Change Wired What if your Superpowers are secretly sabotaging you? The dark side of your strengths and how to work with it to achieve goals.
What if your greatest strengths are secretly sabotaging your success?
This eye-opening exploration delves into the fascinating paradox at the heart of personal development - how our natural talents, when overused or misapplied, become the very blind spots holding us back.
We'll explore the concept through analyzing my CliftonStrengths 34 report - not just learning to see how your blind spots can hold you back but also how you can build simple systems to prevent that from happening.
Drawing from Martin Dubin's groundbreaking book "Blind Spotting" and my personal revelations from the Clifton Strengths Assessment, I share how my top strengths - Learner, Strategic, and Activator - create both extraordinary opportunities and unexpected challenges.
As someone who thrives on continuous knowledge acquisition, I've had to recognize when my love of learning becomes an impediment to action or creates friction in relationships. My strategic thinking allows for rapid pattern recognition but can appear as criticism or confuse others when I don't properly explain my thought process.
Most revealing is my Activator tendency, turning thoughts into immediate action propels progress but leads to hasty decisions I later regret. The practical systems I've developed to counterbalance these tendencies have transformed my effectiveness.
Unlike weaknesses we can typically identify, blind spots remain invisible without external reflection. That's where tools like coaching, assessment instruments, and even AI assistants become invaluable mirrors, revealing patterns we cannot see ourselves. The beauty of this approach lies in its elegance - you don't need to fundamentally change who you are, just create strategic guardrails that harness your natural talents while preventing their downsides.
Share, review, and consider discussing this episode with friends or family to help each other identify blind spots and build systems for more fulfilling, rewarding lives.
What strength might be holding you back without your knowledge?
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Brought to you by Angela Shurina
Behavior-First, Executive and Optimal Performance Coach 360, Change Leadership & Culture Transformation Consultant