To Boost Your Success Address Your Weaknesses As Challenges by Marc LeVine
Marc LeVine
Empowering Engineers & Advancing Careers | Talent Acquisition, Blogger, Podcast Guest, Conference Speaker | Hiring those Built to Succeed in Control Systems Engineering for Thermo Systems
If you neglect your weaknesses, they'll eventually overshadow your strengths. Your weakness may become your Achilles heel. The willingness to accept your weaknesses in the interest of self-improvement is actually a vital strength.?It will play a central role in your personal and professional success. - Dr. Nicole Lipkin?
We should all be very proud of our personal strengths.?Pat yourself on the back and take a bow! These strengths have done well for us. It has taken years to develop them through our education, training, and life experiences. The main building blocks for our inner selves came by way of our ancestral genes, parental guidance, and all those who taught us well and inspired us to become the best versions of our eventual selves.
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On the flip side, we understand that we all have weaknesses. ?Some hold us back from achieving success. Others matter less.?How well we accept, reconcile, and address each area of needed improvement is much more important than how we celebrate the things we are best at.
The things we excel at require less constant attention than those areas needing enrichment. Stop calling them “weaknesses.”?Think of them as challenges. ?Considering them challenges implies that we are not victims or willing hostages to any deficit where improvement can be beneficial. A challenge is something that can be worked on and eventually overcome. ?Most people will agree that any attempt to improve oneself is an admirable personal undertaking and worthy of much respect.
A good place to begin is to take stock of ourselves to determine which areas of improvement might make a difference in our ongoing development. ?Not every challenge requires an intensive effort to improve it.?For example, if you are never going to play baseball as a hobby or for a living, long hours of batting practice is not really the best use of your time. However, if you are rather shy and have difficulty making presentations to your colleagues, getting trained in public speaking is a much better investment of time and resources. ?Why??Because it can help make you more successful in your job and career.
As we inventory our strengths and our challenges, we consider many traits and abilities which may include interpersonal skills, physical abilities, professional soft skills, technical skills, and business skills. ?Many of these sets may or may not require special attention. The good news is that a great deal of things in life can be easily learned. We are thankful for this. ?Classes are readily available in-person as well as virtually in data analysis, presentation skills, among a variety of software topics to name a few.
Behavioral challenges such as disorganization, insecurity and impatience are a separate matter but can also be improved over time through professional counseling services, self-help methodology and other legitimate developmental means. ?Much can be accomplished to better yourself but only if your commitment and dedication are strong enough to see things through to fruition.
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You may find yourself asking which areas of development are important enough to measure up against. It is not so easy a task to determine the answers because we don’t always know what we don’t know.?In other words, as you grow in your job and career the need for new and different skills continue to emerge over time. It is highly recommended that you carefully study generic job descriptions for levels above your current place and talk to colleagues already functioning in advanced roles to learn more about present and future requirements. Some of these colleagues will be managers leading larger teams. Others may be working with the “bigger picture” and may be more heavily involved in planning and budgeting activities. These may suggest some areas in which you may see as personal challenges requiring a little more work on your part to master.
Here is a partial list of personal developmental considerations:
Even within this short list there is a variety of challenges that represent educational, training and personality trait requiring development and improvement. Why not get a jump start on these and other areas that need work to be ready when exciting job or career opportunities present themselves.
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The Author
Marc LeVine is a graduate of Syracuse (NY) University with a degree in Industrial Psychology, Marc is currently Talent Acquisitions and Learning and Development Lead at Thermo Systems. He is the recipient of the Excellence in Talent Acquisitions Award from HR Awards in 2021.
Marc's prior employment includes senior Human Resources and Staffing Industry management roles with Edgewood Properties in Piscataway, NJ, Brickforce Staffing in Edison, NJ, InfoPro Inc. in Woodbridge NJ and Plainsboro, NJ and Harvard Industries in Farmingdale, NJ, a former Fortune 500 company. He also served as Director of Human Resources for New Jersey Press, the parent company of the Asbury Park Press, Home News and Tribune and WKXW-NJ101.5. Earlier in his career, Marc served as Director of Career Services and Placement at Union Technical Institute in Eatontown and Neptune, NJ. In addition, Marc owned and operated Integrity Consulting Associates, a New Jersey based Human Resources and Social Media Marketing firm for 11 years. Marc also served as Council President in his hometown of Freehold Borough, NJ