Lean Into Strengths

Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses. There are two general ideas on how to navigate life with these two categories. One is to focus on improving weaknesses so you are a more well-rounded individual with no glaring holes. The other is to accept not being the best at everything and fully lean into what you are good at. Leaning into strengths is where people become the best and rapidly progress in their abilities. Leaning into strengths allows focus and driven effort into deliberately chosen areas of our lives. Improve weaknesses for more balance, and lean into strengths for more greatness.

A short anecdotal quote was shared with me and serves as an account for this idea. The quote comes from a former boss sharing his learnings with one of my friends.

“I am the best second in command you could ever ask for, I’ve been the one in charge of it all before and honestly, I am a leader but where my strengths are best used is being second in command.”

Everyone has their own innate abilities, skills, and aspects of life they are naturally better at. This boss had been in leadership positions before and realized he was much better at being the second in command. It takes individual honesty and personal acceptance to not only acknowledge what you aren’t as good at, but also to willfully choose to follow your strengths. The boss had been in higher positions before and recognized he was better served elsewhere. That is okay! He leaned into his strengths.

In our own lives when we choose to lean into strengths our focus naturally narrows. We are no longer spreading ourselves thin. With a narrowed focus we are able to dedicate more hours of effort in specific areas, specific areas where we are naturally pulled. Since we are more focused, these hours of effort dramatically compound and we will begin to see our strengths become even stronger. Leaning into strengths yields the highest potential for compounded growth because we are typically combining natural tendencies with focused effort.

Leaning into strengths is how we go from being simply good at something to the best, or the top 1%. Our internal honesty and the ability to accept what we are naturally good at lets us hold tunnel vision over how we use our time. The combination of tunnel vision and our natural ability lets us find the light at the end of the tunnel. Lean into strengths to see the light.