Today’s blog post is the first “official” entry for my Reese’s Southern Wisdom series. During my conversations with Reese he kept referring to maximizing his strengths and “strategizing” his weaknesses. This phrasing is a bit different than you will typically see when you research this concept. And that is on purpose for Reese. It's classic "Reese Speak."
Reese spent many years studying sales and personal improvement techniques. He is particularly fond of Stephen Covey and his 7 habits of Successful People. Much of what he read and learned formed who he is today.
These studies along with helpful managers showed Reese the way to realize his strengths and capitalize on them. And at the same time, he learned about his weaknesses and he felt he needed to be able to come up with strategies to help with his weaknesses.
He chose Act as a vital tool for both keeping on top of client needs (one of his strengths) and keeping on top of when appointments were and making sure his information was organized. Organization was one of his weaknesses and he used Act to keep him focused with easy access to critical information.
This methodology works for anyone. Find out your strengths and write them down. If you manage people, find out and document theirs. The same goes for weaknesses. What are those and how can you improve them. Look for people you trust who will give you advice. If you identify weaknesses where a tool like Act can help, use it. Several personality assessment tools (Myers Briggs or DISC) can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.
We all typically know what our strengths are but often don’t want to admit our weaknesses. Doing so, though, is a sign of strength and figuring out a way to handle them is very powerful. No one is perfect. But we can all strive to be the best we can. It shows in our dealings with customers, staff, fellow employees and family. It’s a win-win for ourselves and who we deal with.
Years ago I, working with a DISC assessment expert, developed a webinar called Time to Act. The idea was find out areas of weaknesses (time management, delegation, etc) and then use Act to help resolve those issues. It may be time to revisit that again. Stay tuned.
So, your mission for the week is to maximize your strengths and “strategize” your weaknesses. Good advice from a sage southerner. For additional reading, here's a link to an article I wrote about the Time to Act methodology.