Eliminating the weakest link

The management practice of maximising an individual’s strengths and making their weaknesses irrelevant is rightfully becoming widespread these days.

However, this will only be successful if weaknesses are above a certain acceptable level. A person with a speaking difficulty or hearing impediment will not make a good telephone receptionist. Similarly, as discussed earlier, one’s strength must be useful, a competitive advantage and add value to the organisation.

Attention to the organisation’s areas of weakness is just as important.

Weaknesses in organisations, unlike in individuals, cannot be ignored. They can undermine the entire operation, its products, services or customer experience.

There is an important distinction between an individual’s weakness and the weakness of an organisation. Organisation’s weaknesses - be it a person or process - must be rectified as soon as possible, those of a particular individual can be minimised.

As an example, the experience of a patron at an event, des…