You know that annoying question that employers ask during the interview, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” Well as annoying as it is, analyzing your strengths and weakness is important in all aspects of your life, including your career, personal habits, and relationships. In order to leverage your strengths and improve your areas of weakness, you first have to identify what they are.
Analyzing and identifying your strengths and weaknesses is a part of your self-discovery journey and helps you better understand yourself, how you function, and your areas of improvement. Here are a few benefits of understanding your strengths and weaknesses.
Benefits of knowing your strengths:
Increases confidence- Understanding your strong areas helps you to feel more confident about yourself, your value, and what you bring to the table. When you understand your strengths, you understand what makes you unique.
Boosts productivity- When you understand your strengths, you will want to leverage them and put them to good use. This, in turn, boosts productivity, because you feel more motivated and confident to put your strong skills and talents to use.
Better direction- When you know your strengths, you have a better sense of direction in your life, whether that be in your career, personal life or relationships. Understanding your strong suits helps you better define your goals and vision because you know what talents and skills you have that will ultimately set you up for success.
Benefits of knowing your weaknesses:
Figure out what may be holding you back: Identifying your areas of improvement can help you figure out what may be holding you back in certain areas of your life, whether it be relationships or career. Maybe you aren’t a great communicator, so your relationships suffer as a result. Maybe you need help with your interviewing skills in order to advance in the interview process. Learning what areas may need improvement ultimately helps you learn how those areas impact your progress.
Improves response to difficult situations: When you acknowledge what your weaknesses are, you can begin to figure out how you can improve your weaknesses, thus giving you power over those areas. When you know what your weaknesses are, you have better control over how your respond and react to difficult situations because you are more self-aware.
Improves decision making: Understanding your areas of weakness helps improve your decision making in all areas of your life. When you acknowledge the areas that need improvement, you have better control over those areas and how you choose to move forward with that information. If you’ve made a decision you weren’t proud of in the past, understanding where you went wrong can only help you learn and make a better decision going forward.