A short transcript excerpt of a Simon Sinek talk arguing that 'strengths' and 'weaknesses' are context-dependent. Sinek reframes personal traits as attributes that can be strengths in some situations and weaknesses in others; he gives a personal example—chronic disorganization—to illustrate the point.
I don't believe in the concept of strengths and weaknesses. Everything has context.
I believe we have attributes. We have characteristics that we have to know. And in some contexts, those attributes are strengths, and in sometimes their weaknesses. So I'll give you the example that I like to use all the time, because it's funny, is I am chronically disorganized. I'm very disorganized. Right? You are, terribly. Yeah.
And. And.
And I've always thought of this as a weakness. Simon, what are your weaknesses? I'm disorganized. Right, yeah. So I was at a networking event many years ago in the early days of my career, and I met a guy, and he was like, simon, you're fantastic. Would love to work with you. Here's my card. And if I was organized, I'd be texting from the cab on the way home or emailing the next day when I get to work, you know, of course. But I'm disorganized. I lost the business card almost immediately. Right. Two weeks later, I found the business card at the bottom of a briefcase. And so I emailed him. I said, I don't know if you remember me. We met two weeks ago. You know, I'd love to reconnect. And he wanted to work with me more because he thought I was busy. He thought there was such high demand for me. Yes. That's why you took so long. Right? That's why I took so long. So is being disorganized a strength or a weakness? The answer is it depends. In that context, it was actually a strength. In different contexts, when somebody says, I need you to get this done by this time, it's. It can be a liability. So what stacking the deck means is putting yourself in situations where your attributes are more likely to reveal themselves as strengths and try and avoid situations where your attributes are more likely to pull you back. Right. So stacking the deck is not about cheating. It's about. It's about making sure that you're in the right place that make you strong and avoiding the places that make you weak, you know? So, for example, if you're bad at math, don't do jobs that require lots of math. Right, Right. Yeah, it's, it's, it's. It's. I know it sounds trite, but it's sometimes that silly, you know, Like, I love working with others. I love working on teams. Right. And so when a project comes up, I always make sure that I have a group that I can work with because I know I'll do better work if I work by myself, it's more stressful and the work is a lower standard. And so I know that about me. I know that I have a. I like working with people. So I stack the deck. I try very hard to work at least with one other person or to work on a. On a team to complete a project. Right? Right. As opposed to, leave this to me, I'll get this done by myself. Some people, that is their strength to work by themselves, not me. Right. So again, I try and stack the deck by working with people as often as possible when I have difficult things to do.
