Situation: We all want to improve, we all want to be better. And in our corporate life, we want growth, but mostly expect salary hikes and promotions in return. It is a fact that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. During the initial stage of the career, employees are open to discuss their weaknesses along with their strengths, expect guidance to overcome the weaknesses. But isn't it true that we start hiding weaknesses when we are in our growth stages?
But as time passes, the employees with fewer weaknesses are likely to get promoted soon. This causes pressure on employees who aspire to get promoted. As overcoming weaknesses take time, people find easy ways and hide them.
So, will hiding the weaknesses solve the purpose?
NO
THE PERSPECTIVES:
When the tasks are defined based on your skillset, hiding weaknesses enables the seniors to allocate more work and even complicated tasks to you probably from the beginning. Further, expecting that you know everything, and training assistance is also not provided. Finally, you have to work on strict deadlines without any assistance in spite of not have sufficient knowledge. To overcome all these issues, you have to find sideways like - taking the help of a friend, more for too much time, and whatnot. All this may not even come to your senior’s notice and so even the extra effort is not acknowledged. Finally, if the work is not on par with expectations, you are considered an underperformer. Even if you successfully finish the task, this becomes a new expectation and you are forced to work extra every time you are assigned the work.
So, what shall we do?
THE SOLUTION- Accepting Your Weakness
A) The best way is to acknowledge your weakness.
B) Ask for assistance from others and make sure you are putting in extra effort to overcome the hurdles and reach the deadlines. At least, your extra efforts are acknowledged here.
C) Further, the training opportunities and assistance help you learn the tasks faster and overcome the hurdle.
This weakness can hamper your promotion prospects. But, you can explain how hard you are working to overcome your weaknesses and why you are eligible for the promotion, in spite of having these weaknesses.
Above all, if the weaknesses are really going to hamper your performance in the new position, it is better to take on the new responsibilities at a later stage.
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Also Read: Be goal focused, but respect your values