Blind Strengths: Unlock Your Expertise

Strengths, Weaknesses and Hidden Talents

I’ve had another thought in the series I’ve been writing around working in your strengths, overcoming your weaknesses and exposing your hidden talents. In particular, we spoke about our hidden talents… the things we do that we don’t share with others. I think there’s another group of strengths that are similar to our hidden talents with a twist – your blind strengths.

What a Client Said Today

The past couple of days I’ve been working closely with a client. We’ve been re-designing her brand and market position and upgrading her website.

The funny thing was that I was feeling tired and rundown today. Not enough good quality sleep lately. Plus, my body is still coming to grips with my switch to a full-time Paleo diet. Anyway, I don’t function as well with less sleep. I suppose that’s true for all of us. In particular, I become impatient and I let too many little things annoy me.

We did some really good work today. And, at the end of it, the client really thanked me for… my patience. This came as a real surprise to me. I didn’t feel very patient at all today. That’s me when I’m tired.

Blind Strengths

This sparked an idea for me…

• We have our strengths that we know about and use.
• We have our hidden talents that we know about and hide.
• And, we also have Blind Strengths – the ones that we don’t know we have or don’t value.

The Experts Path

If I looked back at my path to becoming an expert, it was built on my blind strengths. For a long while I just didn’t realise what I did brilliantly and how it could be turned into a business. For a number of years, I had people who simply took me out for lunch so they could pick my brain. At the time I thought this was a great deal… I just talked and someone else paid for me to eat.

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Finding Your Expertise

The best way to find and define your expertise is to go out and do your stuff. Work with people, do the best you can and then listen. Listen for what people say. This is the access point to your blind strengths and perhaps, the core to your expertise and ultimately the core to your brand and your business.