People spend way too much time worrying about their weaknesses. There's a misguided notion that well rounded people don't have weaknesses. Even worse is the belief that well rounded people are the only ones who can be successful. I like sports so let's consider a few examples of athletes with weaknesses that didn't really matter.
Shaquille Oneal is regarded as one of the NBA's worst free throw shooters. He once missed 11 of 11 in one game. Yet Shaq's won four NBA championships, has been named to the all star team 14 times, has won an Olympic gold medal and a world championships gold medal.
Tiger Woods ranks 166th on the PGA Tour when it comes to driving accuracy yet he's widely considered to be the world's greatest golfer...ever.
Reggie Jackson leads major league baseball in career strikeouts yet he was a 14 time all star, won five World Series and was elected to the Hall of Fame the first time his name appeared on a ballot.
It's far better to make your weaknesses irrelevant. Shaq could spend days in the gym trying to improve his free throw percentage or he could master what he's best at. He's fourth for all-time points scored, fourth in rebounds and third in blocked shots. You get the feeling that Shaq's coaches could care less whether he improves his free throw shooting if it means these other strengths would suffer.
Tiger Woods may have trouble finding the fairway, but he leads the PGA in driving distance, approach shot accuracy and putting. The fact is when he misses the fairway he's often hit the ball so far that it doesn't matter.
Reggie Jackson could have certainly improved his strikeout percentage if he had waited on more pitches. But you can't hit doubles and home runs waiting on pitches, and Jackson was known as "Mr. October" for his ability to come up with clutch hits in the post-season.
So here's the question. What are you doing in your business to improve your weakness that you could just make irrelevant by focusing on your strengths? One friend of mine makes his living as a consultant. He's very insightful, and his strength is telling senior managers what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear. His weakness is writing. He's terrible at it. Misspelling, poor grammar, disconnected thoughts...it's all there. Rather than take a writing class or hire someone to train him (or even do it for him) he's decided he won't provide clients with a final written report. If the client wants a report the client is responsible for writing it. My friend will make himself available to answer questions and will even proof the report if the client wants to pay him for it, but under no circumstances will he write a report. The result? No one cares and he gets to spend an extra 10-20 hours per week actually doing the work he loves.
Another client dislikes answering the phone. Rather than fight it he just tells clients they need to send an email if they want to go over an issue or "discuss" a new project. The result? He's able to turn around projects much faster because clients are more likely to include the necessary details in an email that can be used to start the file immediately. His clients routinely refer him to their tech savvy friends who prefer the same method of communication.
For this to work there's one ingredient that is absolutely critical: HONESTY. You must be honest with yourself first about what you're good at and what you're not. Don't talk yourself into spending time on something you're not good at if it's not critical to the job at hand. You must also be honest with everyone else. Don't pretend to be something you're not. If you have a weakness and it's not worth your time to get better at it then admit it, tell your customer or client and then proceed to make it irrelevant with your stellar performance in other areas.
Sometimes your weakness is vital to your business. If that's the case you can do one of three things.
- Hire someone who's good at your weakness.
- Find something else to do
- Be miserable and wish you had found something else to do
I, for one, hope you don't choose the latter. Life's too short and there are too many people willing to offer a helping hand for you to waste time pursuing something you don't like. Once you come to terms with your weakness you'll be free to tell the rest of the world what you're not good at. Then you can move on and focus on the things that make life worth living. Embrace your strengths and forget about your weaknesses.