Are your strengths hurting you?

It is the time of year in the business cycle where manager’s do performance reviews, and all employees tend to do self-assessments and provide feedback to others. It is one of my favorite times of the year as it helps me take stock of last year and set new growth goals for myself and my team. I think this is an indispensable exercise whether you are a 1-person entrepreneur, an entry level employee, mid-level, or executive leader.?Us humans are really good to evaluation others based on their actions, but tend to evaluate ourselves based on our intentions (hello bias!). Therefore, I find peer feedback and assessment tools particularly helpful to check the inherent bias.

During the reflection process I find it helpful to review the results I delivered (the what?) and evaluate the ways in which I did (the how?). Improvements in the how is what gets us better results the next year. Reviewing the feedback from my peers helps shine a light on how others perceive my strengths and areas of opportunity and can help identify blind spots. There are other tools that can help you identify your strengths and areas of opportunity?—?one of my favorites is Strengthscope. An extract of my profile I’ve attached as a screen shot below. It is cliche to say double down on your strengths. You should. But today I’m interested in talking about how your strengths might hurt you unless you deploy effective strategies in managing them.?

My strengths are that I’m decisive, empathetic, flexible, take initiative, self-confident, self-improvement minded, and strategic. These are the traits that help me succeed and the traits I continue to seek to improve. These are also the traits I must keep a close eye on because if they go into overdrive, they can impair my performance and negatively impact the people around me. I’ll break down a few of my strengths, how I like to improve them, the risk of overdrive I must watch for, and how I mitigate those risks.

1/ Decisiveness: I make quick, confident, and clear decisions, even when faced with limited information. I can stretch this strength to higher levels by using decision making tools (cost-benefit analysis etc) to ensure data driven decision making. I can practice presenting my rationale to ensure people can follow my judgement and rationalize it too. The overdrive risk for this trait is that I can be overhasty in my decision making, not fully considering other points of view. I could miss considering alternative outcomes and impacts of decisions. Worst of all, I might be perceived as a bully by peers if I’m hastily making decisions without consulting others. I must constantly practice stepping back and reflecting on decisions and gaining other people’s perspective before diving into action.

2/ Empathy: I’m able to identify with other people’s situations and can see things clearly from their perspective. I can grow this strength by asking powerful questions, listening attentively, and summarize effectively, so my strength becomes of greater use to others. The overdrive risk for this trait is that I may find myself so immersed in others’ situations that I start identifying with them as my own and lose the ability to provide objective support and guidance. I may find myself making assumptions about other people’s situation or point of view without checking the accuracy. So, I must remember to spend sufficient time asking questions, listening carefully and reflecting what I think I heard before drawing conclusions. I also must ensure I’m developing my own support network of people with whom I can discuss situations to maintain objectivity.

3/ Self-Confidence: I have a strong belief in myself and my ability to accomplish tasks and goals. To grow this strength, I can volunteer for projects that will stretch my functional skills in knowledge areas where I’m not strong and may require greater risks. I can identify ways to build specialized knowledge by seeking out learning and development opportunities. In overdrive, my strong sense of self-belief may cause me to overlook flaws in my own thinking and dismiss feedback from others. I might be perceived as arrogant by others. To counter these overdrive risks, I must remember to consult with others regularly, having my logic tested and be open to critique. I must moderate my communication to be clear that my belief is strong but call out the risks and be able to have a nuanced dialogue about the risks and tradeoffs presented by the work at hand.

I illustrate these 3 strengths as examples to articulate that just improving your strengths is not enough. Building the compass to assess overdrive risk, and building mitigating strategies into your development plans will help you exercise your strengths without negative consequences. Balancing our strengths allow us to show up as strong teammates and leaders. This is where you differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack.?Paulo Coehlo once said " If you want to be successful, you must respect one rule: never lie to yourself". Take honest stock of who you are every year so you can measure who you are becoming.

?