Overcoming Your Weaknesses As A Community Leader

Everyone has weaknesses.

You might be so accustomed to yours that you a) don’t either notice them or b) deny they are weaknesses.

Here’s some common ones to look out for:

Does the community leader come off as cold and uncaring?
Does the community leader seem reluctant to give praise?
Does the community leader get defensive at every possible perceived slight?
Does the community leader focus on the one aspect of the community they’re good at?
Does the community leader not consistently check in on how top members are doing?
Does the community leader struggle to build authentic relationships?
Does the community leader focus on what’s exciting rather than what’s strategic?
Does the community leader spend too much time making a few members happy?
Does the community leader not engage with passion and empathy in every interaction?
Does the community leader seem to lack confidence when talking about the community to colleagues and senior executives?
Does the community leader seem reluctant to host events, webinars, or public talks before community members?
Does the community leader spend too much time planning and too little time engaging directly with members?

Sometimes a little mentoring and training can overcome these weaknesses.

Other times they’re more chronic character traits. For example, if you didn’t receive much praise as a child or always felt in competition with a sibling for attention, you might be reluctant to give praise and feel you need to ‘win’ an argument against members. These probably need a trained therapist (p.s. there’s no shame in working with a therapist to rectify these weaknesses).

A useful task this week might be to identify your weaknesses. Get feedback from your colleagues or members if you like. It’s a lot easier to overcome them once they’ve identified them.