to our organization.
Basically, what do we do that helps the organization and what do we do that hinders the organization.
And then, things got interesting. Our answers were scrutinized by our Lead Pastor (okay, more like reviewed, but scrutinized sounded scarier).
It was a very transparent and telling exercise. It was a little unnerving but it felt healthy.
Here are mine:
Strengths: Being able to meet deadlines, turn ideas into actions, and excelling at time management.
Weaknesses: Failing to understand that everything, especially quality control and standards, happen over time through the development of structures and individuals (i.e. it is a long-term issue).
So, what are your strengths and weaknesses?
This has proven to be beneficial for our family as well since we are now focusing on pointing out eachothers strengths and weaknesses…my children (even though they r young) are growing together as a “team” so here is what I feel my strengths and weaknesses are:
Strength: (this is harder for me to recognize than the weaknesses) I am motivated, I see a goal and give 100% + until I reach that goal. I get very focused and driven and failure is not an option once I make my mind up to achieve something
Weaknesses: being too hard on myself, never feeling like I measure up to my expectations or those of others (even if they are unrealistic or untrue) expecting others to be as motivated aout something/anything as I am. I find it frustrating when a person lacks passion and struggle with taking them seriously
Well there it is…that’s what I see in me (today anyway)
I also struggle when I deal with persons who have no passion for the issues at hand. In a professional sense the issue is job vs. profession. (come to work for the pay vs. coming to work to earn a salary. Outside of work I have noticed that often those without a passion for a sopecific issue are the ones least likely to LISTEN to discussion regarding an issue yet they have strong opinion about handling of the issue.
Job vs. Profession
Really, a paradigm issue.
I agree that those that are passionate, go all out, even when that means listening. I realize, I can talk about dumb stuff (did you see that on E! or did you see what she tweeted) but my tolerance for what I listen to is less. I want to hear something substantive…
What would you tell someone that was trying to transition from the job mentality to the profession mentality?
I think that is a strategic family move that is going to allow for personal growth beyond your expectations!
I too struggle with your weaknesses, so it helps to be surrounded by a wife and team that are encouraging.
Do you think that these have changed over the years or have been the same?
Absolutley these have changed over the years, specificially over the past year and a half. It has certainly been a huge transition. I know there are other strengths but my challenge is to work on the weaknesses without obsessing and only focusing on the weaknesses. I have to allow myself to NOT be perfect. I think a year and a half ago I would have said my strength was making others happy. I still try to be that person yet build on it so I can in turn make myself happy too. I think if we aren’t growing we are dying. So our strengths and weaknesses must change depending on the current battles and life situations we are living. i hope that one day my weakness will no longer be a weakness but a strength however, another weakness will be my new challenge to overcome. Always climbing, always learning. always becoming more of the person God designed me to be…
“…but my challenge is to work on the weaknesses without obsessing and only focusing on the weaknesses.”
I believe that 99.9% of the time, people should focus on maximizing their strengths and recognizing their weaknesses so they can bring others around them to fill the gap.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to weaknesses such as unhealthy behavior or moral issues.
The strengths I shared were communication, vision, and never quitting, my weaknesses were the gap between vision and fruition, or the implementation of action steps systematized for predicable and measurable outcome.
This is a great book and highly recommend it for your executive team, at the risk of cross promoting I will be doing a 5 week blog series entitles Team Tuesday where will we cover 1 of the 5 dysfunctions of a team each Tuesday on http://www.thecreativepunk.com
I have always appreciate your transparency as a leader!
I am exciting to recap our readings during Team Tuesdays!
My strengths are in developing educational programs. Specifically recognizing the opportunities for improvement. My weakness is delegation of tasks. I am probably not a very good listener either.
That is a very valuable and specialized strength-how did that develop within you and become something you were passionate about?
Delegation. The d-word of leadership.
What do you find is most challenging about it?
My strengths are: organization, writing (I can write my thoughts better than I can verbalize them), multi-tasking (which is doing too much at one time – so it’s a strength and a weakness), doing the little things that need to be done but no one wants to do, and I’m a perfectionist.
My weaknesses are: short temper, doing too much at one time, patience, I’m a perfectionist, and math.
There you go – me in a nutshell…..:)
I think it is interesting that one’s strengths and weaknesses can be rooted in similar soil. And your certainly seem that way…
You don’t show the “short temper”, I would’ve never guessed.
Being someone that excels and likes organization, what is one organization tip you would share?
If you haven’t used something in the last year – Throw It Away!!! lol
Ouch!
Although I love organization, I am a pack rat!
I have been better lately…(okay, at least trying to be)
I so identify with you Michelle, I too can write my feelings a million times better than I can vocalize them. In person I shut down and automatically go into people pleaser mode and do whatever it takes to avoid feeling akward so in myself I see this as a strength and weakness as well as the multi tasking and organizing…both of those are huge assets in the right enviornment however the challenge is learning to turn them off when I need to. Organizing in particular can stress me out IF I am forcing others or myself to organize something that needs to be spontanious (ie: family fun days etc…) SO I whole heartedly agree that a lot of times our biggest strengths CAN be our biggest weaknesses if we don’t keep them in check. I can’t help but think of Jekyll and Hyde when refrencing this….wow! This was a great reminder to me that I need to not only keep my weaknesses in check but also my strengths so they don’t in turn become my weakness while I am unaware!
WOW! Strengths. Compassion & understanding. And I am pretty good at taking direction.
Weaknesses. I have a difficult time prioritizing & I am forgetful.
Those are some killer strengths and some “easy-fix” weaknesses.
You have got to get the Behance Action book. It would totally help with both of those! I want to get one soon!