In a culture centered around grades, performance reviews, and various kinds of measured performance, the one-million-dollar question often comes up: “Should I focus on maximizing my strengths or on improving my weaknesses?”. What about those leading others? Should more energy be geared toward cultivating the strong areas of your people or toward negating their negative areas?  

50 years ago, the majority school of thought held that one should focus on correcting weaknesses. If a person’s worst area was improved, then they would be better off for it. This quote from Forbes sums up how things used to be done: “The most outdated approach in leadership is to focus on weaknesses and fixing them instead of giving some of that space to strengths.” But in recent years, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. “Maximize your strengths, and don’t waste your valuable energy on your weaknesses” is what you hear most often in the realm of personal development.

Growing S’s vs. Neutralizing W’s

So which is the better strategy, option A or B? As is often the case, the answer is C! So often we limit ourselves by thinking that there are only two solutions to an issue. These options are often extreme polar opposites as well. But thinking outside the box and identifying a third option that is more of a blend of the two can lead to breakthrough. This is the case when talking about personal development. In my 13 years of experience growing myself and others at Chick-fil-A, here are a few rules that I have come to believe:

1. As mentioned above, don’t go all in on just strengths or weaknesses. Focus on both, but give more energy toward the strengths than the weaknesses, ideally 80% vs. 20% or thereabouts. I’ve seen people who focus just on one or the other, and doing either of these extremes is always a mistake. The majority of your energy is better spent on the areas that you are naturally gifted in, and this always brings the best return on investment. For this reason, it is wise to give proper attention to maximizing strengths while still giving some effort towards the weak areas.
2. Start by identifying how bad the weaknesses are. Are we talking about being too quiet in large work meetings? Or having angry outbursts at coworkers multiple times each day? You can read more about this here. The gravity of the weakness dictates whether to first focus on neutralizing it instead of focusing on growing a strength. If the weakness is really bad, pour full energy into eliminating it. One terrible weakness will drown out all the strengths in the world. But if the weakness in question is not that bad and it’s tolerable, move on to growing a strength out of the gates.

The exact same rules apply to leading others. Instead of banging your head up against the wall trying to fix their weaknesses, focus on encouraging and cultivating their strengths so that they can flourish. If the weakness is too bad to be acceptable, you should start there first.

How to grow and neutralize

Okay, so you want to strike a balance of focusing on strengths while not ignoring weaknesses, either for yourself or for people who you lead. HOW exactly do you go about doing this? Here are a few suggestions:

Maximizing strengths:

1. Identify them. It’s easy to know the types of things that one is good at without ever identifying them with real specificity. So you are good at completing financial spreadsheets at work. Are you good with numbers? Or with computer work? Or with details in general? Or with work that does not directly involve other people? Put a finger on exactly what the core strengths are that you, or the people you lead, possess.
2. Articulate them. If you do not tell others about your specific strengths, they are often not paying enough attention to ever notice. Tell people what you are great at and what you enjoy, and let them know that if that type of work ever pops up to send it your way. They will rarely ask you, so you have to go out of your way to casually but clearly articulate what your strengths are. Always communicate these like a team player would: “I’ve been learning how much I love face-to-face sales pitch meetings. If there’s ever a need for someone to lead one of these, I’m willing and able to help out with it!”. Always focus on how you can help the team and the boss, not what you can get out of it. This way, everybody wins! If you are a leader, tell people what they are great at early and often so that you can grow their confidence in their own strengths.
3. Learn about them. Just because you are naturally good at something does not mean that you have complete mastery of it. Find books, articles, or podcasts that will expand your knowledge of the strength area. (I suggest articles. They are a shorter read and you can copy and paste out of them to capture the most helpful aspects of the content). Save yourself some time and effort by learning from others who have had to put in the work on a given topic. As a leader, funnel helpful content to others so that they will be able to learn more about their strength areas as well.
4. Use them. This one seems obvious, but what I mean here is look for every opportunity to put your strength areas to good use. For example, I am very strong in the area of small details. Whenever something detailed pops up at work or church, I am quick to move that direction and see how I can be of support. Even if the item falls well outside of my area of responsibility, I still chip in by using this strength. Be alert and find chances to employ your strengths for the betterment of those around you! Encourage people who you are leading to have the confidence to really put their talents to good use every day. Involve them in work that fits their skillset, and clearly articulate why you are enlisting their help directly to them.

Neutralizing weaknesses:

1. Neutralize them. Notice that I keep using the word neutralize when talking about weak areas. This doesn’t mean fix completely or turn it into a strength! With weaknesses, you just want to make them a little less bad, and if you can do this incrementally over time they can move up somewhere close to neutral. Ensure that people you lead understand their distinction. Otherwise, they will feel like the bar is too high and that they are trying to move a weakness from a 2 out of 10 up to a 9 out of 10, which is impossible. 
2. Learn about them. Just like strengths, a person can only begin neutralizing weak areas after becoming aware of them. The best way to identify these is simply to ask for feedback from others while paying attention to the signs. You might be blind to an area that needs improvement, but I assure you that to others it will be glaringly obvious! Ask them to help you identify what areas to grow in. Watch for signs that others are giving off regarding things that you are coming up short in. Look for themes and then take this data to paint an honest picture of how you are coming off at work or in your relationships with others. In leading, be clear with employees when giving them feedback and tell them that you are pointing out an area of weakness that they should be aware of and working to neutralize over time.
3. Work around them. A great way to offset weak areas is to identify areas of strength that can be used as a detour to avoid the weakness. For example, I tend to be clear and direct with people, which can be helpful. But when this strength is taken too far, I become blunt and can hurt people’s feelings or come on too strong. A workaround for my bluntness is that I love kidding around with others and verbally engaging with them while keeping things loose and fun. I use this workaround as much as possible, knowing that if my bluntness pops up in a moment, the workaround will have helped to offset it. Also, when I’m interacting in a fun way with others, the bluntness is much less likely to rear its ugly head. Teach others how to use their strong areas as detours to keep them away from the dangerous waters of their weaknesses. 
4. Surround them. Your area of weakness is the next person’s area of great strength. Surround yourself with people who have complementary strengths for you. Lean on them when needed to keep you away from danger and to put their skill to full effect. As they say, opposites attract! Help those who you are leading to identify what opposing strengths the people around them have and encourage them to take advantage of this whenever possible.

While no person will ever be perfect, we should always strive to be growing and to help the people who we lead become better. Grow strengths, neutralize weaknesses, and reap the benefits year after year!