Man in the Mirror

The world is fast changing to understand specific needs of the customer to be able to service them. Today, you look at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix or any other site, they try to understand your individual preferences (based on “likes” on Facebook or based on what you searched for/bought on amazon) to recommend new products/services to you. Similarly, you try to understand the needs/preferences of your boss, colleagues, customers, family, friends, others and meet their expectations. However, how well do you know and meet the preferences of the Man in the Mirror?

We live our lives trying to meet so many people expectations that we often forget about Man in the Mirror. More importantly, we do not understand his strengths (which are his assets) as much as we understand his weaknesses (or liabilities). Now, I cannot blame anyone about it. We are living in a remedial world where the front page of the newspapers carry bad news and what’s sensational on TV is what has gone wrong; not what has gone right. Right from the childhood, we have been trained to focus on fixing the weaknesses to the extent that we automatically grasp what others are doing wrong as against what they are doing right. Similarly, we know our weaknesses much better than our own strengths.

Now, we are natural at our strengths and playing to them would make us more productive, creative, innovative and better at decision making; and this leads us to Success. We are more energized, engaged and focused while playing to our strengths. However, research (from Gallup) proves that only 12% of people play to their strengths most of the day. Why do less than 2 out of 10 play to their strength knowing very well that this would lead them to Success?  How can we increase this number?

Well, before we set on to change the world, it is important that we change the man in the mirror. We could do that through framework CUSIP (pronounced Qu-sip; people in financial services would know this acronym though we will use this in a different context). CUSIP stands for the following: C -> Change the mindset; U -> Understanding your strengths; S -> Strengths focused; I -> Ignore your weaknesses; P – Push technique to move your role towards strengths.

Let us understand each of these areas better:

·         C -> Change the mindset: Before we forge ahead, it is important to challenge our beliefs that have been ingrained in us right from the childhood. We have always been shown a model boy or girl and have been trained by our parents, teachers to be that perfect person. Even if we have shown brilliance in one or two areas, it is not good until we fix all areas. We carry these beliefs so close to our heart that we now ingrain the same in our children. It is important to change this mindset. We need to recognize and acknowledge that we cannot be good in all areas and therefore focus on few areas that we are good at. This is very difficult to do but critical for our success. We need to acknowledge that there are areas that we are not good at and how much ever we spend effort/time in those areas, we are unlikely to go beyond being average. Same time spent in areas that we are natural at (strengths) will bring in exponential results.

·         U -> Understanding our Strengths: Best definition of Strength is given by Marcus Buckingham as a combination of Talent, Skill and Knowledge. There are many ways to discover Strengths (through Gallup’s Strengthfinder assessment or recent Stand Out assessment by Marcus Buckingham – they focus on different areas but could give you an indication of what your strengths are). However, the best way to know your strengths   is by closely observing yourself in your current job and identifying areas that you’re energized in (good sign of your strengths in play) and those that drain you (sign of your weakness in play). This can be done through Capture, Clarify and Confirm process as outlined by Marcus Buckingham in one of his earlier books. I’ll cover this process in detail in one of my future blogs.

·         S -> Strengths focused: Once we discover our Strengths, it is important to put them into practice to yield us success. We need to identify activities in our job that could play to our strength and do more such activities. This has to be result of a conscious plan. We should also start helping our team members in our areas of Strength and start initiating classes/discussions around this area so that we gain visibility in the Organization

·         I -> Ignore your weaknesses: Now, this seems very radical and difficult to accept. How can we ignore our weaknesses? Doesn’t it go against our development, our culture and expectations of our manager? This is where the first step of changing mindset comes in. I am not saying it is easy. I am not asking you to ignore fatal flaws. Those need to be fixed. However, it is important to understand that same time spent on building on strengths (as against improving weaknesses) would result in exponential results that will overshadow the weaknesses

·         P -> Push technique: We need to leverage on push technique to slowly move our job towards strength. This means pushing our manager, colleagues, family members and others to accept our Strengths and work in areas that play up to them. For example, we always wait for our manager to assign us a project/initiative and we try our best to do well in that project. However, Push technique requires us to proactively have a discussion with our manager to identify those projects/initiatives that play to our strengths and get them assigned to us. Push technique also requires us to proactively identify trainings that further build on our strengths; and team up with people who have similar strengths and are able to leverage them well. Push technique, in short, asks us to take charge of our life and drive it in such a way that it leverages our strengths to the maximum thus yielding us tremendous success.

I do understand that this requires a radical change in the way we have always led our life. But this is one time that I ask you to take the risk and bet on the Man in the Mirror. I assure you the returns would be exponential and more importantly, you would find the man in the mirror to be happier. Are you willing to bet on Man in the Mirror?