5 keys to self empowerment
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“What is your biggest weakness?” is probably one of the most commonly asked interview questions on the planet. This is because as humans we all have weaknesses, and being able to identify and work on them is a unique quality that allows individuals to consistently grow in all aspects of life. No matter where we come from or what training we’ve had, there are more than likely weaknesses holding us back in at least some small way in our personal and professional lives.
Although the process of improving upon weaknesses is ongoing, I’ve had quite a bit of success improving upon my own up to this point by using several different tactics. It’s my hope that these same tactics could help others as well. Here’s what I did:
Asked for more feedback
One of the biggest hurdles I’ve faced in working on my weaknesses was at work. This is partly because it was hard for me to see some flaws and partly because I was too afraid to make changes. One of the biggest tools I used to work on professional weaknesses was employer feedback.
If your employer doesn’t currently have a system set in place for regular meetings between you and your supervisor, you should definitely recommend that one be set up. The qualities of ours affect how others perceive our performance at work are likely impacting our personalities outside of work as well. Take any feedback you get from your supervisors and think about how you can apply it not only to be a better employee, but to improve your life outside of work as well.
If you find that your reviews aren’t leaving you with as much feedback as you’d like, ask for more! Fast Company offers up an excellent guide to help employees figure out when and how they should be asking their employers for feedback.
Noted the tasks I enjoyed least
Another important detail I’ve noticed as I’ve attempted to work on my weaknesses is that my attitude toward certain tasks reflect in how well I perform them. It’s likely that if there is a certain area of your job that you really dislike, you’re also probably not performing the best in that area. Although this might lead most of us to think that we should steer clear of that area, personal and professional improvement relies on our ability to focus more on that area and do our best to improve upon the skills required within it.
Take notice of the tasks you like the least at your job, then try to find ways to make them more exciting. Maybe even just focusing on the goal of getting better at these tasks could help you find a little more motivation to complete them.
The more we work to make our least favorite tasks less miserable, the better we will become at a wider range of skills.
Got to know myself a little better
Another great way I approached the process of identifying my best and worst personality traits was to take a personality/career aptitude test. These have helped me understand which personality traits best describe myself.
Looking into my horoscope also served as an excellent guide to help me identify certain traits that define myself when I was at a bit of loss in terms of figuring out where my more personal strengths and weaknesses lie.
I started by looking into my zodiac sign’s meaning, then compared my good and bad traits to figure out which ones fit me best.
Just having a simple set of potential personality traits based on aptitude tests and zodiac research gave me the solid base I needed to start identifying where my innate strengths and weaknesses lie.
Acknowledged my weekly wins and losses
One of the biggest mistakes we can make as professionals and individuals is to fail to sufficiently track our wins and losses at the end of the week. Tracking my progress has not only given me better perspective by showing me what went well throughout a given week, but it has also helped me identify patterns in the bad things that have happened throughout the week.
CFWV has created a great guide to help professionals conduct an effective evaluation of their regular performance on the job. It touches on important points of interest like checking your attitude and assessing your performance against job specifications.
Understanding and strengthening your weaknesses is never easy, but it is possible. The good news is, once you’ve put in the work to improve upon your weaknesses in one area, the benefits come back two fold as they naturally affect your behavior in other areas of your life as well. Hopefully at least some of these tips I’ve employed in my own personal and professional life will help you as well.
Have a tip or piece of advice you’d like to lend to other readers? Let us know in the comments below!
Image: Flickr/Richard Stephenson