7 Ways to Deal with Weakness in Others
I’m kicking myself for the way I responded to his enthusiasm.
He’s energized about the possibility of a new role. I reminded him of one thing he doesn’t do well.
I’m playing not to lose. He’s playing to win. Successful leaders do both.
Skillful leaders ignite energy; fools quench it.
7 ways to deal with weakness in others and fuel energy:
- Accept weaknesses in others and yourself. Organizations that reject people with weaknesses, invite everyone to shut-up and fake it. Acceptance of weakness opens the door for mitigation.
- Make it safe for others to acknowledge weaknesses by acknowledging yours.
- Address weakness in others by asking, “What aspects of this new role give you the most trouble?”
- How would you like to deal with the aspects of your new role that don’t get you jazzed?
- Develop skills.
- Team up with someone who has strengths in this area.
- Push through and gut it out until you get good at it.
- Coach through it.
- Change the job description, if possible.
- Assign new roles, temporarily. Try it for a month and monitor energy and performance with them. Work through issues, don’t just talk through. You can’t solve an imagined problem.
- Identify key success factors. What is essential for success?
- Maximize strengths. What strengths and motivations make this new role attractive?
- Don’t magnify small negatives.
- Get on their team. Establish weekly follow-ups.
- What’s working?
- What’s not working?
- What brings you energy?
- What drains you?
- What will you do differently next time?
- What will you stop doing?
- How can I help?
- Modify the role. Compensate for weakness by assigning some aspects of the job to others.
Energized teammates take you further than drained.
Successful leaders monitor, manage, and fuel energy in others, especially while dealing with weaknesses.
How can leaders deal with weaknesses in others and energize them at the same time?
Capitalize on their strengths, shift focus as well as energy, uncover latent talent that my be unappreciated.
Thanks Gary. I especially like “uncover latent talent.” I think we can put people in a box that limits their potential.
I use #1 from your list with an awareness that we first notice weaknesses in others with frustration that are unacknowledged or unaddressed within ourselves. As I’ve come to accept, manage, and/or improve upon my own perceived weak points (I’ll never love detail $ work) it’s become an actual pleasant experience to share with someone how I dealt with the same challenge and now have some degree of serenely with it.
Thanks James. You show me the freeing power of accepting our weaknesses both for us and others. I know we both agree that “accepting” isn’t playing dead.
This post reminds me of a new rendering of an old proverb: “Good tempered leaders invigorate lives; they’re like spring rain and sunshine.” THE MESSAGE, Proverbs 16:15
Thanks Bob. “Invigorate” is such a great term and noble aspiration for leaders.
I agree with your ideas here, Dan. I believe that great leaders focus on strengths and ask powerful questions to support themselves and others in areas where they may be lacking. Sometimes those questions lead to great opportunities such as working collaboratively with others whom they may not even know! New relationships are always exciting!!
Thanks Regina. Your comment is brimming with optimism. Love it. Our approach to weakness OR strength is opportunity.
Thx again, Dan! My name is Sherri and I live in Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. I love reading your blog and am always impressed with how prolific you are as well as thoughtful, interesting and knowledgeable, etc. etc. 😊
some people just won’t work in certain positions, and it’s foolish to put them in that position. If I have a tough task I may have to resort to “Just get through it this time, but document every issue and we can go back and make it better for next time”
In our case, IT, it’s get through it, and then automate the heck out of it so we can turn it over to operational staff.
Thanks Bill. You remind me that one way to deal with weakness is with system or process. Of course, as you indicate, sometimes it’s better to find a different role.
Opening up with people, show your vulnerability towards each other. Afterwards ask questions and realize that you’re on the same road…called LEARNING-road.
Thanks Dennis. When we join each other as learners, weaknesses are opportunities and the playing field feels safer. Thanks for your insights.
Just what we are going thru here…I am going to try your ideas on developing skills and coaching thru new roles as our company changes leadership.
Thanks Joe. It’s a pleasure to catch you at time when I might be useful. Who knows, but perhaps some good may come from this post. Best wishes.
Hey Dan,
I have been subscribed to your daily blog for a couple of years now. Read ALMOST all of them (sorry! time gets me and I have been known to clear an inbox or two). But I digress…
I also pass on LOTS of them to friends. Some as forwards, some as links and some as cut and paste in print. It is about that last category that I am writing. If you could get your web master to put a “print” function button at the top of the page that would reduce the picture size, and squeeze the text to fit a single page, I would be keeping many more of your posts to share in print with my students. Right now I have to copy, clip, crop, snip, squeeze, etc to end up with a single sheet in print. I keep many in email folders for later but E-matters are so easy to lose and so hard to peruse. I can envision a loose-leaf notebook with last year’s posts sitting on my shelf ready for quick access and easy reflection/reminder to skim back through for motivation. What got me thinking about it was cleaning up one from last week to hand out to my class tomorrow for discussion (about work).
Perhaps that would be valuable to none but me…but I seriously doubt it. Pop that little button up and LOTS of folks might be printing and posting your posts to real-life bulletin boards in offices all over the place! Anyway, thanks for writing and thanks for listening.
(but I’ll be watching for that button!?) : )
Great topic Dan. I have been struggling with this. I am working with an entrepreneur / CEO / President / Chairman 🙂 that has many strengths – a visionary, charismatic, passionate etc. With that said those areas where his strengths are not as great are holding the start-up back from success … I have talked about what brings him energy and it is all related to the above and while he does not want to get in the way of success he is having difficultly identifying or coming to terms with his “weaknesses” – he is at the top of the pile so wont be acting on many of the ideas presented here … so I guess it is about coaching …. 🙂 … maybe it is time to ‘push’ a little bit – tough coaching – a different hat for his and his stakeholder’s best interests’ .. (I like No. 6) — this is always tough as a coach … easier as a internal leader with authority … so long as self awareness exists … hmmmm
Love this so much! I’m stepping into a new role and so this is so incredibly helpful in some of the conversations I’m having!
OMG…This piece got me. I have been pondering for sometime now how to deal wuth this particular weak staff on my team. He always gets me worked up…not meeting deadlines and many other issues. But I feel a strong desire to see him succeed and as such have kept him in the team. I will try this out and hopefully get improvement. Thanks once again.
Good piece this is. The topic has been a challenging aspect of leadership. We may claim to know how to deal with weak members of the team/organization but the fact is that we actually overlook and sometimes discredit them in our actions. However, weaknesses is not a permanent stamp…A weak employee today may turn to be a strong pillar of the organization tomorrow.
Thanks Victor. Your optimism makes me rise up. cheers.