Engage in your Strengths / Delegate your ‘Weaknesses’!

ENGAGING MY STRENGTHS

It seems that I spend a tremendous amount of time engaging my non-strengths in one way or another. We’re each gifted by God with a certain combination of things that we could call our ‘sweet spot’. When there is alignment of these strengths in our lives, we are engaged and productive in whatever we’re doing. This is where we’re meant to ‘spend’ our time and energy. Not only will we be engaged and productive, but we’ll also experience a sense of satisfaction and peace.

It’s the way we’re hardwired!

BUT, as leaders, entrepreneurs, and creatives, we can easily be seduced into spending too much time and energy focusing on those areas that are not our strengths because, well, we ‘should be all things to all people’, or we notice that some of the other leaders we know have different strengths than we do. So, we spend time and energy trying to figure out how to ‘become’ someone we aren’t wired to be. Strengths and non-strengths vary within leaders. One leader may be gifted in a certain set of strengths that you may not have. The problem is that when we look at a strength that another person has and interpret our inability to do things that way, as a weakness in us, it sets us on a path of ‘trying to become’ something or someone we aren’t meant to be.

I find that when I compare myself to another leader (we all do it) I have to be careful that I don’t tell myself I need to do more of something I’m not wired to do. This gets me in trouble every time. Sometimes when I convince myself I can make it work, it takes me down a path of confusion and frustration. I can’t figure out why it’s not working for me, or why I feel ‘burned out’. After all, the other guys are getting it done and I’m floundering and flailing in my spirit and unable to make sense of it.

This is when I must stop and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me what’s going on and how I can get back into alignment with how I’m hardwired by the Father to work.

DELEGATING MY NON-STRENGTHS

I’ve discovered that if I learn to be satisfied in and enjoy how I’m hardwired, it allows me to ‘delegate’ my non-strengths to others that have those things as strengths. It sets me free to be engaged and aligned with who I really am. This honors myself and others in the way we’ve each been gifted. It requires that I find those that compliment my hardwiring and ‘be’ ok with letting them do what they’ve been hardwired to do. When that happens, I can enjoy working together to produce something that honors God and each other.

It requires recognizing what I can and can’t do and letting others know. If I don’t, I’ll be less effective, and unable to meet their expectations as well as mine.