Work on your strengths. Work on your weaknesses. So which is it? Are we supposed to work on our strengths, our weaknesses, or both? I definitely see a case for working on our strengths, and on adjacent skills. And, whether the adjacent skills are strengths or weaknesses, doesn’t really matter.

The case for working on our strengths

John Maxwell makes a good case for working on our strengths.

“Don’t let your weaknesses get in the way of you reaching your full potential. Focus on what you do well, and capitalize on that.”

“Going Beyond Talent: 4 Points of Focus”, John Maxwell

I’ve heard John Maxwell use the following example. Using a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being not proficient, and 10 being a guru, rate your skills. Say a person is strong in leadership and rates a 7. This person then works at being a better leader and works up to an 8 or 9. John Maxwell makes the point that people pay for 8’s and 9’s! By working on their strength in leadership, this person is more valuable. Let’s take the same person and look at their singing skills. Maybe they are a 3 … not a strength. They get a voice coach, practice, and work up to a 5. People don’t pay for 5’s. The example shows that working on your strengths is more valuable than working on your weaknesses.

The case for working on our weaknesses

Brendon Burchard’s take is:

“To rise to high performance, you’ll have to work on the weaknesses, develop entirely new skill sets beyond what you find easy or what you ‘like to do.’ “

“Which Habits Matter Most for Long Term Success”, Brendon Burchard

I believe Brendon Burchard’s point is that if we think of strengths as what we are innately good at, then we’re going to have to work on skills that we’re not good at, our weaknesses, in order to be a high performer.

The case for working on our strengths and adjacent skills

Here’s my take: we should work on our strengths, but also ask: to get to where I want to go, what else do I need to become good at? That is, what adjacent skills do I need to work on? Whether these adjacent skills are weaknesses, strengths, or yet-to-be-found strengths, is, in my opinion, not important. These are skills that you will need in order to fully explore your potential.

For example, let’s say you want to be a chief tech lead. You think that’s a good goal because you excel at learning new technology and are good at applying it appropriately. The technical skills you need to work on, i.e. your strengths, are probably clear enough. Once you’ve identified your goal and the strengths you can shore up, ask, “What else do I need?” Think about what a chief tech lead does. They mentor tech leads and engineers, they design and share ideas, and they report out to management on direction and status. Are there adjacent skills you need to work on when we think about the entire role? Perhaps effective technical writing, public speaking, or learning to coach and mentor are adjacent skills needed in the role. A chief tech lead is a leader (it’s even in the role title!). How much do you know about leadership?

All of these adjacent skills can be learned. And, whether at the moment these are strengths or weaknesses, whether you like doing them or not, is somewhat irrelevant. If you want the role of chief tech lead, and you want to excel at it, then you’ll need to work on these skills. And, I’ve found, more times than not when I learn an adjacent skill it either becomes a strength, or at least something I don’t mind doing alongside that which I really like to do.

Let’s look at another example.

Say you want to start your own business and become an entrepreneur. You have a product or service in mind, and designing or providing that is a strength of yours. At this point, with vision and strengths in hand, ask, “What else do I need?” Do you know how to write a business plan or lean canvas? How about marketing? Do you need to get better at public speaking in order to communicate what value your new endeavor is providing? These may be adjacent skills you need to investigate and learn.

A word of encouragement

Don’t let the need for adjacent skills scare you off. You have the ability to learn new things! And, you don’t have to be a rock star at the adjacent skills. You just need enough competency in these skills to reinforce your strengths. And, yes, even public speaking is a skill you can learn (I am living proof).

For skills you really can’t learn, or where the amount of time you would need to invest learning the skill outweighs the return, you can lean on someone else to help fill the gap. For instance, I don’t administer the server this blog is hosted on. Could I learn that? Probably, but the time I would spend learning that would come at the price of time for writing. And, since my goal is to share what I’ve learned, I’ll work on the adjacent skill of writing instead of keeping a server up and running 🙂

How do you know what adjacent skills you need?

A few ideas:

  • Ask others who do what you want to do what skills they acquired and use
  • Look for free resources like blogs, podcasts and videos to give you insights
  • Improving communication skills is generally a good place to start: writing, speaking and active listening

tl;dr

Identify a vision or goal, and your strengths that you will leverage to reach that vision or goal. Then ask, “What else do I need?” This will lead you to identifying adjacent skills that you will need to acquire or improve in order to achieve your goal. If there are skills that you need where the investment of learning is greater than the return, find someone else to fill the gap.

engineer your life

  • Think of a goal or vision you have right now. Identify the strengths you are leveraging and what else you will need to fully achieve that goal or vision.
  • Identify someone doing what you want to do or who has accomplished what you want to accomplish. If you know them personally, ask them what adjacent skills you’ll need. Or, search through their publications (blogs, videos, books, podcasts) for info.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay