Tag: character traits

I’m weak with weaknesses

Reading Time: 4 minutes

At a recent interview I was stumped by the common question about what I feel are my weaknesses. I knew it was a standard question, and did prepare for it at some stage, though when it was time to respond I almost drew a complete blank. The question followed in order from what I thought were my strengths. So perhaps I had not quite finished being in “beat my chest” mode.  Or perhaps the answer I thought I’d go with didn’t really resonate well enough.

When I’m nervous or feel awkward with a silence I often lead with a gag. I guess I was nervous or felt awkward, cause my first statement was along the lines of “I should give you my wife’s phone number, she can share a long list of my weaknesses”.  It’s not even true, though critical wife gags are quicker to devise than a thoughtful self-analysis.

There was a bit of a pause to give me time to think, and I did fumble through with an answer which seemed OK, though definitely not great.
So I realised, I was very weak at describing my weaknesses!

The benefit of things going less than ideal, it leads me to contemplate on a better answer.
I thought I’d get this down, and perhaps review it over time.

Perhaps posting such a topic to a blog with open comments is a way to crowd source better answers – or just trolling.

Most of the research suggests the question is used to test whether the candidate is self aware, and mature enough to realise short-comings, and whether they have made adjustments to become more effective.

I’ve certainly thought for long enough about my short-comings, and this is a good enough place to consider what adjustments to become better.

Ryan Brinkworth’s Weaknesses:

  • A perfectionist

For quite some time, mostly with my own work I’ve had a desire for things to be perfect.  My preference would be to work on things forever, to prevent passing it on for people to identify faults with it.  Being a perfectionist is apparently something I inherited from my father, and he inherited it from his father. Though, I’ve been intent on breaking with the tradition. I’ve seen value in getting stuff out there, and have even made it into a habit to share early drafts, to the point where I get a buzz with quantity of documents & revisions, rather than the quality.

I’ll still pick the eyes out of my work, and other things that have been handed to me.  Though I recognise, the value addition of a perfect piece of work is too low to warrant the amount of time it takes to make one.

  • Unorganised

In the past, such as my university days, I was tremendously poor at being organised.  It was a bit of  a curse how I could crunch many weeks effort into a single evening or two and still get through with flying colours.  Because I was such a gifted scrambler, it almost encouraged the behaviour of not staying on top of deadlines or where things were up to.  As I got older though, and the stakes become higher – such as having a family, I realised how stressful these situations are and that things would get missed.  It made me recognise the need to change significantly.

Many people talk about dull books that change their lives.  My eyes usually glaze over when I hear this.  For me, that one book did change my life in terms of my organisation was Getting Things Done by David Allen.  I’ve read many management and productivity books, think they’re useful, then very soon after I’d regularly, and quite happily ignore the advice.  The “GTD” system though, is something I can continue to use every day, since reading the book quite a few years ago.  Thanks to recognising that I was making things unnecessarily tough, and missing out on opportunities, I knew I could become far more organised with life and work.  And having a good system has really put far more focus on the proactive tasks, and reviews that I now enjoy.

So, while I managed to get by quite well without being organised.  I feel I am living life far better now because I’m staying on top of things thanks to a change in my behaviour and trusty processes I live each day.

  • Theoretical

Perhaps related to Weakness #1 about being a perfectionist, I have noticed I tend to prefer to base some of my decisions and actions on theories of what is right or wrong – in place of feelings, experience, or hearsay. In some respects, this is what university equipped me with as a strength.  However, in different roles and situations I’ve learned that this is not terribly useful at times.

Having a theoretical base is useful, as the thinking work and path to success is often done for you. Though, some audience or personality types are repelled by such assertions. I could argue why that’s the case, though it’s not useful here.

Regardless, I do see a purely theoretical approach as a weakness.  My career has always included some level of practice or experience, and over time I see I’m moving away from my ideals about what the best theory may be, and I’m often leading now with what I see are the practical and pragmatic approaches.  They will support a theory, but they’re not a theory alone.  That would be terribly weak.

 

This was the end of my initial list of thoughts, if I was able to answer the interview question over again.

It probably goes without saying I am still trying to perfect the response in my head.  Though please note, I have blogged my Weaknesses before it’s all perfect.  So I am certainly making progress.

 

I’m a Specialist Plant

Reading Time: 2 minutes

As part of our staff meeting we had a member of our Learning & Development department come along and take us through a behavioural assessment. The behaviour test was based on Belbin Team inventory, and it shows insights into what your preferred roles and least preferred roles are.

I have always been a cynic of these tests. They ask a few general questions which you could easily answer any different way. And then they provide a result which somehow magically describes all parts of your being. I’m smarter than that. I cannot be pidgeon-holed into a category, these tests miss so many considerations.

But the problem is, each time I do these tests they come back with the same result. The same pretty accurate result. I always come out of them thinking they have captured me pretty well.

The Belbin test identifies 10 Team Roles, which you are classified to – according to the statements that you relate most to.

The test found that I had two Team Roles I favour. One was the Plant role. Its typical profile is creative, unorthodox, serious minded, individualistic. It has some positive contributions of Genius, imaginative, intellectual, knowledgeable. They’re good at solving problems and generating ideas. However, they’re inclined to ignore practical details or protocol. A preference to break the rules came through in another test I did at the time of my Emirates interview – which initially concerned the organisational psychologist, but then he believed it could actually be a positive contribution at times. Another “allowable weakness” is they may be too pre-occupied to communicate effectively.

My other preferred team role was the Specialist. They’re typically Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated to their own field. An alleged positive is they provide knowledge and skills in rare supply. But their issue is they may only contribute on a narrow front, and can dwell on technicalities.

The test also provides insight into what your least favoured role is. My least favoured – unfortunately – the Implementer. These are conservative, disciplined, reliable, efficient and predictable. It’s a concern if I look at the antonyms of these words, as describing myself. Positives of this role are organising ability, practical common sense, hard working, self-disciplined. They turn ideas into practical actions. I guess it shows a disconnect with having a profile allegedly capable of Planting ideas.

In other behavioural tests I’ve done, this result was there also. I do see it as a weakness at times, but feel I use some good tools to help manage this. So while I may answer in ways that show I think I have better ideas than being practical, I feel I am usually on top of the tasks I must implement. But perhaps I think other people are better positioned to do it. Or more of a concern, maybe I think it’s somebody else’s job. I have ideas, but can’t bring myself to do the actual work to get them in.

When I first saw this trait coming in these tests, I promised to fix it. But it’s still coming up again four years later. Maybe it’s the same as being an alcoholic. Before you can resolve the problem, you first must admit you have a problem.

Is there something wrong with my son?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

My four year old son is interesting to say the least.

With tongue in cheek, I have to ask.  Is he normal?

I know a lot of kids of the same age, but my son’s certainly different.

In a country where you see a large representation of the most flash cars on earth, he’s most interested in seeing a VW (“Herbie car”), or a mini (“Mr Bean’s car”).

While most of his friends back home ran around bare footed, we have to battle with him to take off his shiny “work boots”.

With such a huge variety of kids clothes bearing the latest cartoon movie motifs, he wants nothing but plain coloured apparel.

And in regard to simply wearing clothes in general, we know more than a few kids who don’t like getting dressed at all. Yet Myles selects his own clothes early each morning, and quite often wants to wear a neck tie as well – even if it’s one he’s made himself from drawing on a piece of cut-out paper.

I guess the conclusion is simple. He’s definitely not normal. He’s hilarious and fantastic.