Have you ever noticed that your greatest strength to excess can be your greatest opportunities for improvement?
I’ve seen this hundreds of times with the people I coach. If the person is task-focused, detail-oriented, and time sensitive, he or she can come across as micro-managing, abrasive and demanding.
If the person is a great speaker, he/she may be a poor listener.
The list can go on and on. The question is, how would you know there are issues unless you have received honest feedback or gone through a 360-degree assessment?
One way to figure it out yourself is to draw a line down the center of a page, then write a list of your strengths on the left side, and your opportunities on the right. Then, go to the opportunity side and honestly assess yourself. Look for corresponding weaknesses When in doubt, ask others.
Until we are aware of our areas of opportunity (and we all have blind spots), it’s hard to self-correct.
The ultimate goal is to build on your strengths and to reduce the weaknesses.