Bring Out The Best Of Me..

When you look into the Report Card of your children.. the Appraisal Report of your staff… the Marketing Survey Report of a product, etc.. What is the first thing that you look for? Is it

(A) The areas where failure or bad results are reflected?.. OR..
(B) The areas where excellence is achieved?

It is obvious that most people will zoom right into to those subjects marked with red ink. We want to know what went wrong. We want everything “defect-free”. We want our staff or our children to overcome each and every weakness in them to become a better worker or student. When we find results that are off the tangent, we whip up a long list of suggestions on how to get things “right”.. or get the “desired” results over your weaknesses.. etc..

Well, if the above is what you had been doing to manage the people and things in your life.. STOP !!! (for a moment at least and LISTEN)

For a moment, I’d like you to reverse the roles that you played. Now you are a child.. an employee.. etc.. You are presenting a Report Card (or sorts) to your parent or boss. How do you feel? Are you afraid? Are you looking for reasons to defend or justify your failures or weaknesses? Or you simply don’t care because you know that even if you had the best results, it will never be good enough?

Now.. with this in mind.. go back to your original role of a parent or a boss. What do you do? Do you try to find the most effective means to give constructive and objective criticisms and opinions about their failures or weakness? How would you try to educate and motivate your incumbent to improve on the areas that he/she had failed or are weak in?

Well, I’d like to share with you something unorthodox and uncommon. Many academics and contemporaries may raise eye brows at the manner in which I handled such situations. But so far, it had worked well for me.

First, when I look into the report cards, the first thing I look for, are areas that the incumbent had excelled in (not the areas where he/she screwed up). Just as there are reasons to why one did badly in the failed areas, there are reasons why they excel in the areas that they did well. I want to evaluate and assess those areas where the incumbent excels in because these are the areas where he/she is most motivated and will strive to excel further. If we groom them in those areas, it will make them elites in those areas.

Which approach would you think will draw more effective results? To work an uphill task to manage the negative side of an individual whom had likely failed because he/she isn’t interested or motivated in those areas assessed?.. or.. to stroke him/her positively to bring out better results for those areas that he/she excels in?

Do you want the incumbent to put more effort into the failed areas at the expense of the areas that he/she already excels in? Or do you want him to continue to excel in the areas where he/she is already good in? In other words, do you want to put in more money to salvage a failed project (mindful.. it may fail again)? Or do you want to spend more money to improve on a project that is already successful?

While it is important (and it is in every parent’s or manager’s interest and desire) to develop an all-rounded child or employee, we need to know how to deal with their weaknesses. It is crucial that we acknowledge them as weaknesses, accept them as such and find a compromise to deal with it rather that forcing them to work on it. An individual’s weakness should not impair or impede him/her from his/her pursuit in those other areas where he/she excels in.

So what if Beethoven was a handicapped? Everyone still recognized how great his music was. So what if Steve Jobs didn’t have a college degree? People still regard him as a talent and the CEO of Apple Computers. I’m sure you can find more examples of such talents.

When one is THAT GOOD in what they do, it is easy for others to overlook your weaknesses. Your weaknesses become insignificant in comparison to your success. But first, your success MUST be substantial. There are many ways where weaknesses may be compensated. Do you think Lewis Hamilton services the racing car on his own? Do you think Fandi Ahmad goes out on his own to source and procure advertisements or endorsements deals? When you are successful, you don’t have to worry about the things that you are weak in.. you can simply hire someone good in those areas to do the job.

To sum it up, don’t let weaknesses hinder our growth in our other areas of excellence. If you are a parent, teacher or manager, change the way you manage the people around you. This school of thought can be applied in many other areas of our daily lives not just in our academic or career advancements. Remember.. bring out the best of our children.. not the worst..