Improve your Weakest Link
Should you improve on your strengths and ignore your weaknesses? Absolutely not. I say you spend 70% of your energy on your strengths and 30% on improving your weaknesses.
When we think of weakness, many think in terms of physical strength. I like the Gallup definition of weakness as “anything that gets in the way of your success.” We all have weaknesses.
Seth Godin has a great post where he argues you can make your greatest improvement by focusing on the “laggards.” This has a direct application to you personally. He has some mathematical examples the prove his point.
Here are the reasons I go with the 70-30 split.
Focusing too much on your weaknesses, you risk impacting your self-confidence, enthusiasm, and overall performance in life. Don’t drive yourself to the negative, unproductive mindset. It would be best if you stayed in the productive growth mindset.
You have strengths that can actually directly improve your weaknesses. Do you not give up easily? Do you have an infinite mindset? These can be great attributes to use against areas of weakness.
Focusing energy on your weaknesses is aided by a unit view that Career Buzz has in that “maybe your weaknesses are also strengths or have a corresponding strength. By focusing on your weaknesses, you are actually equally improving a strength. Do you view persistence as a weakness as you don’t know when to quit? Maybe working on identifying the right time to quit will give you the skill to understand when you are close to a breakthrough and should keep persisting?
Don’t completely ignore your weaknesses as they can’t be completely ring-fenced. Weaknesses can bleed over into other areas of your life. Just like strengths bleed over into other areas of your life, weaknesses can as well.
They may be holding you back in areas of your life that are critical and preventing you from achieving your ultimate life’s vision.
When you jump into the 30% of focusing on your weaknesses, here are some helpful tips to remain productive:
You are not your weaknesses. Don’t personalize them to the point they define you.
Detach from your weaknesses – view them independently and objectively as something that can be either ignored (yes, that is okay or improved on).
Truly believe that you can improve your weaknesses. Ask yourself What If? What if I can improve X? What would my life be like? After asking What if and truly believing that improvement is possible, you can move to improve it?
You can improve it; you believe it now; just put together a plan or system to move you towards improvement. Set metrics, track progress, and constantly adjust your course to make the progress you want.
Remember to celebrate the victories along the way. Don’t wait until you have completely solved the nut before celebrating.
These tips should help you move forward by focusing more on your strengths while not ignoring and being held back too much by your weaknesses.