As mentioned last week, success is a lousy teacher. With that in mind, here’s a story of one (of many) workplace failures of mine:
I started my career 35 years ago (!) as a youth pastor. I found that I enjoyed – and was decent at – relating to teenagers and parents and speaking to them at group events. What I was not good at was coordinating/organizing/attending to details.
So, one night I had a big event planned. I recruited leaders, did some promotion, and got students excited about coming. On the night of the event, I was excited to see a huge turnout. We were all going to board a buses to go to our destination.
A few minutes before boarding, one of the volunteers asked me, “Where are the buses?” Buses, buses. Could I have forgotten to book the buses?!
COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN TO BOOK THE BUSES?!
Yes, that is indeed what I did (or didn’t.) I forgot to book the buses. There we all sat with impatient teenagers milling around and no way to transport them anywhere. I felt like a complete dolt. No let me rephrase that. I WAS a complete dolt.
This was a big wake up call for me that exposed a life-long terrible weakness that has haunted me ever since: my Conscientious score on the DISC profile is low. I’m not good at dealing with structure and detail.
However, there is a bright side. This and other similar sorts of failures taught me that:
SOMEONE LOVES WHAT I LOATHE
There are people who love making lists and getting the details just right. This was a revelation to me. I assumed that everyone hated doing what I hated doing. Nope. Not true.
What part of the job are you bad at? Someone else loves that part. Your kryptonite is someone else’s rocket fuel.
What are you bad at? It’s not an excuse to not grow in your areas of weakness, but bear in mind that:
NO ONE EVER BECAME A SUCCESS BY DEVELOPING A SET OF STRONG WEAKNESSES
I know that when others depend on me to provide structure and get the details just right, they’re going to like me less and less the longer they know me. But when I depend on others to help me in these areas, we’re all going to win.
Gravitate to what you’re naturally great at, and learn to delegate what you’re bad at. Don’t be embarrassed by your natural weaknesses. We’re all good at a few things and bad at many others. It’s the human condition.
This is not complicated. It’s not always easy either. But focusing on your strengths is the pathway to winning at work.
