“What’s your weakness?”

The moment, one reads or hears that question, a very clear picture of an interview room, interview panel comes before our eyes and our own interview experiences start cropping up in our mind.?

I would like us to take a moment and reflect – How aware are we of our weaknesses?

Let me share my personal experience, of discovering a weakness.

I went through an assessment before being hired for a role.?It was a day-long in-person assessment, during the pre-pandemic days.?I spent time with the assessor, through the day, completing tests, having discussions etc.?This meant, as much as I would have wanted to be at the best of my behaviour, I would not have been able to be at it and ‘pretend’ beyond an hour or two!?

So, me being me, I was being a bit funny at times, casual in-between, candid, sharing my perspective at times, and in-general enjoyed the experience through day.?Being self-aware of my impatient nature, it would have been very difficult for me wait until the final report was shared, and I went through a formal de-brief.?So, at the end of the assessment, before I left, I spoke to the assessor and requested if I could be given a ‘sneak-peek’ into the assessment, without breaching the protocol and the process.?

The assessor was kind enough to agree and what was shared shocked me!?I was sub-consciously guilty of interrupting the assessor, multiple times and that gave the assessor multiple inputs of my personality.?The assessor mentioned that this behaviour could make the other person feel – unimportant; my impatience is too evident; It can also get mis-construed as being arrogant, as I would come across as ‘Aah….I know it!”, and trying to respond, before the question was even completed.

And many from my family, friends, colleagues would relate to this!

This observation, made me realise that this behaviour of mine, was sending an unintended, and to a large extent incorrect, message to the other person.?Since then, I have accepted this weakness of mine and I try (hard!) to not interrupt when being spoken to.?

I am not there yet, but I would like to believe that I have covered quite a distance!

Being aware of oneself, acknowledging the gaps and being able to work on them…this is an on-going process, that leads to us becoming better individuals, both personally and professionally.?

Be fearless and take your weaknesses head-on and you will surprise yourself with what you can achieve!