Strengths on Steroids — Not a Good Thing
Personality tests are designed to help people discover their natural strengths and talents. Some of the most popular ones are Myers-Briggs, DISC, and Enneagram.
But did you know that a personality strength taken to an extreme becomes a weakness? As a matter of fact, when this happens, it usually becomes your greatest weakness.
For instance, if you are a:
- Driven, results-oriented person, taken to an extreme, you move so fast that you walk all over people and wear them out.
- Outgoing, expressive person, taken to an extreme, you will end up talking so much that you become a flake who forgets to follow through on your promises.
- Laid-back, easygoing person, taken to an extreme, you become a wimp who doesn’t stand up for yourself and allows people to take advantage of you.
- Detailed, precise person, taken to an extreme, you can become so perfectionistic that others avoid being around you because your constant complaining drains them.
If one or two of the previous statements were hard to read, it’s probably because you can see yourself in those statements. I get it because…that is me. Yikes!
At the same time, our personality strengths are strengths. Therefore, we need to lean into our strengths to be successful. Just because a strength can turn into a weakness doesn’t mean we should avoid building upon it. That would be silly.
The point I’m trying to make is we need to be careful not to put our strengths on steroids. Whenever we do this, we are setting ourselves up for our biggest blunders.
Avoiding Personality Strength Pitfalls
Since I struggled with putting my “strengths on steroids” quite a bit early in my career, I have learned several warning signs to look out for. These simple insights have helped me, and I hope they do the same for you.
Insight #1: It’s hard to recognize when a personality strength hits the tipping point and becomes a weakness. This means your strength-turned-weakness is often a blind spot. So, just staying alert to this fact goes a long way.
Insight #2: The tendency for a personality strength to turn into a weakness is more likely to happen when things are going well for you. In other words, when life is good, beware of becoming prideful. Pride is a root cause for strengths turning sour.
Insight #3: When someone you respect tries to tell you that one of your strengths is becoming a weakness, don’t blow him or her off. They are not being mean, they are being helpful. The best thing to do when this happens is…listen up!
Photography Copyright: 123RF.com / andrey1978
Want More?
“Success” is a word that is thrown around quite a bit. Is real success making it to the top, earning a bunch of money, becoming famous, winning awards, or something else?
Success can include all the things listed above and more, but one major ingredient to real success is making a positive difference in the lives of others. As my friend Joe Martin once said, “I want to do well for myself in my career and finances while doing good for others.” That sounds like a winning strategy to me!
So how can you do well for yourself while making a positive difference in the lives of others? Found in this FREE RESOURCE are seven characteristics of people who make a difference.