Fear Your Strengths: What You Are Best At Could Be Your Biggest Problem

Consultants Kaplan and Kaiser conducted thousands of assessments of executives, many of whom don’t realize that they’re overusing their strengths. While we ordinarily strive for strength in a corporate setting, “too much strength can [end up being] a weakness,” the authors suggest. Kaplan and Kaiser aim to assist readers in identifying their key strengths and using them wisely. The executives in their case studies struggle with issues such as an overabundance of charisma or being too solicitous to others—traits that can be productive in small doses, but problematic when overdone. Much of the time, the difficulty is in falling too close to either end of the forcefulness/enabling spectrum. Leaders need to follow three steps to move closer to the center: accept themselves, test themselves, and finally, offset themselves. While the main argument is valid, the attempt to spin out this slender analysis into a full-length book results in a repetitive, colorless treatise. (Apr.)