Leaders, are you as good as advertised?

One of the greatest goals in leadership is to motivate your team or organization to accomplish things they never thought possible. 

However, during the course of the motivation process, leaders often get frustrated when members of the team are not meeting expectations.

The truth is, sometimes this frustration is a direct result of an individual not being as “good” as the leader perceives themselves to be at a particular assignment or task.

Leaders must realize that not everyone has the same skillset.

Leaders, to put it bluntly, not everyone is just like you!

Utilizing Team Strengths

Part of the challenge of building a great team is figuring out what individuals’ strengths are and plugging them into situations that utilize those strengths.

For example, if “Bill” is a computer and technical genius, but breaks into a cold sweat and stares at the floor when people speak to him, do you want him standing at the front door of your organization greeting customers?

No! And neither does he!

Some people possess a higher number of skills than others, but everyone is good at something. So, set “Bill” up for success by plugging him into the area in which he is strongest.

This type of “plugging in” is extremely important to the teamwork and overall success of your organization. The starting point to making this happen begins with you, the leader.

More specifically, it begins with your humility. 

Those in leadership must realize that they are simply not good at everything.

That’s right leaders, you are not God’s gift to the world.

Someone in your business or organization is better than you at something. Most likely, many people in your organization are better than you at many things!

Start with YOU!

So, begin to realize others’ strengths, by first doing a self-inventory of your own weaknesses.

If you are having trouble naming any, just ask around. You might find that you’re not as good as you thought you were. And, once you do, you will be on the road to making yourself, as well as your organization, a whole lot better.

So here’s a practical next step. Ask 5 people that know you very well to list for you 5 strengths and 5 weaknesses that they’ve noticed about you in the time that they’ve known you. Once you have received your lists, begin to compare them and see what patterns might emerge. Chances are, these strengths and weaknesses affect your leadership style both positively and negatively.

Use this information to identify areas of strength as well as areas you need to focus on to become a better leader.

Now, the work begins.