Knowing your strengths and weaknesses

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Terence from Radical Marketing. So recently I joined Strategic Coach by Dan Sullivan, which
is one of the top coaching companies in the world and with a very, very proven track record of
coaching small businesses like mine.

Now, here’s the thing. One of the first things you need to do
when you join a program is to actually discover your strengths by doing certain tests. So I think this is
so important because as I grow older, I realize there are certain limits to my energy every single day.
So I could do maybe four or five things really, really good every day, but after that, my energy levels
drop, right? And I don’t have the same level of energy to actually do all those things, like 10 different
tasks in a day.

So if I want to do like two, three, four tasks really, really well with my energy, that is
possible. But, you know, sometimes as entrepreneurs, we realize that, hey, you’re doing certain
tasks and you’re like finding it really, really difficult. And that’s probably because you’re not matching
your strengths to the tasks. And that’s why the strength tests, personality strength tests are so
important to discover your strengths. And as I have discovered mine, I will actually dive in to share
some of the results with you and how to apply it. And maybe you want to do these tests as well. So
let’s hop on in a minute and I will show you my test results and how I am going to utilize it as well.

Okay, so I’m going to skip straight to the results. And this is the Kolbe A test, right? So as you can see,
this is the overall result, is that I’m terrific when juggling rapidly changing priorities. You’re known for
taking risks that are grounded in practical realities. You don’t mess around with what has always
been done, but you temper your trial and error approach by strategizing options. So as you can see,
some of my strengths here, I am a fact finder, which means I don’t just dive into things without doing
any research. So I actually go and do some research to fact find before I dive into any projects or any
marketing campaigns.

So that gives me a very good balance, right? And the other thing is I do
actually follow through on things, right? So if I start something, I have the ability to follow through
and make sure that everybody in my team actually follows through on a certain project, which is also
a good trait. Now, everybody has different strengths, right? So what we want to do here is to find
your own unique strength that you know you’re strong at and those that you’re not strong at, you
can delegate it or at least you don’t do it or outsource it or something, right? Or automate it so that
you’re not spending energy on those things that are not condusive or not aligned with your personal
strengths.

Okay, so the third thing is I’m a quick starter, all right? So if I have an idea, I generally,
once I find all the facts, I determine it’s really good, I will quickly start the project, okay? So I’m
strong at that and I’m also a implementer, which is also good. So everybody, again, once again, has
perfect strength, says you got perfect score, but everybody has a perfect score, right? That is unique
to you, okay? So these are the things that I know I’m strong at, right? So I know that, okay, for
example, what are my weaknesses and how my team can complement me with my weaknesses,
right? So say, for example, right, I am maybe great at follow through, right?

But I may not be so good
at other things within this spectrum, okay? And I may be a good implementer, but I may not be a
good thinker, for example, right? So here are certain things that you need to discover what your
strengths are and what your team’s strengths are so that you can complement each other that way,
okay? And the other cool thing about Kolbe A, I won’t go through all the results here because I just
want to give you a brief overview, is that your time and energy, right? You can’t get your time back
once its use is gone, but energy can be renewed, right? So this is where it tells me where I should be
spending most of my strengths, most of my energy in my business, okay? So I should be spending
half of my energies to innovate.

So if I’m not spending half my energy innovating in my business, that
means I’m spending time and energy in the wrong place. So this is so important for me because
recently what we’ve implemented in my business is that we have quarterly special projects, right?
And each of these projects really excite me. Like, for example, developing an AI chatbot, right?

That really excites me, okay? Even though I don’t do it myself, don’t implement it myself, I am getting
team members with different strengths to implement it, but I am conceptualizing it and I am
creating the ideas of what kind of things we need to innovate and I do the research as well, okay? So
this is where I should be spending most of my strengths. And the other good thing is that explain, I
should be spending a third of my time explaining, which is good because I’ve got team.

That means I
should be spending a third of my time explaining things to them so that they can also understand
and come along with the journey. Otherwise, I’ll just keep innovating myself and they keep doing
their own thing and we’re not coordinated. So I think that explaining thing, I should also be spending
more time on that. In fact, I should be spending a third of my time doing the explaining and
elaborating to my team. So I think these are so important, envisioning also 10%, adapting 11%. So
yeah, just by understanding this, I can kind of understand where I should be spending my time and if
I’m spending my time in the wrong place, then I need to recalibrate and so that I am spending my
energies and my time in the right things, okay?

 So, and when you join a strategic coach, one of the
things that they teach you is that you need to make sure that all your team members are working
with their strengths as well. So every one of your team members will have different ways of
suggestions where they should be spending their energy. And if everybody in your team is spending
the energy the right way, utilizing their strengths, that means you have a very efficient company or
organization and that’s how you can grow many fold with the same team, okay? So that is the whole
concept there and that’s why this is so important to know where you should be spending your
energy.

All right, the second test that I did was by Gallup, which is called CliftonStrengths. So Gallup
poll does a lot of, you know, polls. If so, you’ve seen, might have seen some of the surveys around.
So CliftonStrengths is one of the things that they’ve developed and they have actually made it a
strength test and I think over 2 million people have done it, so it’s pretty accurate. And after doing
this test, this is my result, right? It actually categorizes you into 34 different strengths and ranks it
based on your test results. So as you can see here, these are my top 5 results. Number one, which is
futuristic.

Secondly, strategic. Third, learner. Four, achiever. And five, significance. So once you get your report,
you’ll be able to scroll down and see what are your strengths here. So futuristic, so you are inspired
by the future and what it could be. You energize others with visions of your future. And I think this
totally matches what I do, right? Whenever a new project comes out, I can envision the project from
start to finish, what we need to achieve and how we can actually succeed from it. And similarly with
my business, okay? I envision it and then I explain it to my team so that they can implement it, right?
So having this futuristic strength is so good. And in fact, yeah, I really enjoy like futurizing things,
even futurizing my own self, right?

So yeah, and this is very cool here because it describes me
exactly. It’s very likely that you sharpen your ideas about the future by spending time with possibility
thinkers. And yeah, I totally get so juiced when I am in room with other entrepreneurs who are also
discussing future, envisioning their plans, visionizing what’s possible for their business. That really
juices me in discussing that, right? So that’s really cool. So that’s one thing I’ll just briefly cover.
Second, strategic, right?

 So here again, it’s, once again, it tells me I can actually come up with
alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any scenario, you can quickly spot the patterns and issues,
which is true, right? Which is why things don’t phase me much when I encounter a problem. Yeah, I
might get a little bit shocked for a while, but I can quickly come up with ideas to counteract that
particular setback, right?

So strategic, so it’s a good combination having, for me, having that
futuristic and strategic thing. Now, here’s the thing. If you do not, once again, if, say for example, I’m
strong at the future, but I’m not strong at strategic, then I need to find someone who can help me
develop strategies that help us get to that future that I envision. Good thing about me is I can do both, but certain people may be very futuristic, but they’re not strategic, right? And yeah, so that’s the thing that I want to share there.

And I’m a learner as well, so I enjoy learning. I love learning. In fact, some days, if I do not read a book or I do not do a course online, I actually feel like there’s something missing about me, and I feel lousy, actually, right? So having this extra strength is also pretty good. And just quickly, I’m an achiever, which means I can
work hard and just push things to completion. And finally, significance, and so I want to make a big
impact and independent. And yeah, so I think these are the five things that are my strengths, and I
just want to share this with you because you will have your own strengths, and you need to find
partners and team members that can complement your strengths.

So for example, for me, my
weakness is that I have all this planning, futurizing things. I can deal with AI changes, all that kind of
stuff. In fact, I embrace it, but I’m not a very good implementer, like doer kind of thing, right? That’s
why I need team members to help me to do things, and I don’t have strong attention to detail. So
you can see down here is your, and maybe I’m not the best people person as well, right? So a lot of the relationship building stuff, it’s not in my top 10.

Actually, it’s connectedness, positivity, all this stuff, it’s not in my top 10. So I have the tendency to
actually maybe get people on the wrong side as a result. So I need to be aware of this, and first of all,
being aware does help. Secondly, if I have a person that can help with this side of things, right, who
can take my ideas and stuff, and also help communicate, not just communicate, but actually get
galvanized team together that would also help a lot as well.

So yeah, these are the things that you need to basically understand, and for me, I need to understand these so that I can identify where are my strengths, double down on my strengths, spend more time on my strengths, and outsource the rest of the stuff so that I’m not doing the stuff that takes energy from me and I’m not really good at.

All right, so yeah, those are basically what I derive from these two different tests. I hope this gave
you some insights, and yeah, I’m really excited because this gives me validation as to what I should
be spending my time and energy on, and from there, doubling down, and I know I can achieve
greater results for my business because of this.

So maybe you want to take it too, and if you do, please share your results, and I’ll see you in the next
video.