Be the absolutely best you

As leaders we want to be the best we can, and we work hard to achieve that.

How many self-improvement programmes have you looked at or followed?  What about development programmes or courses?  Personal Development is often top of peoples agenda and great to add to the CV.  BUT are these programmes adding to your strengths or are they just mist?

So many leaders have forgotten what they are really good at.  Are you one of them?  As we climb the career ladder and take on new responsibilities it is just so easy to lose sight of our real strengths.  Worse still we can want to imitate others and then begin to fake it, try to be good at something we should perhaps just leave to others.

But we should always play to our strengths.  In the region of 80% of our time and effort should be focused on using the skills that we are really good at.  Today, so many development programmes focus on building our weaknesses.  Don’t get me wrong many of these are excellent and of course its great to expand our understanding and range of knowledge and skill. BUT they are the extras, the cosmetic on the CV.  You are your strengths and playing to them is what will make you really great.  For example, great footballers can also be good golfers, but they are best at football. Too much time on the golf course will reduce their skill as a footballer.

I am old enough to remember the introduction of video recorders; some of you may not even know what I am talking about.  Long before Netflix we had machines to record tv programmes and play films.  I actually still have one and slowly getting all the videos of my children growing up into digital format. My point, when buying a video recorder we were faced by a glittering array of additional features and I know I was gullible enough to buy a top of the range model.  The thing is that I really only needed it to be the best at recording or playing back.  I used the other features less than 1% of the time.

That’s like our business lives.  How much effort do we put into adding in the additional features instead of being the best we can be at our main thing? For some of us we want to be a great generalist but for others its really important to be an expert in your field.  Do you know which is the best route for you; perhaps more importantly do you know the best route for your business? Getting this wrong can have very serious consequences for you and your work.

It is so important to know your strengths personally and as a business and to hone and improve them as far as possible to be absolutely the best you.  By all means do some of the other stuff as well, its fun to learn new skills and develop wide interests so long as it doesn’t distract from the main event – you being the best you.

I know it can be difficult, whether its just the pressure of the day to day challenges or even the expectations of your boss or HR on courses you should attend or qualifications gain.  In Tricordant’s work with many organisations and businesses of all sizes and shapes we see this on a regular basis.

In the Tricordant Guide e-book ‘5 Winning Ideas to Improve your Business Results’ I talk some more about this and there is further information to help you understand how to better focus on developing your strengths.  This is a key element of any leaders improvement journey for themselves and their business which will also equip you to help your team develop their strengths.

Remember this top tip;

Be the best you by developing your strengths.

We can all be tempted to do extra stuff, more development programmes, add extra products to our already over extensive range.  Things that dilute our focus and take away from our strengths.  This may be your time to have a review and remind yourself of your real strengths both personally and your business.  Let your strengths soar.

Let me challenge you with one more point – is it possible your strength is your weakness?  Do you remember Blockbuster the video rental business?  They were so good and strong at what they did. Now they don’t exist, and they turned down the opportunity to run a streaming service.  They could not see beyond their strength, at that time.  Please don’t make that mistake.

Its time to grow, to improve your business and your leadership in the process.

Getting started on your improvement journey has 3 simple action steps:

1. Read the e-book and watch the videos
2. Decide which improvement idea you want to start with
3. Be a successful leader focused on growth and improvement

So, read the e-book and watch the videos.

Within an hour you can be on your way to feeling like you are growing; knowing results will follow and you are working on being the best you.