When you are planning your training or doing a performance review for a colleague or deciding which meal to cook for visitors at the weekend what do you focus on?
Do you start with weaknesses, focusing on putting in place actions to make those weaknesses less weak?
Or do you start with strengths, finding ways to stretch and challenge and make those strengths even stronger?
Its easy to fall in to some lazy patterns of behaviour. Focusing on the strengths that we enjoy because, hey they are strengths and as a result not really stretching ourselves to make them out of this world strengths. Or picking on a whole list of weaknesses, beating ourselves/colleagues up about them and spending huge amounts of time to make them less of a problem but without ever being able to really use them as an asset.
Many of us have witnessed work environments where the whole people development ethos was to get everybody up to an acceptable level of mediocrity but with no glaring weaknesses. How much more inspiring when the focus is on developing knockout excellence in a few areas and taking care of any potential de-railers.
How about committing to a different approach this year in your sport and workplace?
Be as creative as possible to take your strengths to an out of this world level - that's a challenging process in its own right and at the same time highly rewarding.
Then with weaknesses, be really clear about which which weaknesses are going to be limiting if not fixed and put some effort into those.
Finally spend time on both on a regular basis. Remember that returning to a strength tends to give confidence, especially when you know that it is getting even better.