Managing Yourself

Imagine the scenario where you were managing a group of people who were exactly like you in terms of personality, strengths, character, energy and weaknesses. This group could be a small handful or hundreds of employees.

Two questions emerge from this exercise:

1) What amazing things could a group of people like yourself do if they harness their common strengths, gifts, passions, personality and energy?

2) Despite the amazing things that would be accomplished, what would be lacking as a result of your collective weakness?

Though simple, this exercise should stir your mind to the boundless possibilities associated with the release of your potential and awaken you to the environment your weaknesses are creating and will create in the future.

What can you do to release your potential even more so?

What measures should be taken to minimize the impact of your weaknesses?

Though this was an imaginary exercise, the truth is that you are managing yourself and either your potential is flourishing or your weaknesses are dominating.

What kind of stress is created by your weaknesses for yourself and especially for those who work under you or with you? We all have weaknesses, even the best of us! Owning up to them would only devastate us if we believed that we had none :) Admitting our weaknesses frees us to focus on what we can be exceptional at, rather than being mediocre. This also allows for creative solutions to emerge as we work hard to compensate for our weaknesses by building a team of people that are strong where we are weak. Everyone wins, especially ourselves when we acknowledge our weaknesses.

What kind of hope, creativity and passion does your gift inspire in others and how can you help others experience the same thing? Your gift makes you unique and your strengths empower you to do exceptional things. In an age when organizations can outsource work to other parts of the world, and when high unemployment rates are now pitting highly experienced workers against recent college graduates, people must discover what differentiates them from anyone else if they are planning on thriving. That thing that communicates "that person is special...we need what they bring to the table!" is what individuals must harness to becoming productive and fulfilled in their work. Contrary to what our anxieties would tell us, fostering an environment where other people flourish by leading with their strengths is the best thing that could happen for us as well. If they succeed on the basis of their strengths in operation, then that means you can flourish as well on the same basis, and when that happens there truly is no limit to how high you can go in the present and the future.

No one would fire themselves, but most people would refine their job description at least a bit for optimal performance. Under-performing will become the norm unless we admit to our weaknesses and release the potential of our strengths and in turn allow others to experience the freedom that these steps bring!

Let's go manage ourselves to the best of our ability...we owe that to ourselves and to the organizations we lead and work in!