How much do you focus on your strengths as opposed to your weaknesses? Have you ever imagined that what you see as a weakness might actually be a strength? In this article some leaders in the field of management development offer their perspectives.

Imagine going for your annual performance review: your manager looks at your strengths and weaknesses. She looks up and says: “I see you are not very strong in empathy. We need to send you on a short half-day course to try and teach you the basics. I also see that you keep using your strategic thinking strength and you are really adding value to our organisation by doing that. We would like to send you to Stanford for a term to develop this strength to maximum capacity.”

Ridiculous? Unheard of? But sadly, not true for most of us, says Tracy Scott of Avocado Vision. “Our strengths are taken for granted, not only by those who employ us, but even more tragically, by ourselves. In the weakness paradigm we have all grown up in, it feels as if being ‘well-rounded’ is a whole lot more important than being ‘sharp’.”

Jules Newton, Avocado Vision’s CEO, adds: “For too many years the word ‘leadership’ has had a flavour and a halo that has been revered by gurus and business and lay people alike. Thousands of books have been churned through the mill, and millions of people have worshipped at the altar of leadership above all else.

“There is nothing wrong with the ‘leadership paradigm’ per se,” she adds, “but often the message derides the position and status of the ‘manager’ in general. This is the manager who, day in and day out, is responsible for actually getting the people to do the work that keeps the company afloat and making sure they are performing at an optimal level.”

Newton points out that in all the ‘leadership’ noise, most companies have been guilty of neglecting their people who are really great managers. The skill of ‘management’ has been underrated and ignored to the point where, it seems, there are not a lot of people out there who know how to do it well. She adds that there are a lot of younger managers out there who have never been exposed to any training and development to enhance their management skills, although their participation in ‘leadership forums’ has probably reached an all-time high.

“Managing people well is all about figuring out their strengths and learning how to play to them as individuals, rather than putting people into neat little boxes and playing everyone the same,” says Newton. “Managers who are able to figure their own strengths and those of their teams need reflection time and some personal insight and soul searching.”

“Strengths are the split-second decision-making neural pathways deeply etched into our brain,” continues Scott. “It’s the way we think, behave and feel. It’s there already. I know that I am playing to my strengths when I sit down to a task and suddenly I am ‘lost’ in it. Time flies. It doesn’t even really feel like work. It may be challenging, but I feel it’s the kind of challenge I really like! The positive feelings of achievement and well- being that these activities elicit, make me willing to volunteer! I look forward to doing those tasks.

“In other words, the ‘acid test’ of my strengths is that I find myself doing them happily, repeatedly and successfully.

“I can recognize my weaknesses just as swiftly. I find myself feeling drained. I avoid the task. I find that the solutions don’t ‘come easily’. I really wish I could just hand that work/that role to someone else.

“Great managers are people who recognise and nurture the strengths of the individuals in their team,” continues Scott. “Instead of trying to apply a golden rule of treating everyone equally, they see what motivates each individual. The fact that ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison’ simply means that a good manager can see how to take a task that drains someone away from them, and give it to someone who simply thrives on that way of thinking.”

And the proof of the pudding is in the eating, Newton points out: “Companies with managers who have figured out how to connect to and build relationships with the people in their teams have managed to double their revenue in the space of a year. That is attributed solely to building real management capability into their management team. There can be no better sustainable solution than focusing on true management capability for continued success.”

Scott sums up the benefits: “The value to the business is happy employees, doing what they love, doing it quickly and effectively: it’s their ‘gift’. It’s like a good game of chess – don’t waste a knight who can leap over obstacles by pushing him into a defensive, ‘castle’ position.”

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