When I worked at Folgers Coffee Company my boss would yearly sit down individually with his team and give a very personal performance review. I can still remember Bob calling me to his office and pulling out his list and beginning my first performance review with me. My mind began to play the old tapes of when teachers, supervisors and pastors sat with me and went over the list of failures I had made.
I was shocked when the first thing he covered was how I was always on time, how I was willing to learn new things and then how I was creative in using the skills I had to overcome my weaknesses. He ended with these words, "Now, let's look at an area you and I can improve in this coming year."
What stands out to you about how Bob did his reviews? When I look at it I immediate see two things. 1. Bob was not going to have me face improving on my own and 2. Bob focused not on my weakness but on my strengths to overcome my weakness.
In their book,
"Soar with Your Strengths", Donald Clifton & Paula Nelson ask this question: "What would happen if we studied what was right with people verses what's wrong with people?" Just think about that question for a moment. What would happen if you focused on what your wife does right instead of what she does wrong, or what your son 's strength is instead of what he is weakest? The author's point out that strengths are the things you do well. A strength is a pattern of behavior, thought, or feeling that produces a high degree of satisfaction and pride; generates both psychic and/or financial reward; and presents measurable progress toward excellence.
There is a story about how Larry Bird would go to the gym and practice nothing but shooting for hours and one time a reporter asked him why he didn't practice dribbling since that was his weakness. Larry something simple like, "If I focused on dribbling my shooting would suffer."
A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals. Larry Bird Again from
"Soaring with Your Strengths", There is no alchemy for weakness. They can be removed but they cannot be transformed into a strength. The goal, therefore, is to manage weaknesses so the strengths can be freed to develop and become so powerful they make the weakness irrelevant.
Here are 5 Characteristics of a strength
from "Soar with Your Strengths" Amazon.com
1. Listen for Yearnings: Yearnings are most often triggered when you see a performance or someone doing an activity and you say to yourself, "I'd like to do that; I'd like to try that."
2. Watch for Satisfactions: Satisfactions are those experiences where the emotional and psychic rewards are great; typically they are activities we get "a kick out of doing." Satisfactions are not merely momentary pleasures, but form our intrinsic motivation.
3. Look for Rapid Learning: If you catch on quickly to something, you are likely to be good at it. The dominant feeling with rapid learning is "Ifeel like I've always known how to do this."
4. Observe Glimpes of Excellence: You can spot a strength by glimpsing a moment of excellence within a performance. A performance is a finite activity: the singing of a song, the writing of a letter, the presenting of a speech, the greeting of people at a function, the tallying of a hotel bill, the servicing of a customer, etc.
5. Watch for Total Performance of Excellence: Total performance of excellence is a flow of behavior, when there are no conscious steps in the mind of the performer. The person is on automatic, at one with the activity.
Have you been trying to overcome a weakness by focusing on improving it? The bottom line from this books is focus on your strengths and they will become so powerful your weakness will completely be overshadowed by them.
Do You Love Me?
15 After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"
"Yes, Master, you know I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
16 He then asked a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
"Yes, Master, you know I love you."
Jesus said, "Shepherd my sheep."
17-19 Then he said it a third time: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"
Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, "Do you love me?" so he answered, "Master, you know everything there is to know. You've got to know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. I'm telling you the very truth now: When you were young you dressed yourself and went wherever you wished, but when you get old you'll have to stretch out your hands while someone else dresses you and takes you where you don't want to go." He said this to hint at the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he commanded, "Follow me."
Four times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. Why? It is evident from earlier actions of Peter that he loved Jesus but he had a weakness in the area of fear. Jesus wanted Peter to focus on his strength of love for others so that his weakness of being fearful would not control his life.
On a personal level here is what I have found: When I am focusing on my strength which is serving others I tend to not have my weakness control my life.
What do you focus on? Your weaknesses? The weakness in others? I encourage you to get this book,
"Soar with Your Strengths", and begin to use the ideas in it to focus on building your strengths or building the strengths of those who work for you. I believe that if you do, you will find that your weakness or the weakness in your team become less of an impact in what you want to accomplish.
