What if your greatest strength is also holding you back?
Discover the hidden patterns in your leadership that may be limiting results. Take the free Leadership Strengths Self-Assessment today.
Every Strength Has A Shadow
Think about what you do well as a leader.
Do you have grit that helps you push past obstacles?
Are you flexible in ways that help you adapt to changing needs?
Are you known for being helpful to your colleagues?
Whatever you do well, did you know that every strength includes a tendency to neglect something else that's also important? When you neglect something important, you get unwanted results. Consider a few ways that a strength can become a liability.
Persistence
keeps you from giving up. But If it isn't balanced by flexibility, it becomes bulldozing—charging ahead at all costs in ways that kill collaboration
Flexibility
lets you adapt to changing realities. But if it isn't balanced by persistence, it becomes strategy spinning—constant direction changes that breed chronic uncertainty.
Driving
gives clear direction to your team. But if it isn't balanced by enlisting, it leads to command and controlling—demanding compliance without engagement.
Helpfulness
tells your team you care. But if it isn't balanced by accountability, it becomes rescuing—micromanagement that disempowers your team.
Frankness
builds your credibility. But if it isn't balanced by diplomacy, it becomes ice bucketing—brutal honesty that shocks more than it helps.
Warmth
builds great relationships. But if it isn't balanced by truth-telling, it becomes ghosting—avoidance that shields people from needed feedback.
Great leadership lives in tension
It takes practice and study to learn to balance leadership qualities that feel like opposites—clarity and compassion, courage and caution... Opposing leadership virtues work like the two pillars of a suspension bridge. Lasting solutions require each opposing strength. Neglect either side, and the bridge gets weak.
Great leaders learn to think both "Both/And" instead of "Either/Or". They choose to look for what they might be neglecting. They don't settle for solutions that only play to their strengths.
Start a conversation with your team
Your team members may have insight about strengths you already have and others you could work on. They may see important things that are currently neglected. The Leadership Strengths Self Assessment is a team-friendly tool that invites honest, non-judgmental feedback. It's a great way to reflect, respond, and grow together.
