Tasha Mazza-Kelton: Knowing Your Weakness Your Biggest Strength

Blog 7: Knowing your weaknesses can be your biggest strength

Pat Spiteri, from the Humber Corporate Education Centre, administered a psychometric assessment for the founders of Golda’s Kitchen, one of the featured companies of the Star’s Business Challenge. The intention was to assess the “human element” of each of the business partners, Fred Pritchard and Howard Goldstein, who work, live and essentially breathe together. The result seems to have been some ruffled feathers. It is a simple fact that some individuals are more self-aware and tend to be more committed to their “personal development”. As an entrepreneur, looking in the mirror and being honest about your natural abilities is critical. You can’t be fantastic at everything, so start by taking a candid look at where your natural talents lie and then build a team around you to compensate for your sub-par areas. One of the most profound business books I have read is called “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton. The books centers around the theme that each individual is born with natural talents; for some it could be your ability to win others over or your fascination with new ideas. Either way, the book focuses on the fact that organizations and leaders are better off focusing on developing personal strengths into exceptional skill sets that create an empowering advantage for each individual. By freeing individuals from the notion that they have to work on their “areas of weakness”, it enables them to invest in and commit to igniting their natural abilities. It is a notion quite refreshing from the corporate world, but a philosophy that can provide entrepreneurs with an incredible advantage. So, the next time you hire someone, think about the talents you have in your existing team. Perhaps, you are an incredible communicator and have an eye for the big-picture and vision of your company, but don’t care for the painstaking details. Leverage the awareness of your own limitations and add people to your team that can “fill the gaps”. This often means going against your intuition as we generally like individuals who are similar to us. So think holistically and take a step back to identify where holes may exist within your team. Perhaps hiring the atypical candidate isn’t such a bad idea? So how do you identify what your natural abilities are? There are a number of tools on the market that can help you such as the psychometric assessment that Pritchard and Goldstein took, or you can purchase the book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths” as it includes access to an on-line survey that will outline your natural talents, or you can approach a life coach who has access to similar assessment tools. At the end of the day, the important lesson is not so much in which tools to use, but what you do with the information once you uncover your personal strengths.

Comments

[George Torok]

Hi Tasha,
Good title about knowing your weakness. Do you know your weakness?

Maybe it is writing massive paragraphs that are not appealing to read. I read the title, looked at the mass of text and did not read it.

One of my weaknesses is no patience to slug through a forbidding block of text - especially online.

For examples have a look at my blogs - www.GeorgeTorok.com

I'm sure you will discover more weaknesses.

Here's to more white space!

George Torok
www.Torok.com