Are you aware your individual power? What about your weaknesses?
One enterprise administration and management idea suggests that individuals and groups will obtain extra success by constructing on their strengths than by making an attempt to repair their weaknesses.
The speculation doesn’t imply it’s best to ignore weaknesses. As an alternative, it suggests it’s best to make investments deeply in abilities and strengths and decrease the consequences of any weaknesses. (You may learn extra about it within the ebook Strengths Based mostly Management, primarily based on the Gallup group’s 30-year analysis challenge.
I’m all in on this concept. I’ve seen this concept work for content material groups that obtain success over the long run. However the selection isn’t at all times clear.
Ought to #ContentMarketing groups double down on their strengths? Or attempt to repair their weaknesses? It’s not a simple selection, says @Robert_Rose through @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
Strengths vs. weaknesses
A brand new content material advertising technique brings folks collectively underneath new charters, with new processes, tasks, and applied sciences. Folks name this strategy of getting everybody prepared for the brand new scenario “change administration.”
However, if we’re trustworthy, it’s actually “new administration.” None of these things has been achieved earlier than.
One of many first issues I like to recommend to shoppers on this scenario is to do a abilities audit. A abilities audit finds areas of power in addition to gaps the place further coaching, outsourcing, or new hires is perhaps wanted.
I’ve seen many corporations make the identical mistake after the talents audit: They double down on shoring up perceived (or precise) weaknesses.
However that strategy instantly builds a steep mountain to climb. Content material groups grappling with all of the “new” could really feel demoralized in the event that they must rent and prepare new in-house or outsourced workers on the similar time.
But many specialists argue that focusing solely on strengths has its pitfalls. A number of years in the past, a Harvard Enterprise Evaluate podcast advised that “so many weaknesses are overdeveloped strengths.”
For instance, amplifying a politically astute group chief’s strengths can create a manipulative boss. Specializing in the velocity or creativity of the in-house design group can result in a group that’s overworked and thought of idiosyncratic of their strategy or out of contact with enterprise realities.
Deciding whether or not to concentrate on the strengths or weaknesses uncovered in a abilities audit jogs my memory of the aphorism often attributed to statistician George Field: “All fashions are unsuitable, however some are helpful.”
There are not any straightforward solutions.
Which strengths and which weaknesses matter extra
In a manner, it’s a false selection. Understanding which strengths and weaknesses matter essentially the most tends to supply the most effective outcomes. You may’t assess which strengths or weaknesses to concentrate on till you perceive which strengths and weaknesses have an effect on your operation’s likelihood of success essentially the most.
For instance, corporations constructing content material groups usually ask me, “Ought to we rent subject material specialists with deep data about our providers and trade or nice writers who can study our enterprise over time?”
The reply to that query is sure.
Ought to #Content material groups rent SMEs who know the trade or nice writers who can study? Sure, says @Robert Rose through @CMIContent. Click on To Tweet
Each approaches are equally essential – till you determine which is able to affect the group’s targets extra. When you determine which is extra essential, you possibly can concentrate on enhancing the strengths of the strategy you’ve chosen.
I’ve seen this first-hand in two conditions.
The primary concerned a brand new content material group at a big Fortune 100 firm. After conducting a abilities audit, they recognized their strengths: creativity and journalistic storytelling. In addition they uncovered some perceived weaknesses: sales-enablement content material and advertising measurement.
As a brand new group, additionally they understood that the enterprise positioned a excessive worth on the flexibility to feed nice content material to gross sales and supply analytics to indicate the content material’s effectiveness. A key piece of the group’s enterprise case was centralizing content material and making it an inner power. So, their impulse was to shore up their gross sales content material and analytics weaknesses.
To take action, the content material group took over these areas from their outsourced company. They had been positive they might “determine it out.”
However they didn’t. And the group’s repute as a powerful editorial group additionally took a success as they tried to steadiness their strengths with the shortage of selling and analytical potential. When the enterprise pivoted, they let the editorial group go. They weren’t thought of able to taking over the mandatory advertising analytics.
Would they’ve survived in the event that they’d let the company deal with their weak areas and continued to excel at editorial or constructed a phased partnership with the company to handle the talents wanted for gross sales enablement and measurement?
I believe so.
Within the second scenario, a expertise firm I work with had been rising and molding its content material group for a number of years. They keep an acute consciousness of their group’s strengths and weaknesses. Extra importantly, the group chief has created transparency and understanding of their ongoing steadiness all through the enterprise.
At first, they centered on highlighting their strengths as a content material advertising group (creativity, trade thought management, and structuring content material for translation and reuse). They didn’t initially tackle sales-oriented content material – they left it to the demand technology group.
Finally, they partnered with the demand-gen group, which continued to create nice advertising content material. The content material group helped them develop requirements and playbooks to facilitate translation and repackaging for a number of channels.
Years in, this mannequin works very effectively for them.
It’s a refined however vital distinction. The primary group thought its job was to excel at content material, and it centered on fixing the group’s weaknesses to make {that a} actuality. The second group realized its job was to make the enterprise good at content material, and it centered on its strengths to make {that a} actuality.
The usefulness of any content material abilities audit lies within the potential to align the group’s core strengths to the priorities and abilities of the enterprise.
Over time, in case you can hold this consciousness, your group’s weaknesses can turn out to be its biggest power.
It’s your story. Inform it effectively.
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Cowl picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content material Advertising and marketing Institute
