How to Overcome Your Strengths

Four years ago, Sharon Mass landed her dream job: director of case management for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. Talented and highly driven, Mass impressed her boss with her performance right from the start. Her coworkers, however, were not so pleased. Mass, 54, expected everyone to be as smart and as hard-working as she was, so she didn't realize that others found her intimidating. But she soon found out -- when a couple of people complained about her to the hospital's human-resources department.

Hoping to improve the situation, Mass decided to speak with Lois P. Frankel, a business coach and senior partner at Corporate Coaching International, based in Los Angeles. In her 12 years of counseling, Frankel has worked with lots of people like Sharon Mass: talented fast-trackers who don't understand that the skills that enabled them to succeed early on can backfire -- and knock them off their career path.

You've probably met these people in your own workplace (you may even be one yourself): the perfectionist team leader who won't delegate, the detail-obsessed finance wiz who can't see the big picture, the supergeek who alienates everyone. Last year, Frankel published a book about why such people fail: "Jump-Start Your Career: How the 'Strengths' That Got You Where You Are Today Can Hold You Back Tomorrow" (Three Rivers Press, 1998).

"What happens," says Frankel, "is that people rely too heavily on the skills that contributed to their early success. As a result, they fail to develop new skills. When the going gets tough, they revert to the same old tactics -- and then wonder why those tactics don't work. Well, they don't work because what these people need is a complementary skill set."

Because change is a constant in business, chances are good that one day you'll have to face down your own strengths. When that day arrives, think about the three people profiled below: successful businesspeople who faltered but then found ways to turn their missteps into new kinds of success.

Heavyweight: Charles Martin
Company: Fox Family Channel
Strengths: A supreme networker and relationship builder

No doubt about it: Charles Martin is a nice guy. He's thoughtful and charming -- a mentor who excels at developing people. That skill had served the 51-year-old executive well, accelerating his rise at Fox Family Channel, where he had become VP of human resources and administration.

But as he ascended the company's corporate ladder -- where senior positions are few and competition for them is fierce -- Martin found that being nice was a liability. Managers made salary and hiring decisions without consulting him first, figuring that he would be easy to bully afterward. Whenever he disagreed with someone, almost inevitably he was the one who backed down, fearful of damaging a relationship that he had worked so hard to build.

Martin had concentrated too much on helping others and too little on helping himself. And now his career had stalled: He had gone three years without a promotion. "I realized that I had really missed out on something -- that I deserved to be among the company's decision makers. Being passed over for senior VP made me feel excluded."

He thought about how his strengths had caused him to stumble. Because of his desire to maintain good relationships, he had avoided challenging people at all costs. He hadn't pushed his staff to perform better; he hadn't stood up to senior executives.

Martin's fears were confirmed when Lois Frankel conducted a feedback survey of his staffers: They said that Martin was too passive, that he wasn't a take-charge leader. Because he didn't seem to believe in himself, they didn't believe in him either. "People were taking me for granted," he says.

Frankel set out to help Martin put some swagger in his step. "She taught me that before I have a difficult conversation with someone -- to hash out a disagreement, for instance -- I should rehearse what I want to say. That helps me to create a game plan and to keep the conversation on track."

Frankel's technique -- consider it a self-administered pep talk -- also gave Martin the confidence to tell people what he really thought, rather than what he thought they wanted to hear. "I didn't win every argument. But people started to respect my point of view: They listened to me." Fighting for something that you believe in and losing, Martin now realizes, is better than never having fought at all. In fact, his new approach helped him ask for and win a promotion to senior VP.

"Being accommodating helps you build relationships early in your career, and that's important," Martin concludes. "But it's rough-and-tumble at the top of any organization. If you don't watch out, you can wind up being someone's doormat."

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