What are your strenghts and weaknesses?

Do you know your weaknesses?

My clients, whom I prepare for job interviews, often ask me for advice on how to answer questions about strengths and weaknesses. I get the impression that these are the questions that cause the most concern. Why is that? In my opinion, it's because few people take the trouble to really think through their answer – to reflect on themselves, seek feedback, or perhaps take a talent test, from which, if interpreted correctly, our weaknesses can also emerge.

It happens that people actively looking for a job, using advisory services, expect quick advice, treating the recruitment process like a casting – "do everything to get in". The problem is that we can be very dissatisfied with the new job later on.

What does a person representing the HR department think?

People who are not actively looking for a job can "afford the luxury" of choosing an employer, which does not mean that people who are working and looking less actively in the market do not take the trouble to work a little on themselves and get to know themselves better. Usually, candidates think that the job interview is difficult, the questions are stupid and do not contribute to the matter – especially HR questions. 

The main goal of the "interview" with a person representing the HR department is to determine whether a given candidate will fit into the organization's culture and whether the tasks at this position will be motivating and interesting enough for them – in other words, "if they fit with us and what is the chance they will stay with us longer". People from the HR department somewhat require candidates to know a lot about themselves (e.g., what their work style is, what social skills they have, in what environment and with what people they work best, etc.) and above all to communicate this openly and honestly. Candidates, in turn, want to make the best impression, so they are ready to say what the other side wants to hear. The "courtship dance continues", but at the end of this process, the dream reward does not always wait. If you show yourself from a completely different side and turn out to be someone you are not, the short-term gain, i.e., receiving a job offer, can be a reward for you. Worse if this job turns out to be completely different than expected. Remember, the job interview (is not an interrogation) is also a place for asking your own questions.

Returning to weaknesses – the question is difficult because everyone would like to show themselves from the best side. It is important to remember that maturity (not only managerial) is also the ability to be aware of what your weaknesses are.

After identifying weaknesses, we can choose the following strategies: a) take steps to minimize them, or b) look for and develop in a professional area where these weaknesses will be completely irrelevant.

Talents according to the Gallup Institute

Research by the Gallup Institute clearly shows that to achieve mastery in a field, and thus satisfaction from work/life, one must absolutely focus on their natural talents. If we focus on them and systematically develop them, they will become our strengths. If we focus on developing weaknesses, at best we will achieve mediocrity in this aspect. From the point of view of expending strength and energy, focusing on deficits makes no sense. It is worth spending some time to discover your talents. The Gallup Institute offers a quick talent test that can be done online. We receive information about our 5 natural talents, which are worth developing. A good interpretation of the results will also indicate our weaknesses (as always, "every stick has two ends").

One of my talents is the "activator" talent, which means that I simply act and usually quickly. I know that my perception of time may differ from others'. Working in a team, I "push things forward" – "if we act, we act", even if action means analyzing the situation or data. Privately, I try to eliminate from my life activities that do not bring me any value, often getting irritated if I have to, for example, stand in a long queue. This talent, as I wrote, is both a "blessing" and a "curse". How do I work on it? What do I do to develop it, but not let it take over? For almost 20 years, I have been running a recruitment company. I manage projects that are often long or long-term, collaborate with people who perceive time differently – I try not to get irritated :) Additionally, during times when I have no influence on the project (i.e., it is on the client's side), and my role is reduced to logistics, I engage in other projects not always related to recruitment - I care about diversity and about being able to keep acting. Sometimes my actions do not bring the expected, or immediate effect, but for me not acting means "going backward". Running a recruitment company and advisory practice, I have learned patience and to accept the fact that success may come after a longer time, or sometimes not at all. Before discovering my talent, it seemed to me that many people behave unprofessionally – I wondered why, for example, they delay replying to emails, making decisions. I confused their different perception of time with a lack of professionalism.

If I work in a project team, I inform my colleagues about how I work and that I try to bear in mind that not everyone works in this way.

The Gallup Institute has defined 34 talents from which quite clearly emerge anti-talents or areas to be careful of (an uncontrolled talent can "develop" towards an anti-talent).

One of them is, for example, the "Competition" talent. People with this talent feel best and develop most in an environment that requires constant fighting and outdoing others. Competitiveness is a huge talent that can be perfectly utilized, for example, in sales, sports. Such a person may quickly get bored if they simply "do not have anyone to compete with". Talent is a force that drives and motivates this person to act. Others, who do not have this talent, may in turn perceive such a person as very competitive / "at any cost to achieve the goal". If we know our talents and the resulting anti-talents and communicate them, not only during a job interview, we will probably gain more allies than enemies.

Common mistakes in describing weaknesses

The question about weaknesses seems negative to us. We are afraid to reveal our own weaknesses. The way we treat our weaknesses is also very important and diagnostic for the questioner. The question is not intentionally negative – it's more about gaining information on whether the candidate has reflected on themselves. Common mistakes candidates make when answering this question include: inventing "on the fly" something nonsensical like "I'm a workaholic". Every sensible employer knows that if an employee is professionally burned out, which is a direct consequence of workaholism, they will quickly leave the job, or this behavior will soon reflect on the quality. In the long term, such an employee is not a good investment.

The second mistake is mentioning weaknesses that are the opposite of the competencies sought for the position. For example, if the job description indicates that the company/organization is looking for someone with high organizational skills, then informing a potential employer that we have problems with planning tasks/effective time management will not serve us well. By giving such an example of a weakness, the candidate tells about themselves with disarming honesty, forgetting about the employer's needs. Thus, during the job interview, it shows that they have not read or understood the job description.

Weak/strong side – which to start with?

Questions about weak and strong sides are often asked in pairs. If you receive one question about both weak and strong sides, my advice is to first talk about your strengths. If you use Gallup's talents, you can easily then move on to so-called anti-talents or immediately indicate that your strategy is to develop your talents towards strengths rather than focusing on deficits.

I highly recommend the inspiring material about strengths presented by Marcus Buckingham - The Truth about You