Yin and Yang

My Grandmother used to say, as many of your Grandmothers might have said, "your greatest strength is your greatest weakness." I really never paid it much attention, but as I got older I realized what she meant.

Time and time again, I would meet people who were well organized, buttoned up and great detail people. In fact, their attention to detail was almost fanatical. And we all know the devil is in the details.

But as great a strength as this was, they often bogged projects down to the point of strangulation. Nothing moved. So attuned were they to the details and getting it "perfect" that they frequently missed or barely made important deadlines; deadlines that could have, and sometimes did, cost them many dollars.

If your greatest strength is in teaching and coaching employees, your greatest weakness may be that while you are coaching and training, you may not be allowing the employee enough time to learn to "just do it" and, therefore, do his/her job.

If your greatest strength is "the numbers" of the business, you may be so immersed in the numbers that you are paying less attention to the kind of customer service your people are delivering. And its the level of service that ALWAYS makes the numbers happen.


On the flip side you may be keenly aware of your weaknesses, but not so aware of your strengths. Look for the weaknesses to give you clues about your strengths and then focus on those...all the while understanding the flip side.

Its the Yin and the Yang.

As a sidebar...

I hope many of you saw the Today Show this morning. Our little company, Kids Bowl Free, in which I am a partner , was mentioned and people were encouraged to sign up for it. That's MILLIONS of eyeballs that heard about bowling on a Friday morning. Maybe it rattled their cage to get out and visit your center tonight.

By the way, if you haven't signed up for this amazing program, it's not too late. Over 1,000 centers are in in it and more than 1,250,000 kids are loving it.

Please go to www.kidsbowlfree.com and check it out.