I recently was discussing with a client the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) that they endured intermittently for a month, before they were finally able to resolve the issue. As it turned out, the hosted services provider simply did not have the hardware infrastructure to handle the data traffic rates that were being hurled at them. In the end, there was no choice but to move to another hosting service provider who had engineered their system to handle the type of bandwidth that a DDoS attack was capable of.
It certainly raises the question of weaknesses and how we deal with them in our business endeavors. We have all been asked the question during a job interview at one time or another, about what our weaknesses are. It has to be one of the most popular interview questions of all time. Seemingly, it must be important to know the answer. Yet, it is also one of the most disliked and poorly answered questions, even though we know it’s coming.
The question really seems to attack our psyche. It seems that we would rather not have others know what our weaknesses are. And it may be that we do not want to dwell on this topic very much even by ourselves. It is just difficult to admit that we have a weakness. It just has such a negative connotation. That our performance could be hindered. That we may fail. That we can be beaten. So we do our best to change the topic and bury the idea.
I must admit that I do not like the question either. It bothers me to think negatively. But it is important to our business success that we wrestle with the issue and deal with it. So the best way to do that is to simply ask the same question with different words. Here is my suggestion: “What areas do you need to improve, in order to better move towards your goals?”. This completely reframes our thinking. We are no longer thinking about what we are not good at. We are now thinking about our goals and how we can better attain them. The feeling we generate by thinking in this way can bring forward a much stronger motivational energy.
So having the strength to uncover our weaknesses, and finding the will to deal with them is a milestone in itself. You can feel good about that. But, it is not a one-time thing. It is much more akin to the Whac-A-Mole game. As you improve certain areas that warrant the attention to move you towards your goal, new areas will emerge. It then becomes a continual process of improvement, as you meet you goals and establish new ones.
In the world of commerce, we are in a period of immense change. And change in itself creates weaknesses in how we operate and execute our strategies. If you are not achieving your goals and are simply trudging along, believing that you can simply double-down to achieve your goals, you may be ignoring the weaknesses that have beset themselves in your processes. And if you can’t see those weaknesses that are so painful to uncover, perhaps someone can help you with that.