Trudging through life with a sack of weaknesses can only make things tougher. Not know what is causing more harm than good in your life can put extra layers of difficulty on everything you do and you don’t deserve that hardship. But do you know what your real weaknesses are? Do you know what causes you to operate at a lesser capacity than you’re able?
Wake up kid! It’s time to use your strengths!
I took a survey of several hundred people over the topic of professional and personal aptitudes related to several different topics. The results are at the same time sobering, challenging, and enlightening. Below is one of the questions I asked them and is followed by the unfiltered results.
Question:
You just found your biggest work-related weaknesses: what would you do with this information? Why?
Answers:
- I would try to make a plan to fix the problem. I would consult others to try to objectively assess the weakness and get their opinion. I would assess if I needed to change careers.
- If I found my biggest work-related weakness the first thing I would do with the information is meditate on it. I would try to think of ways to improve my limitations in this area. If this is a technical or even personality issue I would Google ways to handle this behavior or lack thereof.
- I would first accept that this is my main weakness. I would then work on ways to turn that weakness into a strength incrementally.
- I would keep it to myself. I would not want anyone else knowing my personal information.
- Depending on what the work-related weakness you have two choices. One is you can make a job change to one that won’t challenge that weakness. The other option is you can harness that weakness and figure out why it is weak and learn how you can improve and make that area stronger. If you are afraid of public speaking, you might start out practicing with one or two of your close friends or family members until you are confident to move to a larger size audience.
- You use this information to determine a way to compensate for your weakness. Instead of viewing it as a downfall use it to your advantage. If this theory doesn’t work for you, another option is to find a way to nullify your weakness or to work on it and make it better and more of a strength.
- When you’re presented with a weakness, you have to first accept that it really is a weakness. A missing piece in the bridge to being all successful at your job or career is another way of thinking about it. What I would do, is after accepting it look into what my industry accepts as a way of showing mastery in the subject of the weakness. For example, if I’m a computer technician and I do not have any hardware experience I would find a hardware certification and do it. If I’m a hair stylist and it turns out I can’t do color, I would practice color and read the most current ways to color and styling people’s hair like that until I became better. Turning weakness into opportunity divides those who might fail and those who will succeed.
- I would first evaluate the information to determine my opinions toward the information. Once that’s done, I would consider each weakness individually to figure out how I could improve it singularly. If some weaknesses could be “paired” in order to improve, then I would consider action that would improve both with less effort, in other words, I would seek the most efficient way to improve myself.
- If the weakness was brought to my attention by a colleague or supervisor, I would ask their help and support in getting stronger in that area. Whether it be through advanced training or mentorship, I would work to better myself. It is not always easy to see weaknesses in ourselves, but we owe it to ourselves to be the best we can be. In today’s job market, we mediocrity will not be tolerated!
- I would request training to help me achieve a strength in this area. If it is not something that can be trained in, I would work on it at home, in public, or any other setting which is acceptable. Also, if it was a serious weakness, I would consider getting professional help; as well as asking others I respect who do well where I am the weakest, how they handle themselves and how to improve my ability in this area. My last possible resort would be Googling ways to help myself, seeing as there are many possible options before this which could be of more use, as well as those around you know you better than a search engine, and there are not always credible or helpful results when using a search engine.
- First I would accept that I have found my biggest flaw, I would then try to understand what the flaw and in what way it affects my work. After gaining an understanding of the flaw, I would attempt dissect it into smaller parts, then work on each part, with hopes of turning it into a strength.
- I will speak to my manager about the weakness. If my manager chooses not to remedy the situation, I would go above his head until someone addressed the issue. This is something I have encountered at my workplace, and that is what I did.
- If I found my biggest work-related weakness I would take that as a learning experience. It is something I need to work on and I would do anything to make it a strength. Keeping it a weakness will affect my work in a negative way.
- I would first analyze the weakness and try to figure out what was causing it. Once I pinpoint the problem, I would look for ways to improve. When I feel that I have had time for improvement, I would request more evaluation to determine my progress.
- My biggest weakness is I have employees that are very hard working very talented folks that take advantage of my good nature. I see and this as a big problem. I have several that are smokers but they work harder and faster than most of my other employees so they always ask to sneak out for extra breaks. And due to the fact that they are more productive than the others I let them have extra breaks. Don’t get me wrong this is something that I have to address and overcome. I’m a fair employer but I don’t want to lose or upset my hard workers… When I tell my employees to get work done they do and they work hard. But I have to stop letting some get away with extra breaks when I wouldn’t allow others to do it. And that is my biggest work related weakness.
~~~
Can you identify with or find a nugget of awesome from these heart-felt responses? Have a story or piece of advice of your own? Please share with us in the comments below.
Want to discover more about your own strengths and weaknesses, and turn them into ways to get more our of your life? Find your strengths through this comprehensive test, find out what makes you tick, and take actionable steps to start living live with more purpose. Click here to find your strengths today.
.