David J.

Pollay

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July 28, 2008

Your Strengths Are Your Best Material

The other day one of you wrote to me, “David, why should we focus on our strengths? We can do some more work on what we’re already good at, but why not just get right to our weaknesses?” Let me tell you about an experience I had with one of my daughters.

Last year, Eliana, who was four at the time, came into the kitchen with a big smile and a “rattling” box in her hands. She walked past me, climbed up on a stool and dropped the box on the breakfast counter. I had barely enough time to read the box cover, “Jewelry Making Kit,” when Eliana said, “Papi, let’s make a bracelet.”

Eliana and I delicately strung beads on a bracelet wire. We used beads of all colors, beads with numbers, and we even spelled Eliana’s name. One hour later and our bracelet was complete.

There was just one problem. The bracelet did not fit Eliana’s wrist! I couldn’t believe it. After all that effort, it was too small.

I wouldn’t accept it. I had invested too much time to give up, and I didn’t want to disappoint Eliana. So I tried everything to make it work. I took off beads. I made the knots on the ends smaller. I tried to stretch the wire. And then finally, somehow I found a way to hook the bracelet, but just barely.

I was relieved until I heard a yell from the play room five minutes later. I ran in to find Eliana, and Ariela, my then-three year old, looking at the floor. Not only had the bracelet popped off, all the beads were now buried in our carpet!

The bottom line was simple: The bracelet just didn’t fit. It didn’t matter what we did, there was not enough material to work with. We did not have enough bracelet wire.

The same is true when we try to do great things in our lives by spending our energy focusing on our weaknesses: We get coached, we get trained, we get motivated, we get inspired, but there’s only so much we can do. Why? There’s just not enough material to work with – that’s why they’re weaknesses.

The science of Positive Psychology focuses instead on how we can use our most natural strengths to achieve our greatest and most gratifying successes in life. Most people focus their life on simply building skills to meet their job responsibilities. The best leaders know that this approach is incomplete. They focus instead on bringing out their top strengths, developing them and maximizing their use in support of the outcomes they are determined to achieve. Then these leaders turn to skill building to complement their natural power. They start with strength, and then add skill.

Your chances of success as a leader increase greatly when you follow my ADAPT Strengths Model of Leadership Development. Leaders do best when they become aware of their strengths, develop them, apply them to their work and life, partner with others to amplify their strengths and find ways to work around their lesser strengths. They then implement this same approach with the teams they lead.

The most important thing you can do in your life is to use your most abundant strengths and passion to live your best life possible. Don’t make bracelets that won’t fit.

The best place to look for greatness is inside our strengths. Go where you have the best material.

David J. Pollay’s book, Beware of Garbage Trucks!™, is due out this Fall. Mr. Pollay is the creator of “Beware of Garbage Trucks!™ - The Law of the Garbage Truck™ (www.bewareofgarbagetrucks.com).” He is a syndicated columnist with the North Star Writers Group, creator and host of The Happiness Answer™ television program and DVD, and an internationally sought after speaker. Mr. Pollay is the founder and president of the consulting and seminar organization, The Momentum Project, LLC (www.themomentumproject.com).

© 2008 David J. Pollay. Distributed by North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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