Overcoming Your Strengths

By Doug Franklin July 10, 2009

My strongest leadership skill is seeing problems. I can see a program that is working at 95% efficiency and only think about the 5% that is wrong. This drives my staff nuts. I am sure that I come off negative and they think they can do nothing right in my eyes. The truth is this leadership strength has served me well. It has enabled me to create a ministry of excellence, to never be satisfied with good enough and to always push for the best. The down side is how my co-workers feel. I have to make sure I communicated the why behind “let’s improve this program” and I have to do it with grace.

How about you? What are your strengths and how are they impacting your ministry? On the flip side, how are they damaging your ministry? What personal strength has become a weakness for you?

Let me take you through a short exercise – find two people that work closely with you and ask them to list your strongest three leadership skills. Then ask them if those leadership skills have a dark side to them. Do your leadership strengths create voids or laps in other areas of your ministry? Ask them “do you ever look at a problem in the ministry and think – that’s just _______ (fill in the blank with your name). You may need to dig deep and ask them to give you a tough and honest evaluation.

Once you discover how your leadership strength is causing struggles for other co-workers make adjustments, ask for feedback and make sure you communicate your intentions. Go the extra mile in making your co-workers feel like they are important to you and your ministry.

The truth is our strengths make weakness but we can’t see them because the problems are always in our wake. Have a close friend check your wake to make sure your ministry is running at full speed.