Talane’s Blog of the Week, October 10, 2006

I called one of my clients for her weekly coaching call this past week and found her in the midst of cleaning out the papers in her office. She had spent the day before getting rid of paper clutter. This was day two. She was irritable, cranky and frustrated—definitely not the cheerful, go-getter who normally answers the phone. She said she had to do this, it was long overdue, she was a grown-up and should be able to just do it. While I agreed it needed to be done, I asked if there were anyone to support her or help make the process less painful. (And painful it was. She was astounded to see, at the end of the day, clumps of her hair on the floor. She had, quite literally, been pulling her hair out!)

I pointed out that while yes, she was an adult, clearing out paperwork was not one of her strengths. She’ll never be good at it. She is a creative genius with uncanny spatial awareness. She has the ability to walk into a room and know exactly what piece of furniture should go where and an almost photographic memory to go with it. She can remember amazing visual details after only a few minutes and unerringly knows if the sofa she sees in a shop two weeks later will fit the room. Yet, she finds handling paper clutter and files an absolute torture. I told her, “You can only manage your weaknesses, you can’t really improve them.” This stuck with her. She was living under the delusion that, with the right technique or enough concentration or something, she would be able to do her filing herself. After all, she was an intelligent, well-educated, accomplished adult. I said yes, she could do it, but at great cost to her hair!

I used to live under the same delusion. I thought that if I could just find the right tip, the right technique, the right strategy, I’d somehow get good at managing my own paper piles. And believe me, I’ve looked and tried all sorts of tips. I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who use those strategies successfully are naturally organized to begin with! The truth is, handling paperwork and details is one of my big weaknesses. I’ll never be good at it. I just need to own up to it and get help. Oddly enough, it helps just to have someone in my office assigned to the task of making sure that I stay focused on clearing off my desk. Left to my own devices, I invariably get distracted and start doing something else. But, if I have a “baby sitter” here, she keeps me on task. Her job is to make sure I don’t pick up a piece of paper twice and that I work from the top of the pile down (as opposed to my normal strategy of culling through the stack for the interesting things to do!) What might take days on my own can be accomplished in a few hours when someone is here “helping” me.

My client brought in some help to keep her focused and sure enough, she didn’t end up with a pile of hair on the floor.

You are much better off focusing on developing your greatest strengths. In fact, there is a grave danger in trying to improve your weaknesses—you could be diminishing your strengths. The CEO who is a visionary and can see the future must not be burdened with minor details or she will lose the bigger picture. More often than not, our biggest weaknesses are just the flip side of our best strengths.

If you find yourself struggling with something for ten minutes, stop. Pick up the phone. Get help.

All the best,
Talane