(Not) Overemphasizing Weaknesses
"What is your preferred process to pull the perfect espresso shot?"
This is a question sent to me after yesterday's post about Northern Vessel and our pursuit to treat every customer like the most important person in the world. In fairness, I write about Northern Vessel frequently, as jointly owning and running the company has become a major part of my life. Therefore, it's natural for someone to ask this very practical and relevant question.
Confession: I've never pulled an espresso shot in my life. Zero. Zilch. I haven't even attempted it. Truthfully, I don't even know if I could if I wanted to. I love coffee so much, but have no skills. It would be the equivalent of my son deciding next week to build a space shuttle and land a human on the moon. It ain't happening! I do recognize the irony in this situation. We'll serve nearly 200,000 drinks this year, yet I've never made (or know how to make) a single drink.
Let's call this a weakness. It's one of many I possess. If you know me well, you could list out the countless weaknesses that plague me. My lack of know-how in making tasty coffee beverages is one of them.
Culture tells us that we need to focus on our weaknesses, striving to improve in those areas. I think this mentality does us a gross disservice. No, not because I don't believe addressing a weakness is a noble endeavor. I do think there's value in self-improvement. My problem with this approach is that it forces us (whether consciously or subconsciously) to divert our attention away from our strengths.
It's true; I have a ton of weaknesses. I also possess amazing strengths. While I don't know how to make our drinks, I can tell you, to the fraction of a cent, how much each one costs to make and the gross margin associated with each. I know how much frother milk gets thrown down the drain, the impact of card payment transaction fees, how much product gets wasted, and the effect of loyalty reward redemptions.
The name of the game isn't fixing our weaknesses, but rather unapologetically and aggressively leaning into our strengths while bridging our weaknesses. Not to be captain obvious here, but the first step in bridging weaknesses is to have the self-awareness that you have weaknesses. Once that happens, which requires humility, only then can we find the appropriate bridges. My assistant, Alyssa, bridges many of my weaknesses. My Meaning Over Money business partner, Cole, bridges some of my weaknesses. My Northern Vessel business partners, TJ and Ashley, bridge some of my weaknesses.....and vice versa!
TJ is an absolute genius when it comes to coffee and hospitality, but he's not allowed to handle the finances. That's a massive weakness for him, which is why I'm here. While finances are a massive strength for me, accounting isn't. That's where Ashley steps in with her beautiful strengths.
Sure, I could spend time and energy trying to fix my weakness of not knowing how to make delicious coffee drinks. But that won't create one cent of value for the firm. On the flip side, me aggressively leaning into my strengths creates hundreds of thousands of dollars of impact.
I encourage you to write out your strengths and weaknesses on a piece of paper; take an inventory. Second, see which ones you spend more time and energy on. Third, find ways to bridge the gap in your weaknesses to dive harder into your strengths. It can change everything!
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