“Until you truly know yourself,

strengths and weaknesses, know what you

want to do and why you want to do it,
you cannot succeed in any but the most
superficial sense of the word.” –
James Kouzes, Barry Posner, Credibility: How Leaders
Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It
Lesson 2 Discovering Self
In this lesson, you will learn about your strengths and weaknesses and what you value or
what is important to you. by completing a value exercise and What Do You Value assign-
ment, and how your values, as well as your strengths and weaknesses, contributed to your
personal plan for success.

Understanding yourself and how your indi-

vidual strengths and weaknesses impacts the
entire organization is one of the most import-
ant things you can learn. Why is understand-
ing your strengths and weaknesses so critical?
Based on the example of John in the opening
scenario, if the general manager could have
seen, not only John’s strengths, but also his
weaknesses, he may have made a different
decision about where John could function
best within the team and contribute most to
the team. It is important as a team member
to know where you can best contribute to the
team and that requires a knowledge of your

J ohn joined your team a couple of months

ago. He is a very talented in sales which
is one of his strengths and he builds strong
strengths and your weaknesses.
Although you may just be one person, one
person can make a difference and have either
a positive or negative impact on your team,
relationships with his clients. Due to these
your manager and, ultimately your guests. Like
strengths, the general manager decides to pro-
most industries, in the hospitality and tourism
mote John to team leader for your team. How-
industry, you are constantly working in teams.
ever, within a month, the team is in trouble.
You need to be able to work together towards a
John’s strengths with making deals and working
shared goal by leveraging your strengths and the
with clients have not transferred to managing
strengths of others in your team. We’ll explore
a team. He is very critical and impatient with
team dynamics in greater detail later in the
the team and does not communicate clearly his
course, but this section is focused on learning
expectations to his team members. The gen-
about your strengths and weaknesses so that
eral manager realizes where he went wrong.
you can be, not only the best individual within
He only saw John’s strengths and ignoring his
the team, but you can also be a team player who
weaknesses.
contributes the most to the team.