Why You Should Own Your Weaknesses
A guest blog post by Phoebe Nixon.
At Groove Management we often use talk about Superman as being the best super hero because he knows his strengths and he knows Kryptonite is his weakness. The world knows that Kryptonite is Superman's weakness because he believes more people will shield him from his weakness than use it against him. Sharing your weakness is a sign of strength not weakness.
We want to thank Phoebe for sharing her insights on this topic.
If you want to be a successful leader, one of the first things you need to experience is to fail. This is not a contradictory statement, because you can be exemplary at certain fields and be flawed in others. In fact, knowing nothing but success can actually be detrimental. Groove Management previously pointed out that successful people might sometimes ignore their shortcomings and become oblivious to their blind spots. There's also the danger of having complacency to improvement if a person already finds himself/herself successful.
A leader’s comeuppance usually stems from putting a front that they should be flawless so as to be reliable and admired. Still, admitting your faults is an important part of leadership and it may even be beneficial in the long run.
You become more relatable.
Part of the reasons why you hire people to begin with is because they have the necessary skills to perform specific jobs. They understand that you are only human and are prone to mistakes just like everybody else. Remember though that it’s one thing to make errors, and it’s another to voice them out. Serial entrepreneur and Ceros' CEO Simon Berg explains that a bond of trust must be nurtured for a work culture to thrive. By owning up to flaws and mistakes, the boss is allowing employees to feel safe enough to opening up about their own issues as well.
You become more inspirational. Your workforce will be more convinced of the goals you’ve set for the company if they see you as someone like them. It can strengthen loyalty and your employees will be supportive of you during the highs and lows of the business. You’ll also inspire them to take more risks now that it’s acceptable for them to make mistakes. A work culture that gives allowances for failure fosters an environment of innovation and creativity that can lead to growth.
You become a performance driver.
In addition to being a leader that can admit weakness, you must also be willing to learn from your people. Menlo Coaching notes that acknowledging your failures is a gauge of how good you are at analyzing your shortcomings. This is followed by assessing your willingness to overcome them, and the methodology you will apply. In doing so, you are setting the tone for the rest of your company to follow. Entrepreneur Magazine adds that your employees will be comfortable to observe your approaches in dealing with issues and take notes on how they can provide their own solutions.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with frequent success. At the end of the day, that’s what every company wants. Realistically speaking, however, it’s just as important to realize that every step to success has an equal probability of failure. No one is exempted – even the boss.