But what about the weaknesses?

The men’s gymnastics team in Paris, 2024 Olympics

Holy smokes. I am part of an online group of Gallup certified coaches who often get really into the weeds when discussing the intricacies of strengths and all that goes into the research, philosophy and day to day uses of the assessment. I generally read through and, since I use the results as a tool, I don’t tend to go too far into the conversations.

But today was different. Someone posted about an upcoming training she was doing with a company whose head was not really interested in seeing what people’s strengths were, he wanted to focus in on getting people working on their weaknesses! (are you picturing the guy?) He’s probably the guy who also loves the “no pain, no gain” way of suffering through life.

I have to admit, I read her entire post AND every comment, just to see if anyone added the green-faced emoji or had a snarky comment. Alas, the comments were instead very supportive and attempting to offer helpful guidance. It is a group of coaches, after all.

The most common advice was to ask him to write with the non-dominant hand for a day and see how it goes. Can he do it? Yes. Is it as good as with the dominant hand? No. Is it more efficient, effective, does it meet goals and is it fun? No.

And that is the simple truth about leaning in to our strengths. We do better, learn better, enjoy more, find more success when we realize our strengths are our strengths and our weaknesses are an opportunity to find strengths in others.

This idea was on full display at the Olympics with the men’s gymnastics team. Each guy had his thing that he did exceedingly well. Steve Nedoroscik does the pummel horse and only the pummel horse, and we were all there for it. What a delight to watch them cheer each other on and celebrate the success.

If you’re lucky enough to be part of a team with varying strengths, I hope you celebrate and honor each strength. And if you’re a team leader, I hope you go down the road of building on natural abilities rather than forcing improved weaknesses. And then post a picture like the many taken of the men’s gymnastics team!

If you’d like to learn more about your team’s strengths, reach out, I’d love to customize a program for you!