How can I identify strengths and manage my weaknesses?

From a personal development perspective having a good grasp on your strengths and weaknesses will help you achieve your goals, create a sense of balance, and improve your productivity.

Everyone has hidden strengths or weaknesses. As long as they remain hidden you cannot improve or manage them. So, the first step is to identify them.

What is a strength?

It is much easier for most pople to identify weaknesses than strengths. A strength:

• is anything that comes into being gradually through successive stages of growth and change.
  


• has a strong pull or attraction to one activity over another, like an internal magnet.

Identifying Hidden Strengths

Watch for feelings of fulfillment and achievement, where you feel emotionally or psychologically invigorated. For example:

• when you do the task or activity, it just feels good.
  


• whenever you witness rapid learning in a certain area, it is a strength.
  


• whenever you witness glimpses of excellence, it is a strength. Because you can only witness or observe something once you understand it yourself -- that could be a hidden strength.

Create strategies to develop your strengths. Once you become aware of a hidden strength put yourself in situations that demand that you apply and use that strength. Test it out, try it. For example, you could volunteer in a capacity that would require using your new found strength. Look for new opportunities, test it out and it will increase your confidence.

What is a weakness?

Most of us are very aware of our weaknesses. The challenge is we avoid dealing with them. If our weakness is linked to a mission critical function or issue, significant problems can arise. Therefore, the best tactic is to identify it and use one of the Management Strategies below.
A weakness is recognized as a feeling that lacks force, power or vigor as it relates to a particular activity. Manage your weaknesses through the skillful handling of people and details, so as to get a result.

Five Weaknesses Management Strategies:

• If it has not made a difference in your life, stop doing it!
  


• Subcontract the work out; use enlightened delegation to get the task done.
  


• Find someone with offsetting strengths and create a partnership to achieve a goal.
  


• Create a support system; create whatever you need in the way of support systems to get the result you want.
  


• Look for alternative ways of getting the task completed.