Does Your Weakness Really Need Fixing?
It depends on what lies on the other side
The old school of management training must have told young managers to knock the weaknesses out of their employees. I experienced my fair share of this style of management in the early years of my career.
I was mostly given a list of weaknesses that my manager thought I should address. I was frequently reminded of failings that I had to overcome.
Even when a boss doesn’t tell us to focus on our weaknesses, most of us will do it independently. In employee polls several years ago, workers were asked if they thought that they should build their strengths or fix their weaknesses to be more successful in their jobs.
Only 37% of them said that focusing on their strengths would help them be more successful. 63% said they should fix their weaknesses first, instead.
In another survey, employees were asked: “ When you talk with your manager about your performance, what do you spend the most time talking about? “
I don’t remember being coached to double down on my strengths until much later in my career. One of my managers (thank you, Justin!) gave me a book by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman called First, Break All The Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. One chapter…
