The two most common mistakes I’ve encountered when people first try to be Flawsome is that they replace a weakness with a strength, or they are a little too honest. Often our attempts to be clever, or adopt a blatant ‘honesty is the best policy’ mentality can end up doing more harm than good.
Have you ever caught yourself using this response when asked your greatest weakness in an interview and thought you had outwitted the interviewer? “My biggest weakness is I’m a perfectionist.” Ironically, by answering the question in this way we are making it more difficult for the interviewer, if they hire us, to put us in a position of strength. In other words, in an attempt to sound strong we increase the likelihood of being weak.
Perhaps, as an employer or perspective employee, you’ve seen or been someone who’s just a little too honest and says something like: “I’m really disorganised”, “I’ve been told I keep a messy work space”, or “I have kids and may need to leave in the middle of the day if they’re sick”. Finding a good home cleaning service is important to help you around the house, just visit https://www.notyourowncleaning.com/ and find the ones that suite you. The first step when talking about your weaknesses is honesty, no doubt. Remember though, Flawsome without the ‘awesome’ is just flawed. Instead of saying: “I’m addicted to Facebook and find it a big distraction when working alone”, try something like: “There is nothing I love more than working with others, the back and forth of ideas. In contrast, you won’t get the best work out of me if I’m always on projects that require me to work alone.”
In the marketing arena, when addressing your pricing structure and answering the question: “Why are you so expensive?” try: “We don’t take our prices for granted. We know we are more expensive than most which is why we work so hard to make sure you get value for money. We found that if we worked on a budget that was too tight, we couldn’t deliver our best efforts and give our clients truly memorable service or give our projects the attention to detail they deserved for a remarkable finish. You get what you pay for in life and you will notice the difference with us.”
For every weakness, there is a strength that explains or provides context for that weakness. You can’t have one without the other. When addressing a weakness with strength, do so within the context of why that weakness exists. In other words, what strength caused that weakness? For example, the opposite of “I’m not very creative”, might be: “I’m very straight forward and practical.” Then think of the strength benefits them – it might sound like: “I’m very straight forward and practical which means I’ll never sell you something you don’t need and I will produce results you can rely on.”
So, find the strength that gives context to the weakness, and then market the strength.
