Strength

Yesterday I was speaking at a conference in Milton Keynes in England for an automotive client; as I type this I'm at London's Heathrow Airport having just had a meeting with a client in financial services; later today I'll be in Copenhagen, and tomorrow I'l be in Sweden with a pharmaceutical client.

All of those clients - in fact, all of my clients - have one thing in common with you.

They largely look at fixing the things they're not especially good at.

Weaknesses, or "development opportunities" as some refer to them as. Let's be honest with ourselves: they're weaknesses, and it's okay for them to be so. We need to get better at using language properly, but that's for another time perhaps.

We like to fix things; to improve, and to be good at what we set out to do, which is perfectly understandable, and commendable. 

No one likes the idea of being lesser, or weak, so we become obsessed with feedback and going over the past. What went wrong? Who was to blame? What do we need to do differently next time? What should we avoid doing? How do are stop that from happening again?

The problem with this approach is it keeps us firmly in the past. We're looking behind at things that have been and gone.

We spend too much time assessing our failures, and not nearly enough time looking at the reasons for our successes. What are we doing well? Why? How can we do it even better? How do we move the needle more?

It is psychologically beneficial for us to continue moving forwards; aiming to get better: to support positive mental health and motivation we all need to feel as though we're reaching for something and progressing.

So, perhaps consider what it might look like if we focused more on what we do really well; spending more time in the positive aspects of our behaviours and mindset, with time dedicated to further enhancing our strengths. People often ask me what defines "high performance", and how to achieve it - along with 6 other key attributes, this is one of the foundation behaviours of all high performing teams: acknowledge we all have strengths, and lean into those as far as you can, then surround yourselves with others who have strengths in areas you are less strong. 

Now that's a high performing team.

PS. If you've not enrolled onto, or at least signed up for the risk-free 7 day trial for the Leadership Accelerator Masterclass, be sure to do so soon - the launch offer saving you £2,100 on what is being described by users as "the number 1 leadership course" ends 31st January.