Perspectives on Development - Focusing on Strengths AND Weaknesses

There are a couple of schools of thought on development. The highest performers tend to embrace both of them.

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Leadership Tools: Perspectives on Development. Quote: You've got to focus on strengths. Marcus Buckingham. Quote: You have to triple-down on your weaknesses. David Goggins.
  1. Focus on leveraging your strengths
  2. Focus on minimizing your weaknesses

Focusing on only one of the two will keep individuals and teams from achieving their optimum results. This is one of the many dichotomies we must all reconcile in leadership, starting with self-leadership. 

Start with knowing what capabilities you will need to achieve what you want in the next one, three, and five years.  

Define your “Target Knowledge Level,” including soft skills, hard skills, certifications, physical conditioning, relationships, etc.  

Take “Inventory” of what you personally have right now. Be objective about this and know that you may not even know what you don’t know, so get outside perspectives.  

Take inventory of others that you can leverage and what their skills are.  

Know what your gaps are and go about closing them. Whether it is leveraging your strengths or minimizing your weaknesses, attack it head-on with a plan.  

Don’t ever let a weakness of yours or anyone around you become an excuse for not achieving your goals.  Achieving what you want may require turning a weakness into a strength.  




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