I have come to recognize recently that strengths and weaknesses are often very, very closely related. While it is often easier to recognize in others, the same personality quirks or capabilities that enable people to succeed in some situations can limit their success in others.
Think of that project manager who produces flawless status updates, but often fails to pick her head up out of the details to recognize a risk on the horizon. Or the hard driving, Type A manager who can handle a larger workload than anyone else but can’t seem to retain a team. Here are three sources that help corroborate this theory of closely linked strengths and weaknesses:
- Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is my favorite synopsis of this concept. Get the book or the summary.com version.
- A review of Why People Fail by Siimon Reynolds, Harvey Schachter — who writes my favorite section of the Monday Globe and Mail in addition to a great blog — includes attributes such as stress, money obsession, and mistaking IQ for EQ. Or you can get Siimon’s book.
- In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor uses the term “falling up” to describe how failure can accelerate our development
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