Hi there!
I would bet that at some point during job interviews you have probably had to attend. You have been asked questions relating to your strengths and weaknesses. Have you ever stopped to wonder why these questions are asked or you just feel this is another scheme of your potential employer to pry into your private life? Well, before we speak to the importance of these questions, let’s get some understanding of what this means.
According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, strength is the ability to exert effort for the accomplishment of a task. Words that could pass for strength include aptitude, competency, capacity and so on. Weakness on the other hand is defined as a quality or state of lacking strength or vigor or can be defined as a defect in character. Driving this point home, strengths are those characteristics that make you shine or exceptional at what you do while weaknesses are those traits that mar your capabilities if not managed well. Some examples of strengths include confidence, friendliness, persuasion, communication skills, organizational skills, listening, empathetic, ability to multitask and so on. Examples of weaknesses include paying little attention to details, procrastination, taking up too many responsibilities, being too accommodating and so on.
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, and these are only as effective as to how they are managed and put to use. Often times, when these questions are thrown at us, we are so excited talking about our strengths but lower the tempo for our weakness. Employers don’t expect you to be perfect; it only helps adjudge the kind of person you are, how well you can thrive in the organization’s culture and knowing that you are not letting that define you because you are making efforts to grow. Besides, weaknesses on their own are not all bad and could come in really handy and just as earlier mentioned, depends largely on how you mange the weakness in question.
Strengths and weakness define how productive we can be in our different roles and tasks. Employees who engage their strengths in carrying out their tasks are more effective and engaged and less likely to leave their jobs. Using your strength or working in area of your strength is what keeps you passionate about your job and keeps the spring in your feet active. Understanding and mastering your weakness can equally become a strength. For instance, if you have weakness of being too detail-oriented and this makes you lag in completion of tasks, you will manage this by starting out your tasks early and providing all the details you need and accurately too. This will in turn make your tasks impeccable, so you are no longer stalling with tasks completion and also presenting a well detailed job thereby causing you to be excellent.
Strengths and weaknesses are only known in place of self-discovery and sincerity with oneself. Weaknesses are not a definition of failure; they only prove your humanity and discovering our weakness shouldn’t confine us to a place of defeat, but we should strive to grow in our areas of weaknesses. Focus on self-improvement and mastering your strengths and weakness and using each one well where they come in handy. Knowing your strengths and weakness also determine the jobs you can take up and the ones that are not your league; this doesn’t make you a failure and quoting Albert Eistein, “if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will spend all its life believing it is stupid’. Embrace your personality and take necessary steps to grow. You can also grow by being a part of our upcoming trainings to further sharpen and amplify those strengths that you have. Kindly visit www.21search.ng to begin. Until I come your way again, stay safe, work smart and not just hard.
Love.
Lizzy.