Why It’s Important To Know Your Strengths And Weaknesses

It’s not unusual for people to compare themselves with others around them, and to feel superior or inferior towards them based on their strengths and their weaknesses.

The thing is, every individual is different and we all function differently based on our personalities. It is important to know yourself and your capacities.

Your strengths are things you can leverage on, things you can use to push yourself further.

On the other hand, your weaknesses are not your downfall. These are areas you need to improve on. It is not something you lack. It is something you need to develop and build.

In order to leverage your strengths and improve on your weaknesses, you first need to know them.

In his book What You’re Really Meant to Do: A Roadmap for Reaching Your Unique Potential, author Robert Kaplan observes that most people actually have no clue what their strengths and weaknesses are.

Kaplan believes that people should take ownership of assessing themselves. After all, it is for their own personal development.

Knowing your personal strengths

Your biggest personal strength would be something that comes very easily for you. Take some time and think about what comes naturally for you. It could be anything.

For example, perhaps you have no problems having conversations with people you meet for the first time, or being able to think of quick solutions in a tense environment.

Here is a simple exercise you can try. From the list of attributes in Table 1 (see below), pick five that represent you the most, and arrange them in order, with number five being the one that represents you the least and number one being the one which represents you the most.

Remember, don’t choose attributes that you want to have. Choose those which really represent you. You can choose more than five if you want to.

Knowing your weaknesses

It is equally important to know your weaknesses as much as knowing your strengths.

Your weaknesses hold you back from achieving many great things. Weaknesses are areas that you have the power to improve. It can be anything ranging from professional to social skills.

Similar to the exercise you did earlier, pick five attributes from the list in Table 2 (see above) which you believe represent you, with number five being the least like you and number one being the most like you.

Now you have a list of some of your weaknesses and can begin addressing them.

Exercises like the two you just did are very basic. There are many more elaborate tests you can take to find out about your strengths and weakness in more depth.

You can try The RichardStep Strengths and Weaknesses Aptitude Test (RSWAT) online. It is a test designed with simple, straight to the point questions.

Why should I know my own strengths and weakness?

Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses gives you a better understanding of yourself and how you function.

Understanding your strengths keeps you ahead in a lot of things. For instance, if you are looking at career options, you would be able to narrow down specific job scopes based on the things you know you are good at.

It also helps you to grow more. Knowing what you can excel at enables you to aim higher and achieve much more.

Knowing your weaknesses gives you a clearer understanding of things that may be holding you back, and you can then work around finding ways to not let your weaknesses pull you behind.

Source: https://leaderonomics.com