4 Ways Weakness is Advantage
Strength usually takes you further than weakness but pretending you have it all together limits opportunity and potential.
Strength-based leadership is no excuse to ignore the benefits of weakness.
Get over yourself. You don’t have it all together and you don’t do all things well.
Leaders “without” weakness:
- Lose touch with reality.
- Look down on others when they should look up to them.
- Close their minds to development opportunities.
- Disconnect with authentic people.
- Experience frustration when they should be seeking help.
- End up feeling isolated.
- Hinder teamwork.
Acknowledge your weakness so you can leverage it for success.
4 ways weakness is advantage:
#1. Weakness is protection.
Weakness tells you what you shouldn’t do.
If you’re the idea person, for example, chances are you desperately need organizers on your team. Creatives, in order to succeed, must embrace and celebrate limits, systems, and structure. But organization frustrates creatives.
Embrace people with strengths that expand you, even if they frustrate you.
“Let’s just get going. We’ll figure it out,” doesn’t work for planners and organizers.
#2. Weakness opens your heart to receive help.
Receiving help expands your life and leadership.
Leaders who reject help:
- Minimize the strength of others.
- Limit their potential.
Those who receive help go further than those who work alone.
#3. Weakness helps you honor strength in others.
Honoring strength in others affirms that others fulfill a purpose. Fulfilling a purpose enhances meaning. Meaning provides direction and energy. In brief…
Your weakness lets others know they matter.
#4. Weakness is a channel for connection.
Weakness makes you tolerable to the rest of us. But you are less trustworthy when you pretend you have it all together.
Don’t whine about your weakness – celebrate strength in others.
When you honor strength in others you attract talented people.
When is weakness a disadvantage?
When is weakness an advantage?
Great post Dan. For some reason, whining comes so easy, but celebrating others is hard. I have to tell myself to celebrate others and be happy for their successes. Hopefully it will become a habit some day.
Thanks Duane. For many, perhaps most, the negative stands out with greater clarity and intensity. Maybe the habit of telling ourselves to notice good is the way it’s going to be. It’s a noble practice. Best wishes.
Great Post! I think it speaks to the importance of collaboration. As a principal, I know I don’t have all the answers, and never will. I’ve learned so much from asking my team for help, and allowing their expertise to shine.
Thanks Anne. The term collaboration is helpful in this context. Weakness – when acknowledged – is motivation for collaboration.
Excellent post Dan. A friend of mine once told me to never apologize for being human. It was great advice. Weakness in decision-making can be disadvantageous for a leader. Everyone wants a leader who will be decisive when necessary. Asking for help to make a decision, however, is a strength. It shows that a leader is willing to consider various perspectives before action is taken.
Thanks Daryl. Your comment is a perfect way to illustrate the advantage of weakness. Yes, you still have to make the decision, but if you know that you’re better at analysis than decision-making you can include decision-makers as part of the process. Just be careful that any irritation we have with decision-makers is kept to a minimum.
I know whining is not the main subject today but, some people whine as just a way to communicate. I noticed that in pilots. I always say I will put up with their whining till its louder then their aircraft. In short till it interferes with their job. A whining employee is sometimes a good barometer to what others are saying that you don’t here. Never be to weak to not listen to someone whining no matter how much it hurts your ears.
Thanks Walt. Silencing someone who is pointing out a problem is dangerous when the problem is real. The real issue is what are you going to do to make things better.
Kudos to you for finding value in whiners. 🙂
I greatly appreciate your passionate works Dan. Your authenticity is validated by your desire to learn, help, and share with others. Great job magister!
Thanks Nathan. Best for the journey.
Weakness is an advantage when I can define my worth and hardwork. It’s a disadvantage when I fail to define my success and the growth of my team. I’m healthy doesn’t mean that I’m strong. It means that I accept my flaws and mistakes and thrive to adjust and align it. Thanks!
Surely, we are strong when we are weak. True strength is knowing weakness and choosing humility, vulnerability, and honesty. Such an important post, Dan – thank you!
This post touches on the ‘human’ qualities of great leaders. A leader seeks out help when needed, consults with their team members and isn’t stubborn at all. The leader just displaying what is deemed as the type-A personality is counterproductive to what organizations look for in a leader. They should never bring anyone down, they definitely should be building their employees up.
interesting and informative. weakness can truly be advantageous
Hi Dan,
Interesting perspective about weakness. I think weakness in a leader also makes them more relatable. Nobody is perfect, in fact thinking you are perfect would probably be its own weakness. When leaders can reflect that their imperfections in a confident way, I personally feel more able to trust them. It also helps to promote empathy amongst the team and make the leader seem like another member of the team, leading from the inner circle and not so far removed.
One of the greatest abilities of a leader is the ability to understand and acknowledge their teams’ strengths and weaknesses. In doing so, a leader acts upon those strengths and tries to help build through the weakness in members. I am interested on your perspective of how a leader can make better use of their own weaknesses not just to be more relatable, but to strengthen their work?
I suppose weakness could be a disadvantage if you let it overcome you and sneak into your strengths. For instance, avoiding any task that could possible improve your weakness out of fear for approaching your weakness at all. With enough practice and hard work, a weakness could be something less feared and more ordinary, even if it never becomes a strength.
Thanks for your insight,
Jackie