- Build on your strengths and manage around your weaknesses.
- If you think that the purpose of your life is to identify your strengths and build on them, you are a minority
- US: 40% (build on strengths) / 59% (fix weaknesses)
UK: 38% (build on strengths)
Canada: 38%
France: 35%
Japan/China: 24% - We tend to think that success is the opposite of weakness, so study failure. But sucess does not equal not failing. [i.e. success != (!failure)] The opposite of “bad” is “not bad”; it isn’t “good.”
- What do people do?
- US (2005): 17% worked on strengths
US (2006): 14% worked on strengths
US (2007): 12% worked on strengths - (Aside: “People are our greatest asset.” That is not correct. People’s strengths are our greatest asset.)
- If you want to change this, start with yourself first—find your strengths
- Three myths
- Myth: As you grow, your personality changes
- Truth: As you grow, you become more of who you are
- Ex: His son is very competitive. The goal isn’t to replace that with collegiality. His goal is to put himself in positions where he is weak.
- Myth: You will grow most where you are weak
- Truth: You will grow most where you are strong
- Ex: Shaquille O'Neal. Terrible free thrower—worst in the league. When he joined the Lakers, they had him work on his under-basket shooting. “But I’m already the best in the league.” “But you could be the best ever.” As a result the Lakers had the most points three years in a row, won three championships, and as a side benefit, Shaq’s free throw percentage jumped 20 pts to merely really bad.
- Myth: A great team member puts aside his strengths and does whatever it takes to help the team
- Truth: A great team member usually volunteers his strengths most of the time
- Ex: Buffet giving $30 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He gave two reasons why:
- He [Bill Gates] can spend it better than me.
- Besides, philanthropy is no fun for me.
- It wasn’t that he disrespects philanthropy. Rather he respects it so much that he can’t entrust it to someone like him.
- Most people (63%) would identify their current job as their ideal job. 7x% say they use their strengths at least once a week.
- Three skills
- Identify your strenghts
- Change something each week. Do two things to push your time to your strengths.
- Need to be able to talk about your strengths without bragging and about your weaknesses without sounding like a whiner.
- What are your strengths?
- Take the tests: Strength finder, Meyers Briggs, DISC
- Take a blank sheet of paper around with you. Divide it into two columns: “loved it” and “loathed it.” When you find something that fits into one or the other, write it down as you are doing it.
- Look for SIGNs:
- Success: success does not imply strength—you might detest it
- Instinct: what are you looking forward to?
- Growth: activities where you lost track of time.
- Needs: things that tired you, but didn’t drain you. Something that seemed to fill a need.
- Pay attention to how you feel, because that is what drives your success.
- Pick the top three “loved its.” Write down three statements: “I feel strong when...”
- Ex. Buckingham: “I feel strong strong when I interview people who are effective and find out why they excel.” Doesn’t like just interviewing effective people. Doesn’t like interviewing other kinds of people. Likes interviewing people when he can discover what makes them effective.
- “And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more than the risk it took to bud.” Anais Nin