How to Discover and Develop Your Strengths as a Leader

 We all want to know our strengths and weaknesses. Knowing our strengths helps us to perform better in the roles and environments that suit us. Knowing our weaknesses helps us to compensate or avoid them. But we often have difficulty in accurately assessing our strengths and weaknesses. We often have wrong or unaware thoughts about what we are good or bad at.

 So how can we discover our strengths and weaknesses? There are many ways, but one of the most effective ways is ‘feedback analysis’. Feedback analysis means recording the expected results when making important decisions or performing tasks, and comparing the expected results with the actual results after 9 or 12 months. Through this, we can identify our strengths and areas for improvement.

 Feedback analysis is an essential process for becoming an effective leader. An effective leader is someone who maximizes their strengths and compensates or overcomes their weaknesses. An effective leader develops their strengths, acquires new skills and knowledge, corrects bad habits, and does not do things that do not produce results. An effective leader also acknowledges their strengths and weaknesses, respects and cooperates with the strengths and weaknesses of others, and achieves the goals of the organization.

How to discover your strengths through feedback analysis

So how can we discover our strengths through feedback analysis? Answer the following four questions.

 When do your strengths come into play the most? This question helps you find what you are good at and what you like. You have high performance in what you are good at, and high satisfaction in what you like. These things reflect your strengths. For example, some people are good at and enjoy working quietly by themselves, while others are good at and enjoy communicating and collaborating with others. These differences depend on each person’s personality, preference, values, etc.

 What do you not do because your strengths are not utilized? This question helps you find what you are bad at and what you hate. You have low performance in what you are bad at, and low satisfaction in what you hate. These things reflect your weaknesses. For example, some people are bad at and hate dealing with numbers or data, while others are bad at and hate being creative or artistic. These differences depend on each person’s ability, interest, taste, etc.

 What areas are you lacking in or have no strengths in, and what areas are impossible for you to perform? This question helps you recognize your limits and constraints. We cannot do everything well. We have areas that are difficult to learn or work in. These areas are not our weaknesses, but simply areas that do not suit us. For example, some people have no musical talent and find it difficult to become musicians, while others have physical problems and find it difficult to become athletes. These differences depend on each person’s innate talent, health condition, etc.

 What is the most important value for me, and when is this value satisfied? This question helps you find your motivation and purpose. We value different things and act accordingly. Our values are closely related to our strengths. For example, some people value justice and truth and may find their values satisfied when working in fields such as law or journalism. Some people value freedom and independence and may find their values satisfied when working in fields such as entrepreneurship or self-development. These differences depend on each person’s growth environment, life experience, etc.

 Through the answers to these four questions, we can discover our strengths and weaknesses.

Six action conclusions based on feedback analysis.

 But that is not enough. We also need to make the following six action conclusions based on the information obtained through feedback analysis.

• The first conclusion is ‘focus on your strengths’. You can get the best results by focusing your energy on the areas where your strengths can contribute to the organization. Set goals, make plans, execute, evaluate, and improve using your strengths. 
  
  
• The second conclusion is ‘improve your strengths’. Through feedback analysis, you can discover new skills or knowledge that you need to acquire in your area of expertise, or replace skills or knowledge that are no longer needed. We need to quickly learn new skills and knowledge and improve our strengths. 
  
  
• The third conclusion is ‘overcome intellectual arrogance’. People who have a high level of knowledge in a certain field tend to ignore or believe that their excellence in their field can replace the ‘knowledge’ of other fields. But through feedback analysis, we can overcome this intellectual arrogance and acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to enhance our strengths. 
  
  
• The fourth conclusion is ‘correct bad habits’. Through feedback analysis, we can discover the bad habits that we have and correct them to help achieve goals and improve performance. For example, habits such as poor time management, poor communication, lack of cooperation, etc., are factors that hinder our success. Recognize these habits, improve them, and create new habits. 
  
  
• The fifth conclusion is ‘do not do things that do not produce results’. When you analyze the expected and actual results, you can immediately see what areas you should not even try. There is no need to be ashamed of not having the minimum competence to perform a certain task. Especially, people who work in an organization should not research or take on tasks in these areas. Doing things that do not produce results is a waste of your time and resources, so avoid them as much as possible and delegate or cooperate with others.
  
  
• The sixth conclusion is ‘do not put too much effort into improving areas where you have low competence’. The area where we need to focus our intensive efforts is the area where we have high competence and excellent skills. It is more effective to improve the area where we have excellent competence, and use our time and resources efficiently by focusing on the area where we have high competence.

 Based on these six action conclusions, we can discover and develop our strengths through feedback analysis and grow into better leaders. The secret of an effective leader is to maximize their strengths, improve their strengths, overcome intellectual arrogance, correct bad habits, do not do things that do not produce results, and do not put too much effort into improving areas where they have low competence. I wish you to become a leader who leads yourself to higher performance and success.