In high-performing teams, embracing weakness is important to team success. If everyone thinks they’re a star performer, then no one will be vulnerable in assessing their abilities.

True strength is in accepting facts and asking for help to compensate for weakness.

None of us are strong in every ability and skill needed to get work done. In fact, teams are created to bridge gaps in knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that one person can’t bridge!

This is a hard concept for top performers to grasp. In both the military and business, more teams succeed than soloists in complicated and complex work. This fact does not diminish individual effort. It does highlight the need for cross-functional work.

A struggle teams have is getting out of denial about weakness. That’s why people fail at recovery programs. Separately, teams fail at achieving high performance for the same reason, denial.

How To Begin Embracing Weakness

The following list is “thought food” and it is not comprehensive. It is a starting point for transparent conversation and a driver for outcomes.

• Firstly, get out of denial. Confront reality and add up team strengths and weaknesses.
• Secondly, start planning ways to minimize or narrow gaps.
• Thirdly, ask for outside assistance if the team’s weaknesses can’t be narrowed by the team.
• Fourthly, find and remove work that the team can’t be completed by the current members.
• Fifthly, communicate success and note learning. Do this early and often around finished work. Communication includes stakeholders, customers, and clients.
• Finally, celebrate success, build on strengths, and shore up weaknesses through continuous reflection and improvement.

Make sure every team member is heard. Often the quietest people have the powerful ideas and an ability to find gaps.

Focus on listening to what is said and what is left unspoken. Be a detective, look for clues, because weaknesses change over time.

Remember to have fun! The joy is in the journey, not the destination.