Strength or Stretch?

I am rather infatuated with Marcus Buckingham’s work these days. If you are not familiar with him, he is the author of several books including The One Thing You Need to Know and Go Put Your Strengths to Work. Buckingham’s core message can be summed up with this quote: “the one thing you need to know about sustained individual success: discover what you don’t like doing and stop doing it.” I love that concept, especially when it applies to things like balancing my checkbook.

I keep asking myself how it applies to my training skill. There are parts of training that I love more than others. As a 4-1, I love random connections, spontaneous dialogue and new ideas. I would rather not have to follow the workbook page-by-page. I hate giving out an agenda with times on it. If I follow Buckingham's advice, can I just stop giving out an agenda? And, what if I hopped all over the workbook? What if we didn’t even have a workbook? Maybe, I could just hand pages out as I go?

Here is that eternal question again: Do you focus on strengths or do you stretch to your weaker areas?

In thinking about Buckingham’s concept, I have decided there is a hierarchy of things that I don’t like to do. Yes, I don’t like agendas much and I prefer less structure than more. I would rather spend more time listening and sharing stories that doing worksheets. But, above these dislikes is a much greater one: the feeling of disappointing someone who came to a learning experience hoping for something transformative to happen.

I dislike the idea of disappointing the learner. So, I stretch. The good news is I can still have the powerful connections and meaningful dialogue I love. The learners, who love organization and practice, can have that, too. And, when it all comes together, the learner is transformed, and so am I.

Be well,
Jeanine O'Neill-Blackwell
President/CEO, 4MAT 4BUSINESS