Stretch your strengths to reach your full potential

Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

John Wooden, iconic NCAA Men’s Basketball Coach

As someone who was born with a disability, Coach Wooden’s words really resonate with me. 

I was born with a congenital cataract on my left eye, likely due to my mother unexpectedly being exposed to someone who had contracted the measles during her pregnancy. Unlike today, the birth defect went unnoticed until I was 10 months old, and was determined even by the Cleveland Clinic to be too late to remove with any real hope of restoring vision.

As a result, I have been legally blind in my left eye my entire life. What does this mean? Here is a sampling:  Well the good news is that I am able to read, though sometimes more slowly than my peers. I can drive, but few would regard my skills as NASCAR ready, and I can work, with some limitations. Because the condition also results in astigmatism, I sometimes fall off curbs and misjudge distances, but I have largely learned to overcome most of those challenges

When I was in high school, well meaninged guidance counselors and psychologists indicated that I would not qualify to do certain jobs (e.g., join the military, work in a factory, fly an airplane). They thought college might be too difficult because of the large amount of reading, so they suggested I become a dental hygienist – a noble profession, but I had different ideas. An honor student in high school, my interests and strengths were elsewhere.

A life long writer, I earned a B.A in Journalism at The Ohio State University in four years. I then went on to a 36-year corporate career as a Technical Writer, Technical Support Manager and a Learning and Talent Development Executive at several Fortune 500 companies. I attribute my success to focusing on strengths while overcoming challenges.

As my career progressed over the years, I came across a valuable leadership tool called StrengthsFinder, a series of Wall Street Journal’s best-selling books written by Tom Rath supported by data from Gallup. The idea behind StrengthsFinder is that we can identify our strengths by evaluating 34 themes, and you can identify your top 5 talents. StrengthsFinder helped me to continue to hone in on my top strengths and also to build stronger teams by identifying and promoting the top talents possessed by my colleagues. Also, by identifying some of your and your team’s short suits, you can plug in other teammates who are more proficient in those areas. Allow me to illustrate:  Once, after the corporate merger of two of the country’s largest banks, I was tasked as the Learning Director for the Asset Management Group to ensure that the Investments group would create and execute a learning strategy. I found that the group was hesitant because they had negative experiences during previous acquisitions. So, using my analytical skills, I created a strong learning strategy, and then working with a member of my team who’s number one skill was influencing, we were able to convince the Executive Vice President of the group to adopt and execute our plan. It made a remarkable difference and took our teams from being good to great. 

One of points of StrengthsFinder that really resonated with me is its emphasis on the fact that we spend much of our life focusing on improving our weak areas — and how that can be futile or requires great effort with diminishing returns instead of focusing on maximizing our strengths — a path of least resistance (i.e., it’s a lot harder to improve a weakness then maximize a strength). For example, if you are a “big picture” person, you are likely to be good at developing strategy, and if you are a very detailed person, you are likely a good project manager. Both can learn from each other, but typically not become the expert at each other’s skills. It’s a lot easier to hone and apply our strengths (once we know what they are) than to improve a weakness. 

Let me provide some examples:

• When there’s a physical limitation (such as a short person who loves basketball and will likely never be a professional basketball player, knowing you love the game can lead to adjacent opportunities such as coaching, covering the sport in local news, playing on rec leagues, etc.). 
• Or if you are too shy or too short to become a fashion model, you could consider other related careers that parallel the field such as a designer, photographer, merchandising, boutique owner or fashion reporter.

I am the first person who would tell you never give up on improving your short suits, at the same time, relish what you are good at and let those talents propel you forward!