I am a huge believer in following your strengths and putting failsafes in place to handle your shortcomings. In my professional life - anything I wasn't good at I'd find a way to outsource it. Whether that be hiring an assistant who complemented my strengths or offloading work to another department that had the competency to do what I couldn't (with a promise of reciprocity of course)- I try to eliminate my weaknesses.
A great post from the most unlikely source - Scott Adams of Dilbert fame (subscribe to his blog - sometimes crude but always entertaining) - highlights how focusing on strengths really drives performance. He has a great example from when he took a Dale Carnegie public speaking class.
I won't repost the entire post here but the gist of it is...the Dale Carnegie approach to teaching public speaking is to compliment the speaker for whatever he or she does well, and never mention any flaws.
From the post by Scott:
Most of my classmates in the Dale Carnegie course were basket cases when it came to public speaking. Some knew they had a serious problem and others were forced by their bosses to attend. The first day was grim. One woman stood frozen in front of the group, unable to generate an intelligible word. Beads of sweat literally dripped off her chin. It was horrible to watch. She choked out a few words and returned to her seat, defeated. Our instructor came to the front of the room and said, “Wow. That was really brave.”
And it was. We all knew it was true. This woman had put her head in the lion’s mouth. Suddenly we all realized we had witnessed something important. We applauded. And it changed her. Each week, she managed a little bit more. And each week the instructor and the class recognized her achievement. By the end of the course, everyone in the class was an exceptional speaker, and we all looked forward to our few minutes in front of the class. It was like witnessing a frickin’ miracle.
How much time do you spend with your employees on their strengths versus their weaknesses? If you really want to influence behavior - reward what's going well - ignore what's not going well (to a point - c'mon - if they are starting fires in the hallway ya gotta do something about that!)
Again - unlikely sources. I love this internet thing.
A
Marketing and Incentive Design Consultancy