Hi Friend
This was such a fabulous week! I finally got to announce that we were adding a person to our team! Monica Scott has joined forces with us to contribute in all things media. Marketing, PR & content creation will keep her fully active for days, weeks, months and years to come. I like all of those things personally, so it’s going to be an adjustment for me to release creativity and strategy in those areas.
Also, I’ve done an incredibly sucky job over the last year. My bandwidth and capacity has been stretched in other areas which has limited my ability to give those aspects appropriate attention. Going through the hiring process, talking to one of my advisors he was like “This is exactly what you’re supposed to do. Hire to fill your gaps!”
I’ve realized something about myself. Because I’m decent, and I think even good, at the very areas I hired Monica for, I mentally struggled with a sense of obligation. Like “I should be doing these things because I have a knack for them” … and because I’m good at them, it felt like an admission of failure to want to hire her.
I’ve always been a big fan of “Hire for your weaknesses”. Besides speaking, I think one of my greatest strengths is creative content and marketing. So to hire her for it, somehow felt … wrong. It’s been an interesting mind stretch.
What I’ve already come to realize is that she’s going to amplify my creative thoughts in wholly new ways. I mean obviously. But it seems like instead of her just taking these responsibilities, her contribution is going to multiply my endeavors as well. I imagine you are familiar with John Maxwell’s “Law of the Lid”. He’s like if you are a 3 you’ll only ever get to a 5 or 6. But if you’re a 7 and improve that it can move you to a 9 or 10. Which gave me a new idea…
Hire for Your Strengths
John didn’t give me that, Monica did. Well and I am coming into it this week in my own thoughts. Oddly, it somehow challenges my identity. Which thankfully has been an ongoing process. I just didn’t know I’d be threatened by releasing something I’m good at. Monica’s not the threat, heck she’s the ally. My own sense of self is what’s imperiled.
It’s kind of exhilarating. It frees me to imagine wildly in the media areas and believe those ideas can be realized because I have a partner executing on them. It also enables me to consider other things non-related, that now I have the bandwidth to pursue.
What if our dependency on what we’re good at is prohibiting us from discovering new aspects of our potential? Even more concerning, what if what we consider a strength is only a mediocrity but we’ve been in it and at it for so long, we don’t realize it?
New isn’t always better, certainly!
This isn’t a “good is the enemy of great” thought. It’s more an unknown vs known. Friend is there a way to gather data and assess our current identity that allows us to release an aspect of ourself, that we consider an asset?
Identity in Strengths
Abilities
Thinking
Education
Relationships
Talent
What are your greatest strengths?
In our personal lives, we can’t hire someone to replicate or relieve us. How do we determine what clout we consider conceding? I propose an identity evaluation that focuses on our best attributes. List your top five. (I know, I know, it’s much easier to list our weaknesses, because we have so many more.) Take all week to ponder if necessary. Write down your five favorite characteristics about yourself that you believe move you through life well. Then surrender one. Invite someone to help you be/do that thing.
Instigating Ideas
1. Do the above.
2. Create a list of who does what you do well. Engage with one or two of them.
3. Offer to help someone with something they are good at. Notice the response.
4. Tell someone you admire, what about them you appreciate.
Surrendering strengths is no easy task. It messes with our minds. Yet it also possesses the possibility for our own personal expansion in a way nothing else really does. Asking someone to join/partner/help/contribute exerts humility which is the secret key that unlocks potential for accelerated growth.
I dare you to surrender a strength this week.
I would love to hear how you determine your best attributes and what metrics or feelings give you that belief. Have you experienced the benefit of partnering your strengths with another personally or professionally? Please hit reply and share.