The Weaknesses You Don’t Know You Have

We all have them.

We all have weaknesses we know about; we can work on those. Those aren’t the real problem. The real problem is the weaknesses you don’t even know you have:

What’s yours?

Perhaps your contracts aren’t strong enough, or implemented correctly. Your important work can be hindered by misunderstandings or malice when you don’t protect yourself appropriately. Most companies we encounter tend not to think these are very important, until it’s too late – when the weakness becomes known. Knowing it before it hurts helps keep you on course.

Perhaps your process isn’t clear enough, or implemented correctly. Great work has processes in place to give it the leverage and momentum it needs in order to be great. But if that process isn’t understood or used, all of that leverage and momentum is lost. Think back to the last time your work lost an enormous amount of momentum – was it a process problem?

Perhaps your mission isn’t clear enough, or implemented correctly. Where are you going? Does everyone involved in your important work know that? If you or anyone you work alongside isn’t clear on where you’re all going, entropy ensues. Think back to the last time there was confusion among those involved in your work – was everyone as clear on the mission as they could be?

The trouble with weaknesses you can’t see is, you can’t see them. Thankfully, hindsight is 20-20 – you can see what you need, if you look.