Elevating Your Weakest Point

In golf they often say, the best players elevate their weakest point.

For some it is making sure they drive the ball in the right spot on the fairway, for others it’s getting the ball up and down from around the green, for others it’s hitting the back of the cup consistently from three feet out. 

Whatever it is, working on it and consistently improving it will elevate it and lower your score. So, is it the same with your leadership? Great question!

About nine months into the pandemic, say around January of 2021, something very interesting happened to a client of mine. All of a sudden, he was challenged to pay attention to the details he was accustomed to managing. It was almost like he didn’t care about them anymore. Yet, he is a very caring individual, the core of who he is hasn’t changed. So, what’s up?

As we talked it through, he shared a few stories of how some of these details were catching up with him…he hadn't forgot about them. It was just that his focus was somewhere else. It was on growing the company, thinking about the revenue that was a year or two off, who his new customers will be, and the future value of the company he led. 

That seemed like a good thing to me.

I asked, ‘So, why are you caring about those details, this new set sounds pretty important? He pondered that and retorted, ‘because that is what people are familiar with me caring about and taking care of’ And? I asked.

‘Well, they will be disappointed in me. They might be thinking that I don’t care about those details anymore’, he said. 'I need to focus on those details too.'

Insert…I need to elevate my weakest point. Seriously?

Every single person, every single one, needs to figure themselves out before they figure out the rest of the world, let alone the organizations they support, serve, or lead. My client was changing and he was in the process of figuring out his new leadership gear. When you walk alongside a leader, it doesn't get any more exciting than this!

Back to learning about his ‘weakest point.’ Sometimes, our weakest point is not what you think it might be. For my friend, he thought it was about not focusing on (or caring about) a certain type of detail. It turned out to be something, very … very different.

He was worried about what people were thinking about him. He thought they might question the decisions he was making, where he was spending his time, and what he was focusing on. Something to elevate that was very different than what he thought he needed to elevate. 

Now we are getting somewhere. 

At Design Group International we often talk about listening to clients and how to do it really, really well. It is by listening to our clients that we are able to partner with them to co-create help that serves their learning. 

Now that is something worth focusing on.

If you would like to talk about what you would like to elevate, please feel free to schedule a high-value 30-minute discovery call with me. I'd be honored to listen.

As always, please feel free to call me at 616.516.9870 or email me at lons@designgroupintl.com.

Walking alongside you,

Lon L. Swartzentruber
CEO, Design Group International
Senior Design Partner