The Weakness Advantage

Weakness is an asset. 

You’re disqualified from leadership if you don’t have weaknesses.

Don’t wait until you have it all together to lead. Make the most of frailties.

Weakness…

1. Expands thinking. 

Frailties enable you to think deeply about yourself and broadly about others. What do you learn about yourself? How do your shortcomings make space for the strength of others?

Your gaps are where your team’s strengths fit. When you reject help, you tell others they don’t matter.

2. Extends impact. 

Receive help to multiply your impact. Leaders who reject help limit their potential.

3. Creates opportunity. 

Serve with frailties. Your struggle is your laboratory.

You feel energy and ownership for the solutions that most help you.

The most powerful solutions you bring are the ones you find for yourself.

4. Enlarges empathy. 

Those who embrace their own frailties understand the frailties of others. The alternative is a hard heart. Those, for example, who grapple with cancer, feel empathy for others fighting cancer.

5. Reduces arrogance. 

Bullies have blind spots. But scars are bridges.

Pretending you’re strong where you’re weak limits potential, elevates stress, and hinders relationships.

At your next meeting, lead with a problem you haven’t solved yet.

A Rule of Engagement

Don’t make excuses based on shortcomings.

Own flaws but never use them as a crutch.

Successful leaders compensate for frailties. Failures make excuses.

Don’t be less strong because you don’t have it all together. Competencies create success. But the path to successful leadership includes defining, embracing, and feeling the discomfort of weakness.

How might weaknesses make leaders better?

This article was originally published on Leadership Freak.

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