PathWise Turns 4! Plus Should You Manage Strengths or Weaknesses?
PathWise turned four this past Sunday. What was once just a desire to help others to find more happiness and fulfillment in their careers has become a reality – and then some. Our PathWise community today includes thousands of people who are taking control of their careers, and our membership continues to grow.
We’re also making more available to you – our community – each week, in the form of articles, book summaries, courses, insights via social media, members-only content, this newsletter, our “Career Sessions, Career Lessons” podcast, and videos. And we are here to support you with coaching and career services when you need them and how you need them.
Now we have a request – consider it a birthday gift of sorts. Can you share this newsletter with three or more family members, friends, or work colleagues, and recommend that they sign-up for it? After all, anyone who is working (or wants to be) needs career guidance, right? They can use the link or QR code below:
Should You Manage Strengths or Weaknesses?
An area many people wonder about is whether to focus on strengths or weaknesses – in themselves or, if they’re managing people, in their teams. In First, Break All The Rules, Gallup researchers Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman make the point that the conventional wisdom is to focus on weaknesses, and that it’s underpinned by a mindset that weaknesses are issues that need to be “fixed.” One of their rules to be broken, therefore, is to focus instead on managing strengths, i.e., getting the most out of what you (or a team member) already do well. So, let’s discuss the merits of each.
Focusing on strengths allows you to maximize individual potential and, if you’re a manager, team performance. When you use your natural talents, you’re more engaged, confident, and productive. Leveraging strengths also leads to faster learning, better collaboration, and higher job satisfaction. As a manager, it also allows you to construct teams with complementary skills where each person brings something unique to bear, creating a more resilient and capable unit. Encouraging your team to develop their strengths fosters a growth mindset and can lead to exceptional performance in key areas. This is true for you as an individual too.
On the other hand, managing weaknesses is important to ensure basic competence, minimize risk, and maintain performance standards. Ignoring weaknesses can result in repeated mistakes, underperformance, and – for managers – inequity in team workload. Some weaknesses, especially those that impact others—like poor communication or lack of accountability—need to be addressed directly. Development plans, coaching, and feedback can help you enable improvement in critical areas, especially if those weaknesses are blocking career progression or team success.
So which should prevail? Gallup’s extensive research would suggest that one of the most important traits of great managers is that they focus on their team members’ strengths rather than trying to address their weaknesses. Underpinning that view, however, is an implicit belief that people don’t change, and therefore you shouldn’t spend time trying to “fix” them. I don’t subscribe to that. It’s inconsistent with the notion of a growth mindset, which says that people can change. Think about people in your life. I’m sure you know many who have changed significantly in the time you’ve known them – probably most for the better. You probably also know people who will never change. And how do you view yourself? Are you in the “growth” camp or the “fixed” camp?
In the end, I wouldn’t want to give up on the belief that we ourselves can change and grow. If you’re a manager, I don’t think it’s fair to your team to give up on them until you’re at the point of having to let someone go. You have an obligation as a manager to at least make the effort to help them improve. That said, you need to be careful to avoid fighting a losing battle with those who aren’t willing or trying to mold them in your image or style. We’re all different, and wanting everyone to be like us is (a) unrealistic, (b) unfair to the individuals involved, and (c) incompatible with the idea that diversity improves team performance.
There needs to be balance. Focusing solely on strengths could lead to blind spots, while focusing only on weaknesses will demoralize employees and stifle progress. The key is to develop strengths into standout capabilities while managing weaknesses at least enough to prevent them from becoming liabilities. In doing so, you create an environment where people feel valued, challenged, and set up to succeed.
Do you agree? Email us at info@pathwise.io and let us know!
JR and the PathWise team
Register For Our Upcoming LinkedIn Live Event!
July 29, 1PM EDT – Managing Your Energy: Boost Your Energy and Gain Fulfillment. We often focus on managing our time, but time is finite, while energy can be expanded. Learn how to boost your energy and get more out of the time you have. We'll share practical tips you can apply to determine and optimize your own unique energy equation. Register!
Recent and Upcoming Podcasts
July 14, Insights from CEOs With Billion Dollar Growth Stories, with Georgie Dickins. Georgie came up through the ranks in London’s financial services industry before shifting into leadership advisory work and the launching of a professional development community, Women in Leadership. She also interviewed six CEOs from across the financial services industry, all of whom built billion dollar growth stories, and distilled it in a recent book, Stratospheric CEOs. Their perspectives provide a wealth of wisdom that we dive into in our discussion.
July 21, Expanding Your Spheres of Influence, with Brad Englert. Brad was a long-time Accenture leader before moving into the technology space, most recently at the University of Texas, where he was the Chief Information Officer. His new book, Spheres of Influence, covers what he learned over the course of his career about building relationships – up, down, and across – as well as both inside and outside your organization.
Recent and Upcoming Members-Only Content
July 14 – Future-Proofing Your Career. Worried about whether your career will survive geopolitical politics, technology advances like AI, or other disruptive changes in the world of work? Then this week’s career theme will be a must-read, as we share tips on how to future-proof your career.
July 21 – Inner Critics. We all have an inner critic – that voice inside our head that tells us we’re not good enough, not worthy, and not deserving. While it’s impossible to tune out that voice, we can learn to manage it, and use it to propel us forward. That’s what we’ll cover this week.
Not yet a member of our community? Join today!
July Book Summary
Secrets To Winning At Office Politics, by Marie McIntyre, presented by PathWise’s Daniela De Luca. McIntyre’s book is a key source for our recent LinkedIn Live event and is chock full of practical advice on how to navigate office politics. We’ll cover the key points from the book in this month’s book summary.
Please share your feedback, on this newsletter and PathWise more generally! You can email us at info@pathwise.io.
And please tell your family and friends about us! After all, we all need career guidance.