Someone once gave me some wise advice. He said, “Jason, watch out for your strengths. It is your strengths that will trip you up and cause you problems more often than your weaknesses.” Over the years I have reflected on this advice and found it to be true more often than not. Strengths, improperly managed and not kept within appropriate boundaries and not used in a judicious fashion, can become abrasive, offensive, and counter productive. I have seen this in others as well.

Steve Jobs once said, “In most cases, strengths and weaknesses are two sides of the same coin… It’s a very subtle thing to talk about strengths and weaknesses because almost always they’re the same thing.” I think this is true. Watch out for your strengths. The way you deploy them could either benefit greatly, or harm permanently, the team around you.

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