This is one of my guiding beliefs and I invite you to take it on, too. This belief has the power to reduce stress, improve clarity, and make your likeability skyrocket. Really!
Our strengths and weaknesses are known. Leadership is a social act. It occurs in conversation. It is visible. And because leadership is visible, what we are great at and what we stink at is known. If we are a control freak, everyone knows this. If we tend to become defensive when people offer alternative ideas, everyone sees this. If we meet our time lines, this is known, If we routinely miss deadlines, people have learned this about us. The ways in which we ADD to the team are known and the ways in which we REDUCE team effectiveness is known.
And we all excel at some things and not at others. We are beautifully flawed leaders, even the best of us! The reason that adopting this belief – that our strengths and weaknesses are known – is freeing is that this means that there is no downside to being open about our challenges and fatal flaws. Our employees will not respect us less if we acknowledge our strengths and weaknesses. In fact, if we are open and show an interest in reducing derailing factors, peers and employees will respect us more.
Your strengths and weaknesses ARE known. Make sure you are not the last to know and that you use the power of this belief to grow while improving your reputation.
About the author:
Lisa Haneberg is the Vice President and OD Consulting Practice Lead at MPI Consulting. She has over 25 years experience providing consulting, training and coaching solutions for large and small companies, and government and nonprofit organizations. Lisa has written several business books and speaks on a broad range of topics of interest to leaders and managers. She joined MPI after running her own successful consulting practice for several years. Prior to this, she held internal leadership positions in companies such as Black & Decker, Mead Paper, Intel, Amazon.com, Cruise West, and the Beacon Hotel Corporation. Lisa is the author of the popular blog Management Craft. You can follow her on twitter @lisahaneberg.
Lisa Haneberg is the Vice President and OD Consulting Practice Lead at MPI Consulting. She has over 25 years experience providing consulting, training and coaching solutions for large and small companies, and government and nonprofit organizations. Lisa has written several business books and speaks on a broad range of topics of interest to leaders and managers. She joined MPI after running her own successful consulting practice for several years. Prior to this, she held internal leadership positions in companies such as Black & Decker, Mead Paper, Intel, Amazon.com, Cruise West, and the Beacon Hotel Corporation. Lisa is the author of the popular blog Management Craft. You can follow her on twitter @lisahaneberg.
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