Unconventional Personality Test -- When Your Greatest Strength Becomes Your Greatest Weakness

Have you ever allowed a personality strength to become a weakness? What did you learn? Are their any insights you want to add to our unconventional personality test?
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If you've taken a personality test, you've likely learned a lot about your strengths. But did you know your greatest personality strength, taken to an extreme, becomes a weakness? For instance, when these four personality types are taken to the extreme, notice how their primary strength becomes a weakness:

  • A driven and results-oriented personality, taken to an extreme, becomes a jerk who walks all over people.
  • An outgoing and expressive personality, taken to an extreme, becomes a flake who can't get anything done.
  • A laid back and easygoing personality, taken to an extreme, becomes a wimp who allows people to walk all over him or her.
  • A detailed and precise personality, taken to an extreme, becomes a control freak.

An Unconventional Personality Test

One of my personality strengths recently turned into a weakness, and believe me, the experience was no picnic. To help you avoid the same kind of pain I inflected upon myself, here's an unconventional personality test you can take. It's not really a personality test, but rather a unique set of insights I gained through my experience. These insights will help you avoid the pitfall of seeing your greatest strengths turn into greatest weaknesses.

Insight #1: It's hard to recognize when a personality strength hits the weakness tipping-point. This means your strength-turned-weakness is often your greatest blind spot as well.

Insight #2: The tendency for a strength to become a weakness is much more likely to happen when things are going well. In other words, when life is good, beware of becoming prideful. Pride is a root cause of personality strengths turning into weaknesses.

Insight #3: When someone you respect tries to explain to you that one of your strengths is becoming a weakness, don't blow him or her off. Listen!

Insight #4: Don't give your best to your clients and customers only to leave your leftovers for the people who deserve your best, like your family and closest friends. Those we love most are often the ones who end up having to deal with the negative repercussions of our strengths becoming weaknesses.

Insight #5: Hurting someone hurts that someone, even if you do it unintentionally. When this happens, forget about who's right or wrong. Instead, be quick to ask forgiveness for what you did. Apply Stephen Covey's fifth habit: Seek first to understand, then to be understood.

Questions: Have you ever allowed a personality strength to become a weakness? What did you learn? Are their any insights you want to add to our unconventional personality test?

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