What You Do Best - And Why You Ignore It
June 3, 2026
A leader sat across from me on Zoom, deflated. Several months of relentless challenges had taken their toll and he was running on fumes. As we talked, I reminded him that creativity and innovation are among his greatest strengths.
He shrugged off my input. He did not see these as particularly exceptional or helpful in the moment. I leaned in further, pointing out that his brand of creativity is unique, and encouraged him to leverage this strength to deal with his challenges.
A week later, after focusing his time around the strengths he possessed and could control, he declared at the beginning of our session, "I’m back!" – and described how he is leading his company in some new directions that he couldn't envision the week before.
This exchange reminded me of something I have observed over the years: leaders can have weaknesses with their strengths. Which one of these weaknesses might apply to you?
You have difficulty naming your unique strengths. You tend to be good at a lot of things. But if you are like a lot of leaders I work with, you are fuzzy on the one-of-a-kind abilities you bring to your organization . . . the abilities you have that no one else possesses. Without clarity on these strengths, you can miss opportunities for your most powerful contributions. The Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment is a simple but useful tool for identifying top personal strengths.
You get distracted focusing on your weaknesses and don't use your strengths. We have been trained to find problems and fix them. You do this with your direct reports. And you likely do it with yourself, getting obsessed with fixing what is broken rather than growing what is already good . . . and making it great. Marcus Buckingham's two books (Now, Discover Your Strengths and Go Put Your Strengths to Work) contain practical ideas for redirecting your focus from faults to fortes.
You fail to see anything special about your strengths. The leader I mentioned above is gifted with creativity and vision. When something comes easily to you -- the way it does for him -- it's tempting to assume it comes easily to everyone. It doesn't. Your particular top strength is unique, and the very ease that makes it feel ordinary is also what hides it from you.
You neglect to operate from your strengths. Many "worthy" requests and opportunities come along that distract you from doing what you do best. But you will be most effective when you selectively sift through these requests to do things that others think only you can do. An entrepreneur friend recently announced to me that two words define the domain of his strengths—"Ideas" and "Place." He has been using these words as filters for the many projects that come his way because he has gained clarity on where he should focus his unique abilities.
So . . . spend more time leading from your strengths:
Get clear on your top strengths – name them.
Give greater emphasis to growing your strengths than compensating for your weaknesses.
Recognize that your particular combination of strengths is unique and powerful.
You need to be intentional to continuously operate from your strengths.
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Of note. If you think Artificial Intelligence is advancing at breakneck speed, be sure and see what is already here with AI-enabled robotics.
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A final invitation. I am working on my “next book.” This will be a tactical “how-to” reference book on leadership, 40+ short chapters with titles like “How to Manage Your Time,” “How to Handle Conflict,” and “How To Do What They Think Can’t Be Done.” Each chapter is only four to five pages long. If you would like to have a first look at what I am writing, sign up to periodically receive advance versions of a chapter and give me simple feedback. Sign up here.
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If. If you find these writings helpful, will you forward this post to other leaders and encourage them to sign up?
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I’m always happy to hear your thoughts and feedback.