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Whether you are the head of a family, a CEO, a manager, or an individual, you must learn to build on your strengths before you take another step.  Last week we talked about taking a self inventory.  That was the starting point.  If you have not completed your personal inventory stop now and read that post and do the activity.

With your personal inventory list in hand, look over the column that contains your assets, your skills, your strengths.  That’s where the building begins.

One of the first questions that always comes up is why don’t we start with our weaknesses.  Most of us have been taught that we need to be well rounded and we need to work on those things that seem to need work.  It has been my experience that we should always begin with our strengths because if we can improve upon something we already do fairly well, we will get a larger return on our efforts.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn.  We all seem to have the tendency to try to “bring up the rear” so to speak.  Years ago when I was a manager for a company I had a sales team that was pretty average.  On the team was one super star, a couple of above average sales people, four who met the company’s average, and four who were in various levels of below average sales, one of whom was so poor a sales person that he probably should have been fired.  But, when all the sales were averaged out for the team we were pretty average according to company standards. 

In the company’s eyes an average sales team made me an average manager.  I made up my mind that I didn’t want to be average.  I knew my skills as a sales person and I was better than average.  With bonuses depending on an increase in sales over a previous period, my first thought was to get hold of the low man on the totem pole and try to bring him up to speed.  I worked extra hours with this man in the classroom and in the field.  But, I saw little increase in my bottomline.  Three weeks into the program I was ready to give up on the bonus.

Then, one of the company vice presidents came to visit me and my team.  I didn’t want to tell him that I had no hope of earning the bonus.  But, the VP was a wise man with many skills and he made notes as he observed our morning meetings.  At the end of his week with me and my team, he called me in for a two hour meeting.  His first suggestion was that I work with the man who was the super star of my sales team instead of the least productive salesman.

The math was simple.  If the top salesman was selling 100 units a week and I worked with him to increase his sales by 10% he would be selling 110 units per week.  If I continued to work with the least productive man on the team who was selling about 20 units per week and I could increase his sales by 10% he would be selling 22 units a week.  It doesn’t take a mental giant to figure out that I would get a better return by helping the top salesman.

I was looking for a promotion at that time, thinking that earning the bonus would help me gain recognition from my managers.  I began working with my strongest sales person.  He increased his sales by 10%.  At the suggestion of the VP, I began talking to the strong salesman about management.  Of course, he was interested.  So, I began training him to do my job. 

What was the best way to do that?  I put the top salesperson with the person who was number 2 on our team and suggested that he work with him until he had an increase of 10% in sales.  Of course, the top salesman was ready.  I had just taught him how to increase his sales 10% so all he had to do was teach someone what he knew and what he had just learned.  I began working with the #3 top salesperson.  Do you get the idea?

One day the announcement was made that the company would have four new management positions open in six months.  The vice president called me and asked if I could possibly have two people ready for management at the end of the present period, in time to fill a couple of the newly created positions.  It was a challenge.  But, building on strengths systematically for six months created four managers from my sales team.  In fact, people from my sales team filled all the new openings. 

But, the added benefit was that I also got a promotion!  The company vice president had been building on his team strengths as well.  In fact, I took over the training and motivational part of the company.

The same technique applies to life.  If you have strengths that will lead to success, build on them.  Interestingly enough, the weaknesses will begin to take care of themselves.  For example, one of my weaknesses was public speaking.  But, as I got results from teaching one sales person and then another, and another, I found that I could teach several at one time in the classroom.  Then two sales teams were brought together for training.  I was selected to do the training.  Well, as you can tell that by working on strengths sometimes we have the opportunity to work on our weaknesses.

The example above is from corporate experience.  But, it applies to everything in life.  This does not mean that you can ignore everything you haven’t mastered.  It means that if you master something that already has a good basis, it will usually be mastered quicker.  Then, move on down your list until you have mastered your strengths and begin working on those things you see as weaknesses.  Work for success.  And, work smarter, not harder.