Strengths-based leadership is all the rage and I 100% support it! I believe in the power of knowing your strengths, and in aligning work that matches up with those strengths…mostly!
Even too much cake is too much. Even strengths need to be checked, because as many others before me have said, a strength overused becomes a weakness.
Case in point:
Detail oriented becomes stagnation.
When you are TOO great at details, they can trip you up. If you obsess over every detail, you never move forward. Hence the phrase, “lost in the details.”
Organized becomes rigid.
I love organization and calendar appointments are my love language, so I know all too well that I can become rigid when things change. Things ALWAYS change, and to be successful, or heck, just happy, I need to learn to roll with change, despite my perfectly organized calendar!
Decisive becomes controlling.
Being decisive will get you far. People love to be relieved of the responsibility to make a decision, but you’ve got to watch yourself here. When you stop consulting people and claim that you’re leaning into your decisiveness, you’re actually just being controlling.
Efficient becomes overwhelmed.
Every efficient person thinks they can get 74 things done in a day. So they say yes to all 74 things. They’re efficient after all, so of course they can get it done. Truth? The overwhelm is real. Life happens and rarely does anyone get through their list in a day, so save yourself and use your efficiency to a point, just not to the point of overwhelm.
And let’s not forget about growth! Work that’s strengths aligned? YES! Work that ONLY plays to your strengths? NO!
We need to balance using our strengths with growth.
I joke and say that I have the Excel skills of a 5th grader. Luckily there are a few people in my world who are Excel rockstars. Does that mean I should always ask them to do my Excel work for me? Definitely no. Does it mean I get to ask them for help and learn as I go? Absolutely yes! While I should never be in a role that requires me to do complicated Excel work all day, I absolutely should learn the things that will help me. The other day, I made a spreadsheet that automatically calculated the delta between the numbers in 2 columns, and I was absolutely thrilled with myself! I got to learn how to do something that supports my work, grow a bit in an area that’s not a strength, and ensure that I’m not bothering the people generous enough to lend their knowledge. Win-Win!
TL;DR? Use your strengths while you’re also giving yourself opportunities to grow and stretch!
