Strengths Campus

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A new favorite metaphor

Ok- simile, metaphor, analogy- whatever the proper terminology - I like this way of helping people understand the importance of focusing on strengths rather than just needling away at weaknesses. We're like sailboats. Boats with holes. Boats with holes but also with BIG awesome sails. If the holes in the boat are our weaknesses, we definitely need to address them or we'll sink, right? We need to patch them up or we're going to end up on the bottom of the ocean. BUT! If we don't pay attention to our big bad ass sails (our strengths); if we don't hoist them, trim them, pay a lot of attention to how the wind is hitting them - well, we won't go anywhere interesting at all. If all you do is patch the holes, you'll stay afloat but drift aimlessly and likely hit the shore at some point. Ouch. The most important things on a SAILboat are the blinking sails. I'm not sure why this happens but have you sailors also noticed that if the boat is going fast enough, the water actually goes out the holes and the holes become a non-issue? That's the coolest thing. If your strengths are really amazing, the weaknesses become a non-issue. S'truth.

So- what are you doing about your sails? Are they even raised? Have you even taken them out of the sailbag? Or are you too busy patching up a tiny little hole?

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Comment by Albert J. Glennon on February 9, 2012 at 1:27pm
This metaphor could illustrate that, at times, our weaknesses become our headwinds.
Al
Comment by Craig Trombly - Moderator on February 9, 2012 at 12:57pm

Tracy,

I just saw this and I love it; what a great analogy!  Thanks.

Craig

Comment by Albert J. Glennon on January 11, 2012 at 11:37am

We need a strong wind to sail forward. This may come from leveraging team strengths as opposed to focusing on individuals' weaknesses.

Comment by EE Mong Lan on January 10, 2012 at 10:38pm

Great Metaphor! love it!

Comment by Ganesh Ramakrishnan on December 29, 2011 at 3:47am

This metaphor is excellent and conveys a dynamic image of moving on the strengths path without obsessing with weakness fixing.

One analogy I use to bring out the concept behind the statement, "Opposite of weakness is not strength" is as follows.

Suppose you buy a plot of land on the outskirts of a city, planning to build a modern office complex. The building when completed represents attaining excellence/strength. A civil engineer friend points out that the land is not ready for construction, it is uneven and contains many holes. So you fill them up with suitable cement concrete. But unknown to you your friend has an evil streak. He shows up now with a magnifying glass and points out hundreds of small holes that are still not filled. You can stretch the story depending on time and taste but the key point is this: one can keep identifying tinier holes and keep filling them (fixing weaknesses) but that activity by itself contributes nothing to get the building up (excellence). For that one needs to perform a different set of activities such as appointing an architect, making a blueprint, procuring steel and cement and so on. Sure, if there are big holes and the foundation of the building needs a level land first, do whatever it takes to get the holes filled but after that focus more on strengths building. As the famous statement says, fixing weaknesses may be necessary but fixing weakness is damage control, and damage control is not the path to excellence.

Comment by Ter Encio on August 14, 2011 at 7:39pm

This is awesome- excellent metaphor (or whatever u want to call it:).

Did you find this somewhere or create it yourself? i would like to use it...it is very good and really makes the point clearly. love it.

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