In a coach approach the focus is on maximizing strengths rather than correcting weaknesses. This doesn’t mean that I encourage clients to ignore their weaknesses. To the contrary, self awareness includes knowing what you don’t do well so you aren't sabotaged by these things.

Here are four strategies for minimizing weaknesses:

Make it safe to talk about them. In many organizations the biggest obstacle to a strength-based approach is that it can be a career killer to be honest about what you don't do well. Our focus on individual achievement creates the myth that a manager or executive needs to be good at everything. By making it safe for people to talk about both strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to design work to allow each person to work at their best.

Trump a weakness with a strength. At the risk of repeating myself, the first step to minimizing weaknesses still lies in your strengths.The more you focus on weaknesses, both yours and your teams, the more disengaged and ineffective you and they become. If you are terrible at details, the worst thing you can do is view your in-box as a million little details that you are terrible at addressing. Instead, find the strength you can use to manage your in-box effectively. You may have a strength for completing things or perhaps you are good at prioritize. When you approach the task from this frame you will feel much more empowered to do the job well.

Select team members with complementary strengths. If you are a great strategist but people skills aren’t your forte, than make sure you have someone on your team who is good at building and sustaining relationships.

Develop new skills. Just because you are an extrovert and do your best thinking by talking out loud, doesn’t mean you can’t also develop the skills of a good listener. The executives that I work with who have the greatest influence in their organizations not only know how to exploit their strengths, but consistently look for ways to round out their leadership tool kit.