Do What You Are Good At
Today’s Misdirectional Compass Point:
Weaknesses Are What You Should Focus on Improving
“Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses” – Marilyn vos Savant
So much amazing material has been written about how to become extraordinary at whatever you choose to do, all I will likely be able to do here today is summarize it, give you some incredible references for more information, and perhaps provide a few interesting frames of reference to look at the concept in.
As “The Extraordinary Leader” (by Zenger & Folkman) and “Now Discover Your Strengths” (by Buckingham & Clifton) explain with convincing clarity, the key to unlocking your talent and abilities to their fullest extent, to create and do amazing things with your work and efforts, is not to focus on getting better at the things you are not particularly good at (your “weaknesses”). At best, all that will do is bring you up to “average”, and do you want to spend your whole life striving as hard as you can towards the goal of being average? Alternatively, spending your energies and efforts on identifying and then enhancing those things which you enjoy, have a knack for, and are inherently good at to begin with can lead to transforming your strengths into amazingly powerful tools. Imagine wielding such tools when you are working towards achieving your dreams, big goals for your life that might seem out of reach now, but will certainly be out of reach if you keep focusing your energy on the things you aren’t particularly good at.
“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” – Andrew Carnegie
Once you have a strong awareness of those things you are inherently good or great at, that you enjoy doing and are almost just natural extensions of yourself, then you can start choosing better tasks to spend your time on. Sometimes we all have tasks in school, at home, or in the workplace that we just have to do – no one is particularly fond of them, or there is no one else available to do them but yourself. However, when working with a team of people, there are probably people who not only would be better suited for some of those things that you aren’t good at or dislike doing, but they might actually LIKE doing something you absolutely can’t stand.
One thing I know about myself, is that I am a horrible note taker. If I am in charge of taking the minutes of a meeting, or I have to make sure to capture what a professor says for later, I better hope there is some other reference to the same information available. Not only will my notes not be sufficient for everyone else’s needs, they sometimes don’t even make sense to me – and I wrote them! So asking someone else to take notes in a meeting, or if I could photocopy a classmate’s notes (who actually takes solid ones) and do something for them in exchange like help with homework or studying, that’s a better solution. I know people who are not only great note-takers, but LOVE to do it and feel like they are contributing when you give them the chance to take them.
I used to think of delegation as “passing the buck”, not taking ownership of the things I felt responsible for. But I am doing no one any good by taking on tasks and doing them poorly, and I might really be doing someone a favor by giving them a task they will succeed with, enjoy, and will be able to shine for their manager, professor, etc. as a result. Delegation, when done for the right reasons, is in fact a gift and an opportunity to help yourself AND others succeed.
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