Not by Strengths Alone …

The leadership assessment zeitgeist today favors the strengths approach, i.e., that it is easier to build on one’s strengths than ameliorate weaknesses. Maybe so, but we keep encountering leaders in our coaching work who are being undone by their weaknesses. And the thing is that most are unaware that they have the very weaknesses that are their undoing.

Focusing solely on strengths is fallacious on its face. Bosses (boards, the voting public, CEOs, etc.) may overlook weaknesses if the strengths are of sufficient magnitude, but they will only do so for a time. Eventually, a leader’s liabilities tend to catch up with them. Hence, our both/and approach to leadership development. Yes, strengths can and should be leveraged, but to ignore weaknesses is to set a sure course for derailment.