Are you afraid of your weaknesses?
People see weakness as something to avoid at all costs, something to get rid of because it brings shame to their lives.
If we had to listen to Seneca when he wrote that “All cruelty springs from weakness”, then yes, we should fear weakness.
But the truth is that nothing makes us more human — and credible, relatable.
So this post is not insane, and even though other professionals and bloggers may try hard to hide their weaknesses, I hope you’re not going down that route — if you let your clients know about your flaws, you are going to earn their trust, not their blame.
Surprised? Here are 6 reasons for you not to be.
6 Ways Your Weaknesses Are Not Really Weaknesses
Photo Credit: ROSS HONG KONG via Compfight cc
1. Behind every weakness lies a strength
Think about it — when you are weak, you try to compensate. What is it that you can’t do well? How does your approach change?
For example, you may have problems with getting traffic with just SEO strategies, but you are a genius at getting traffic via social media. Your weakness doesn’t make you a less competent professional, just a different professional, with different winning assets.
2. Believe it or not, people want to see how human you are
Your customers or readers are not interested in a cold, “planned” blogger without a personality. They want to see you for who you are! And that includes your flaws.
The more you show both your weaknesses and your strengths, and how you deal with them, the more credible and trustworthy you become in their eyes.
For example, it would be a winning move to tailor the About page for your healthcare writing business around the story of how you were touched by people’s need for health-related, trustworthy education, how it reflected in your family life and how you decided to write for healthcare as a way to help people get the knowledge they need to feel better.
3. What did you produce to help others with the same weakness?
For example, if you run a stationery business online and you have a problem with using lined notebooks because you can’t write straight but you go out of borders with those, you can use that problem to make a section of your online shop entirely dedicated to tips on what types of notebooks are better for people who have issues with lined sheets and which products out of your inventory are better suited for customers who have your same problem.
4. Ways your weakness made you closer to your customers
Look at how your flaws — not just your strengths — brought you closer to your customers. What is it that they love about you? Most likely it’s your weaknesses, what they can relate to — and your ways to turn your flaws into success.
What human trait brought you the most success? Think about it. The next time you market your services, make sure to bring that up.
5. Your weakness may be another person’s strength
Something you are weak at may be something another person’s winning point, and viceversa. Look at the professionals in your network — is there anyone who is strong where you are weak at? Can you collaborate to bring out the best of both of your strengths and help each other open new business doors?
You can’t know unless you let others know about your weakness, just like they let you know about theirs.
6. Your (unusual) weakness may sell more than your (usual) strength
If your weakness is in an area that resonates most with your clients, it may work better to your prospecting goals than your strengths.
For example, you may be very stubborn in all things life, but that it’s that personality trait that brings you clients.
How do you use your weaknesses in business?
I also recommend you read Dave Kerpen’s post about how to turn your weaknesses into strengths.
