Be Honest With Yourself
June 19, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
I’m clumsy. I’m so clumsy, I just bumped into my laptop with my big toe and broke the screen. No kidding. $80 to order a new one from eBay.
I know I am clumsy and I admit it. If I didn’t know it, no doubt someone would point it out. Some days I trip and fall over my own two feet.
It’s who I am.
As a manager, it’s equally important that I am honest with myself. I have to know my strengths, and stay within them.
More importantly, I have to know where I’m not great, and ask for help.
I’m good at:
- People
- Learning
- Sharing
- Coaching
- Goal setting and personal development plans
- Casting a vision
I’m not good at:
- Accounting
- Details
- Patience
- Being handy in any way/shape/form
- Brevity
There are things I am just not good at, and I know it, and I readily admit it. If I didn’t, my team would know it anyway, and they would talk about it behind my back.
Being honest with myself has taken me all my life to do, and I still have times where I kid myself about what I’m good at.
Maybe you can relate.
Example: Someone asks me to do something I’m not good at, and in order to make that person happy, or to stop them from asking someone I don’t think can do the job, I volunteer to do it.
And then we both lose, because I don’t enjoy it, and the job doesn’t get done as good as it could have if someone else did it.
Be honest with yourself.
Embrace your strengths…and admit your weaknesses.
Chances are, someone else already knows about them anyway, and they’re hoping you admit them too, so they can stop talking about you behind your back.
Are you willing to be honest with yourself?
Image source courtesy of rick manwaring
It is good to be aware of your strengths as well as your weaknesses. If they are know then you can counter your weaknesses with staff or peers that DO have strengths to counter your weaknesses. Therefore you have balance and the ability to progress.
My strengths are as listed:
Learner
Intellection
Ideation
Adaptability
Includer
I’m just dying to find out how your big toe came in contact with your Laptop LCD?
Trying new Yoga positions Phil??
Good points Scott. Thanks for sharing!
New yoga positions? Heh, funny Mark.
No, I seriously am just clumsy. It was sitting on the floor, I tapped the back of the screen with my toe, and boom went the LCD. Getting a new one soon, but for now, playing on a 10.1″ netbook.
Well said Scott. Being aware of your strengths and weakness is very important if we really want to achieve something in life.