Exploit Your Strengths

After spending three decades working with elite athletes and business leaders, I've noticed a peculiar trend that continues to fascinate me: That is the dialogue of acknowledging and improving our weaknesses.  While there honestly is nothing inherently wrong with this… what often happens is that our collective obsession with fixing weaknesses often overshadows the immense potential of maximizing our strengths. Don't get me wrong – addressing weaknesses is crucial. But in our fervor to patch up our shortcomings, we frequently underutilize our natural talents.

Think about Michael Phelps. While he worked diligently on all aspects of his swimming, his unique physical attributes – notably his extraordinary wingspan and ankle flexibility – became the cornerstone of his legendary status. Rather than trying to conform to conventional techniques, his coaches built a strategy around these distinctive advantages.

The Power of Knowing Your Strengths

Understanding your strengths isn't just about feeling good about yourself – it's about gaining a competitive edge. When we truly know our strengths, several powerful things happen:

1. We make better strategic decisions about where to invest our time and energy

2. Our confidence grows, leading to more ambitious goals and higher achievement

3. We can position ourselves in roles and situations where we're naturally set up for success

4. Teams can be built more effectively by leveraging complementary strengths

I remember working with a Special Forces operator who had an uncanny ability for land navigation – he could read terrain and navigate through complex environments with almost supernatural precision. Initially, he spent excessive time trying to match his peers' expertise in close-quarters battle (CQB) techniques, very crucial, but not his standout skill. When we shifted his focus to maximizing his navigational talents, his value to the team transformed dramatically. He became the go-to pathfinder for complex infiltrations, developing innovative route-planning strategies that allowed his team to access objectives through previously unconsidered approaches. His unique strength not only enhanced mission success rates but also opened up entirely new tactical options for his unit.

Identifying Your True Strengths

One of the most common mistakes I see is people misidentifying their strengths. Just because you're good at something doesn't necessarily mean it's your strength. True strengths typically share these characteristics:

• They energize rather than drain you

• You learn related skills more quickly than others

• You find yourself naturally drawn to activities that use these abilities

• You receive consistent positive feedback in these areas

• You can maintain focus longer when utilizing these strengths

Based on experiences coaching collegiate athletes, I worked with a talented heptathlete who consistently placed outside the top 3 despite her incredible work ethic. While she was quite competent across all seven events, we noticed her hurdle splits were consistently outstanding compared to her other events. Instead of continuing to divide her training time across all events, we made the bold decision to have her specialize in the 100m hurdles. The transformation was remarkable. By focusing intensively on her natural gift for hurdling – particularly her exceptional rhythm and ability to maintain speed between barriers – she went from being an good heptathlete to qualifying for the regional conference championships in the 100m hurdles. Her confidence soared as she started winning races, and she eventually earned a number of awards during her career. This shift didn't just improve her athletic performance; it reinvigorated her entire collegiate experience.

Strategies for Strength Exploitation

Understanding personal strengths is a critical first step, another thing is exploring and applying concrete strategies for maximizing their impact:

1. Create Strength-Based Opportunities

Don't wait for perfect situations – create them. If you're naturally analytical, volunteer for projects requiring deep data analysis. If you're a gifted communicator, seek out roles where this skill can shine. The key is proactively engineering your environment to showcase your talents.

2. Build Support Systems Around Your Strengths

Every strength has associated limitations. Instead of viewing these as weaknesses to fix, treat them as opportunities to build complementary partnerships. I've seen countless successful partnerships where one person's strength perfectly compensates for another's limitation.

3. Develop Complementary Skills

While focusing on strengths, don't ignore skills that enhance their effectiveness. A natural leader might benefit from improved data analysis skills not to become an analyst, but to better communicate with analytical team members.

4. Study Your Success Patterns

Keep a "success journal" documenting when you're at your best. What conditions were present? What exactly were you doing? These patterns often reveal how to optimize your strength deployment.

The Balance Between Strengths and Weaknesses

Let's address the elephant in the room: yes, some weaknesses need attention. The key is understanding which ones actually matter. I use what I call the "Minimum Viable Competency" approach:

• Identify weaknesses that directly impact your ability to apply your strengths

• Determine the minimum level needed in these areas

• Work on these specific weaknesses only until you reach that minimum threshold

• Then return your focus to maximizing strengths

I've seen countless, naturally gifted athletes hit plateaus because they're trying to be well-rounded competitors. They spend countless hours in the weight room, trying to match their peers' strength, or obsessing over technical details that don't align with their natural abilities. But the breakthrough moments often come when they embrace their unique attributes. I've watched sprinters become hurdlers, distance runners find their true calling in the steeplechase, and jumpers discover they were born to pole vault. The key isn't becoming adequate at everything – it's about finding where your natural talents can truly shine and then pursuing that path with everything you've got. When athletes finally embrace this approach, not only do their performances improve dramatically, but their love for the sport often reaches new heights.

Practical Implementation Steps

To begin maximizing your strengths today:

1. Take a strength inventory: List activities where you excel naturally and enjoy the process.

2. Gather feedback: Ask colleagues and mentors what they see as your distinctive talents.

3. Track your energy: Monitor which activities energize versus drain you over a two-week period.

4. Design experiments: Create small tests to deploy your strengths in new ways.

5. Measure impact: Document the results when consciously applying your strengths.

Some Food For Thought

As we move into an increasingly specialized world, the ability to maximize natural talents becomes even more crucial. The most successful individuals and organizations will be those who can identify, develop, and deploy their unique strengths most effectively.

Remember, the goal isn't to ignore weaknesses entirely but to be strategic about where we invest our limited resources. By focusing primarily on amplifying our natural talents while managing weaknesses to an acceptable level, we create sustainable pathways to exceptional performance.

In my years of coaching, I've seen this approach transform not just performance but also job satisfaction and career longevity. When we work primarily from our strengths, we don't just perform better – we find more joy and sustainability in our efforts.

The question isn't whether you have unique strengths – you do. The question is: are you ready to stop underutilizing them and start maximizing their potential?