Go Full Offense on Your Strengths

Everyone tells you to fix your weaknesses. That's how you become average.

Here's the hot take from executive coach Chris Woods: Apply your growth mindset to your strengths, not your weaknesses.

"Historically when people talk about growth mindset they actually try to say no, I don't want you to just be a fixed mindset and just work on your strengths. But I say -that's how you actually become excellent. That's how you stand out."

The Conventional Wisdom Is Wrong

The standard advice goes like this: Identify your weaknesses. Work on them. Become well-rounded.

Sounds reasonable. But there's a problem.

"It's going full offense on your strengths, as opposed to trying to play defense on your weaknesses."

Playing defense on weaknesses gets you to average. Going offense on strengths gets you to exceptional. Those are two very different destinations.

The Strengths Discovery Process

Chris uses the Clifton Strengths Diagnostic with every client. It doesn't just tell you your top 5 -it ranks all 34 strengths.

Then comes the real work:

"Let's double click on these top five and go through each of them. Not only how it resonates with you, but how is that mapping against what you're currently doing on a day to day and week to week basis on your job?"

Often people have natural strengths they aren't even using. They're so focused on fixing what's broken that they forget to leverage what's already working.

The Real Question

Once you know your strengths, the question becomes: Are you actually using them?

Chris digs in:

"Oftentimes we can then uncover real natural strengths they have that they're not yet leveraging. And then more importantly -how else can we be getting you to do more of that in your current role?"

Most high performers are doing fine. But they're not doing great because they're spreading their energy across things that don't play to their strengths.

What About Weaknesses?

Chris doesn't ignore weaknesses. He just has a different approach:

"Conversely, if there's a large component of your current role that doesn't fit against your strengths, is it something that you want to work on or -I leave the door open on this -but my personal opinion is you assign this to somebody else."

Delegate your weaknesses. Double down on your strengths.

This isn't lazy. It's strategic.

The Tom Brady Example

Even the greats have trade-offs. Chris uses Tom Brady as an example:

"Tom Brady was amazing, right? He won seven Super Bowls, but he was a lunatic. And a lot of people didn't like playing with him because he was uptight all the time and he was an absolute psychopath and doesn't eat ice cream."

Brady didn't become a seven-time champion by working on his weaknesses. He went all-in on what made him exceptional -even when it came with downsides.

You could be more balanced. Or you could be excellent at something. Rarely both.

The Framework

Here's how to apply this:

1. Know your top 5 strengths. Take an assessment. Get objective data on what you're naturally good at.

2. Audit your current time. How much of your week is spent in your strength zones vs. fighting your weaknesses?

3. Maximize strength time. Look for ways to do more of what you're naturally great at.

4. Delegate or deprioritize weaknesses. Stop trying to be good at everything. Find other people or systems to cover the gaps.

5. Track the shift. As you spend more time in your strengths, notice the difference in energy and results.

The goal isn't to be well-rounded. The goal is to be exceptional at something that matters.

Chris Woods is an executive coach who works with men from early to late career. His upcoming book covers the first two steps of his coaching process: strengths and overcoming fear. Learn more at chriswoodscoach.com.