As I waited to cross the street the other day, a motorbike rider was going past. As he slowed down at the intersection, I noticed that the sidestand of his bike was sticking out. This is a dangerous thing, as any biker knows, since it can cause the rider to wobble on a turn or have a fall. So I yelled out "Stand" to him as he passed me. He immediately kicked it back up while in motion, and waved a thanks to me as he went on his way.
This got me thinking - what aspect of our habits and behaviours, similarly stick out (like the bike stand) without our knowledge and cause us to fall, or create problems in our relationships or get in our way of doing things.
There have been occasions where I have been making my point logically during a discussion (my view) when I am informed by a friend or my spouse that I'm shouting. I was unaware of the increase in volume in my voice, and immediately rejected their statement and went on to further explain my point, at a higher volume. Not my finest moment, to say the least, But we can't depend on signals like these always, since we may sometimes get caught up in the moment.
We know that our Talents and Strengths manifest through our behaviours. In Strengths Strategy language, we say that this behaviour is either an overuse of a Strength / Talent or a blind spot - because of the lack of control and awareness of how the strength is actually manifesting. This is important because our strengths (in the right proportion) serve a particular purpose, but an excess use of a strength can lead to a weakness.
This was the revelation of a participant at my recent Decode Your Strengths Workshop - "I'm surprised to learn that my weaknesses are actually my strengths in overuse".
Now here's the key thing - this overuse or blind spot is also a part of who we are. We cannot reject it or ignore it - too risky. Hiding it also doesn't help - it can pop out during the oddest occasion.
Please read the rest here.
This article first appeared on Linkedin on 09 January 2017.
This got me thinking - what aspect of our habits and behaviours, similarly stick out (like the bike stand) without our knowledge and cause us to fall, or create problems in our relationships or get in our way of doing things.
There have been occasions where I have been making my point logically during a discussion (my view) when I am informed by a friend or my spouse that I'm shouting. I was unaware of the increase in volume in my voice, and immediately rejected their statement and went on to further explain my point, at a higher volume. Not my finest moment, to say the least, But we can't depend on signals like these always, since we may sometimes get caught up in the moment.
We know that our Talents and Strengths manifest through our behaviours. In Strengths Strategy language, we say that this behaviour is either an overuse of a Strength / Talent or a blind spot - because of the lack of control and awareness of how the strength is actually manifesting. This is important because our strengths (in the right proportion) serve a particular purpose, but an excess use of a strength can lead to a weakness.
This was the revelation of a participant at my recent Decode Your Strengths Workshop - "I'm surprised to learn that my weaknesses are actually my strengths in overuse".
Now here's the key thing - this overuse or blind spot is also a part of who we are. We cannot reject it or ignore it - too risky. Hiding it also doesn't help - it can pop out during the oddest occasion.
Please read the rest here.
This article first appeared on Linkedin on 09 January 2017.
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