Saturday, June 15, 2013

Many years ago I attended a motivational program on how to focus and build upon your strengths and to spend no time developing your weaknesses. I'm glad I didn't listen, and here's why you should focus on your weaknesses.

1. The Greatest Potential for Growth is in Developing Your Weaknesses - If you are naturally good at something, for example let's say you are really, really , excellent at networking, there are many gurus that theorize that you should spend more time developing your talent of networking with people and little to no time on the areas in which you are weaker. The problem with this theory is that if you are already good at networking, there is not as much room for growth as there is in working on an area that you do not excel at. For example, let's say that on a scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being the best, you are an 8 at networking. If you pour all of your time and energy into developing this talent, you are only going to increase slightly to get to the 10. On the other hand, let's say that on a scale of 1 -10 you are a 2 in using technology. If you develop this skill, you have the potential for improving by 8 points, not just 2. Those who agree with conventional business theories would tell you to delegate out anything that has to do with technology since this is your weakness. They would advise you not to bother developing your technology skill because you can just pay someone else to do that for you, giving you the opportunity to build upon your skill of networking. This makes no sense to me.

I take the exact opposite stance and would advise any budding entrepreneur to develop your technology skill up to a higher level. Do what comes natural to you in networking since your good at it anyway. Any additional skill required for networking should be delegated because you are better off developing a skill that allows for greater improvement than the minimal 2 point improvement that perfecting your talent for networking would allow for.

2. Developing Your Weaknesses = Developing Your Strengths: If you develop your weaknesses, you will also develop your strengths even further. My strengths twenty years ago: (1) Empathy for others, (2) Strong work ethic, (3) Listening. My weaknesses at that time were (1) Major fear of public speaking, (2) I hated selling anything, (3) Fear of flying. After leaving that motivational seminar and ignoring all of the sage advice of that guru, I set in motion on a path which lead me to lots of new strengths that I have today including a love for public speaking, selling, and flying around the world. I can't imagine my life today if I hadn't developed a love for things that I feared twenty years ago. As well, I'm still strong in the areas I was originally strong at including empathy, work ethic, and listening. All of the new strengths that I developed spilled over to help me become even stronger in the areas that came naturally. Today, I'd rate myself an 8 or 9 in all six areas rather than 9 or 10 in three areas and 1 or 2 in the others.

3. SWOT - Surely you have heard of the SWOT Analysis where businesses, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals do a detailed study of their business to determine the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Since we are talking here about developing weaknesses, picture two different businesses.

Business A: This business does a SWOT Analysis and decides to move forward just focusing on its strengths and opportunities. This business ignores the weaknesses in favor of building a stronger business by just concentrating on things they are already good at.

Business B: This business does a SWOT Analysis and decides to move forward by delegating the task of pursuing the strengths and opportunities to a team that can cultivate the areas that the business already excels at. The rest of the ownership team, senior management, and top talent at the organization has one job - eliminate the weaknesses.

Which business would you rather work for, the one that has weaknesses (ie threats) or the one that has none? For me it's simple. The company that has eliminated the weaknesses is the winner hands down. In fact, once weaknesses are eliminated, even more time and attention can be spent on developing all the strengths (new and old).

Being a New Englander, my blog would not be complete without some reference to one of our sports teams. New England Patriot's Quarterback, Tom Brady, who has lead the Pats to the Superbowl on five occasions, winning three, was drafted by the Montreal Expos Baseball Team right out of high school. That's right, it turns out that Brady had quite the talent for baseball. So, maybe not so much for the rest of the country, but right here in New England, we are quite thankful that he didn't pursue his strengths, but rather started developing new ones in his junior year at college.

If there is one concession to my theory that I might offer it is this: If you are an aspiring Olympian, world class cellist, or PGA golfer, your time is probably better spent developing your talent so that you are really good at just one thing. In those fields, going from 8 to a 10 means the difference between winning and losing. That's just not the case in sales, entrepreneurship, or business. No, when it comes to making money in everyday business, profits are maximized by becoming really proficient at everything. Going from an 8 to a 10 in one area won't earn you more. Going from a 2 to an 8 in several areas will be the difference between a a profit and loss statement that is black as opposed to red.

In conclusion, if there's one additional tiny piece of advice I could impart, it is this: Learning from others is good, but always remember, be your own guru.