Fear Your Strengths

What You Are Best at Could Be Your Biggest Problem

Berrett-Koehler, 2013

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10 个要点速记

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Your greatest strengths can be your greatest weaknesses. Don’t overplay them.

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Most leadership books focus either on eliminating weaknesses or improving strengths. Leadership development experts Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser take a different approach. They teach leaders how to “dial back” their strengths so they don’t inadvertently sabotage their effectiveness. The authors’ research shows that overplaying strengths is a common leadership problem. Consider the talented, brilliant, articulate boss whose strong presence intimidates and overwhelms everyone in the room – so no one ever offers alternative ideas. With no objective sounding board, such a boss can endanger an organization by exercising his or her unfiltered, unfettered plans, as Jeffrey Skilling did at Enron. This eloquent, evocative book, which includes many compelling references and quotations, captures the corrupting nature of leaders overplaying a strength. getAbstract recommends this novel approach to aspiring leaders, students of leadership, and to thoughtful leaders with the foresight and courage to control their strengths and refocus their abilities.

Summary

Beware of Yourself

Sometimes, people can be their own worst enemies. Consider Ahab, the obsessed ship’s captain in Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby-Dick. Ahab has one mission in life: to capture and kill the great white whale he has been chasing. He will let nothing deter him from this task. Starbuck, the first mate, tells Ahab that their ship must stop for emergency repairs. Sensing that Moby Dick is near, Ahab refuses to listen.

Undeterred, the first mate presses Ahab to drop anchor so the crew can repair their injured vessel. Enraged, Ahab picks up a rifle and threatens to shoot Starbuck if he doesn’t follow orders. The mate stands his ground. “I ask thee not to beware of Starbuck,” he says. “Thou wouldst laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of thyself, old man.” The mate’s defiant words make a strong impression on Ahab, who changes his mind and orders the repairs. “Ahab beware of Ahab – there is something there!”

Jeffrey Skilling

“Beware of yourself” is an excellent warning for senior executives who let their strengths run amok and sabotage themselves to the point of destroying their careers and their companies. Consider Jeffrey ...

About the Authors

Robert B. Kaiser is president of Kaiser Leadership Solutions, a provider of assessment tools. Robert E. Kaplan is president of Kaplan DeVries Inc., a company that specializes in assessing leaders.

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T. M. 1 decade ago

I took the Strength Finder 2.0 assessment and found it very enlightening... It felt like I finally figured out my "super powers". This book is a very good supplement to it.

Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser