Let Strengths Rule

This blog is a dramatic representation of how to use your strengths to overcome the weaknesses. As per Strengths Finder an individual as 34 primary strengths. Out of which top 5 are the ones which you can call as top strengths but rest 29 strengths are present in varied levels. Our attention is always on weaknesses when we fail and we try to develop the strengths which are weak but if you notices, your strengths are the ones which help you survive difficult situations. Hence while not ignoring weaknesses, we must let our strengths take charge of overcoming weaknesses hence causing great success anytime and every time. This is just my interpretation.

Sitting at my cubicle and thinking on the recent failure of mine where I could not speak assertive enough.  “If I could have set the bars at best, then I might not have hesitated to call spade a spade. How to improve this skill of mine”, this thought was overpowering my brain’s all activities. Which even did not let me go to the toilet despite severe pressure within due to nature’s call.

A very depressed, de-motivated and un-kept looking individual came to me. Stood just next to the cubicle wall and said, “Need an one-on-one with you. Now!!”.

I was surprised to see the attitude and finding it hard to identify this person. I know him but can’t name or recognize him. I asked “I am sorry but I am not able to remember your name. Who are you?”. This not only diverted my attention from the past failure but also increased the pressure within due to nature’s call.

“I am one of your 34 team members. My name is“, He said very depressingly. But before he could finish his name I said, “Can you please excuse me for few minutes. We will meet after that. Need a biological break. Sorry”, and rushed to the rest room.

Came fresh and gazed at the area where my team members sit to find out that specific team member. 34 of them, sitting in half hazard manner on a floor in different cubicles. Some complementing each other, some working hand in hand and some maintaining as much distance as possible with others.

I have around 10 team members who do not perform good at all. They need regular follow up and they do not perform even after follow up. I know all of them very well. I meet them every day, sometimes several times in a day. I can not get rid of them as it is against the company policy.  I am sure this team member of mine is not one among them.

There are 19 others, who are average performers, I meet them almost every week. They need some attention or guidance or follow-up at times. I know them fairly well. There are some newly joined ones but I still know them.

I have five strong team members who just do things, I don’t follow-up with them rather they follow-up with me to know the status of things that are blocking them from doing the best whenever needed. I did not meet them for years as I never thought they need any attention. So as per my calculation this guy must be one among those five. I went to find these five and surprisingly this guy was the top rated one in my team.

I went next to him and asked him to come to a meeting room so that we can talk in length and breadth. He immediately obliged.

We are in the meeting room and I must admit that  I was nervous. When the people you depend on are worried it is a bigger worry for you. While my mind was in the rapid search mode to find what might be the reason, he interrupted by saying, “I with my five colleagues feel bad for you at the same time feel less about ourselves.”

“But why?”, I asked.

“We see you are struggling to get the product out, to place our company at the top, but you are not challenging us, rather motivating your less efficient team members to deliver more. We are the best employees you have, give us a chance to handle the rest.   You feel that we do not have the critical skills for the project that we are dealing with now, hence ignoring us but remember we can help the people with critical skills do their best than you. Give us some attention and see what all wonders we can do for you.”, he said.

“But .. don’t you think my primary attention should be going to the weakest ones. They need more help”, I said.

“But, why in the similar set up they are weak and we are strong. I have seen you giving a lot of attention when you are fail but have you seen any significant improvement in past years. It’s because the set up you have does not suit them. They can not be managed by you. But we have remained your strongest for a long time. So if you give us a chance we can manage them as well as give you better success.”, He said.

Made some sense to me so divided the team into 5 parts and assigned one of my strongest team members as the team leader for the group of 7 . I found greater increase in my productivity and more time for myself.

Namaste!!!

– Stray Dog