You Are the Sum of Your Strengths
Leverage your strengths and manage your weaknesses. That is what a career mentor once told me.
Society often pressures us to fix our weak areas to succeed. While there is a place for accepting constructive feedback and recognizing opportunities for self-improvement, focusing on weaknesses is going to make you feel stuck. Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to engage in things which are meaningful to you?
A better question is, what things are you merely tolerating?
Tolerating is not the same as being active and present for something. We tolerate things that we dislike but are obligated to do or endure anyway. Tolerating your rude relative to keep the peace at family gatherings is different from sharing a conversation with a close friend.
To tolerate is a death sentence brought on by a thousand cuts.
I made a list of all the things I could think of that I tolerated. Try it. You may be surprised what you find out about yourself. I wrote out annoyances as minor as a loose screw in my chair to things that weighed heavily on my mind. It did not take long to determine that I was tolerating my job.
Because I was not advancing in my career, I thought the problem was my weaknesses. If I could correct my weaknesses, I would succeed professionally. Not only did this not work, but it also made me unhappier. My anxiety grew the more consumed I became in correcting my flaws. It is a losing battle to try and “fix” yourself, to be someone else.
Your weaknesses are not necessarily things that you are bad at. They are the things that drain your energy. You might be able to get better at that thing, but it will probably feel like a chore with very little dopamine reward. You know something is a strength when it is restorative for you to do. It is something you can do so much that you may not even notice where the time has gone.
Rather than seeing something as a deficit, frame it as a skill that does not come as naturally to you. Which three skills put you in a flow state, that sweet spot where engagement and performance peak? Dedicate yourself to growing those.
Which three skills do you put off as long as possible or become tired when you do it? Do those to the best of your ability, but don’t swim against the current trying to make big improvements. Even if you do, you will spend ten times the mental and emotional energy getting there.
My “I don’t wanna” area is execution. I am a conceptual and strategic thinker, so I love a big-picture perspective. I get excited about the ways disciplines and knowledge areas overlap to produce innovative solutions. Collaborative spaces invigorate me. Let me go down a research rabbit hole and I am happy.
I cannot stand anything repetitive that requires a painstaking level of accuracy. Although I am capable of execution-based tasks, I will grump about it the whole time, and then be worn out afterwards. Spreadsheets make me want to toss my laptop out the window. Do not put those purgatorial grids of endless eyestrain in front of me.
Cultivate your gifts even if you are not getting paid for it. Every skill has value, especially if it energizes you to do. Do not deplete yourself overcompensating for the things you are not as good at. Instead, be mindful of weaknesses and manage them just enough so that they do not sabotage your desired outcome.
This may mean delegating certain tasks to someone with greater expertise. Block out time in your day to complete draining tasks when your energy and focus are at their highest. Reward yourself with a restorative activity afterwards. When all else fails, go somewhere where your role aligns more closely with your strengths. Not everyone has the mobility and resources to do this, but if you do, consider making a move.
At the advice of my mentor, I decided to do what came naturally to me: writing. I am at my best and most productive when I am researching and writing. But I did not have a writing job, I had a blog and an Instagram. So, I started there. It did not matter that hardly anyone read my content. I had something revitalizing outside of work. This was the beginning of The Jaunty Crow.
I started sharing my writing on LinkedIn to expand my meagre audience. A more senior-level person within my organization took notice of this and emailed me. They asked if I was interested in being a guest blogger for one of the organization’s publications and offered to virtually introduce me to the editor.
I authored three articles for the publication with one of them ranked as the most read for that year. I went on to write two articles for another work publication based on my favourable reputation with words.
None of these achievements added anything to my performance review. They did add to my confidence and writing portfolio.
I used those pieces when applying for another job in the same organization that was a better fit for me. The articles were a great addition to my CV for a graduate school application. One of my article topics became the seed of a larger research proposal for my statement of intent. Although having professional paid experience did help, it was the unpaid work that got me accepted into a PhD program.
I leaned into my strengths and let them shine as the jewel on the crown of my skillset.
Remember, you are not your job. Your weaknesses are not what define you. That is determined by how you handle challenges. Authenticity is what makes a person who they are and being authentic means embracing what you do best.
