Leadership: Know Your Strengths

The sport of triathlon requires the participant to complete three events in three separate disciplines, each back to back over a defined course. Shorter triathlons, known as \’sprints,\’ can usually be completed with little to no direct experience in the sport and perhaps cursory knowledge of one or two of the three disciplines.

I\’ve been competing in triathlons for over 30 years. One of the adages that I\’ve come to see as law is the notion of \’training your weaknesses and racing your strengths.\’ Invariably, most triathletes, be it world-class or weekend warrior, will identify one of the disciplines within the sport as their \’weakness.\’ (All relative of course.) The underlying and critical assumption in this approach is you know your strength(s). These strengths don\’t require much attention, they just \’are.\’ 

Like many I\’ve applied this same approach to my professional development. In the past, I\’ve utilised tools such as the \’360 assessment\’ and the Myers-Briggs to tease out my weaknesses. Being a worker-bee type generally always looking to improve, I\’ve then focused on improving said weakness and shortfalls in leadership identified by others. Again leaving my strengths to just \’be.\’ 

Because why not? This approach works for me in athletics, surely it must be the right approach for professional development, no? Turns out I\’m wrong. 

According to Peter Drucker\’s famous \’Management Challenges from the 21st Century\’ article, \’most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong. People know what they are not good at more often-and even there people are more often wrong than right. And yet one can only perform with one\’s strengths. One cannot build performance on weaknesses, let alone on something one cannot do at all…People need to know their strengths so they can know where they belong.\’

As an assignment for a leadership class I\’m taking this summer at M.I.T., the past week has seen me engaging with my professional network and those I\’ve worked with over the years to ask them to share a story of a time when they witnessed me at my level of highest achievement. This has been a painful process for me. I\’m generally humble and not one to brag. But the point of Drucker\’s article made me reconsider and see the wisdom in undertaking this task. Only by recognizing our strengths and affirming how others come to identify them can you then expand and develop professionally. 

So triathletes: You need to be focusing on building your strengths and don\’t stress so much over your weaknesses!