Is the glass half full or half empty?

It’s something I hate. 

The problem I have with such an ask is that it’s never as clear-cut as that.

As Shakespeare has been quoted saying, ‘Your greatest strength begets your greatest weakness.’

On the one hand, we can be praised for being careful, precise and paying attention to detail and on the other be criticised for being inflexible, too cautious, or even pedantic. The desire to help others, lend a hand and show consideration to our colleagues can also be the thing that stops us from meeting a deadline and keeps us at work late to complete everything. Whether a skill or characteristic is a strength or potentially a weakness is so often dependent on the situation. 

The skills we excel in or talent we possess also have the potential to disadvantage us, to blindside us, to throw up challenges. In just the same way, those areas we feel we need to develop, those skills we are not so great at, can be a strength - what’s needed is a change of mindset in how we perceive things. 

It’s like the age-old question – ‘Is the glass half empty or half full?’ Well, it’s both, isn’t it? If we only see it as one or the other, we’re missing something.

Seeing it both ways surely makes for a more accurate and measured assessment of the situation.

We can find ourselves in one of two camps when it comes to self-assessment – either we see the glass half full and we see all our strengths, but never acknowledge that they may have some downsides, or we see the glass half empty, only seeing what we label as weaknesses in ourselves, unaware of the upside of some of those things.

The self-aware leader can take an objective view of themselves, evaluate their character, qualities, skills and talents, and see themselves as they truly are. Most importantly, they can do something with all that.

Some questions to help with this process might be:

• How do you see yourself? 

• What might you miss? 

• Do you have someone who you trust that will encourage and challenge you? If not, why not seek someone out and allow them to speak with compassionate honesty? 

• Take a moment to reflect on what you do day-to-day. Are you personally utilising your greatest strengths? 

According to research carried out by Gallup, satisfaction and productivity in the workplace come from people having the opportunity to lean into their strengths and do what they do best. But this is not always evidenced in every workplace – quite often people’s strengths are not being utilised fully.

As leaders, we need to think not just about ourselves but about our team as well: 

• Are they in positions that play to their strengths?  

• Do we know our team well enough to know what their best looks like?  

• When we are hiring people, do we consider the nuance of strengths and weaknesses and how this is likely to play out?

We might hire someone based on the fact that they are a fantastic team player but is this how they will be working day-to-day, as part of a team? If not they may struggle. The same is true for the person who is brilliant at working independently and loves personal autonomy – is this what the role entails, or will they have to be part of a team and work with others regularly?

There’s much nuance when it comes to an individual’s talents and skills and we all tend to over-value ours and other’s strengths and weaknesses. The key is to curate a balanced and thoughtful approach to how we see them.

As leaders, we need to celebrate our strengths but also have the wisdom to know ourselves. We need self-awareness to see how our greatest strengths can, as Shakespeare says, beget our greatest weakness and vice versa.