Hey cultivators. Welcome back to my channel.
today I actually want to answer the question, what are your weaknesses?
Because you can anticipate this question coming up during the interview.
A lot of us are prepared to answer what our strengths are,
but we're not entirely sure how to answer what are our weaknesses without
shooting ourselves in the foot.
Now this is a kind of a tricky question because a lot of us have been taught to
share a weakness that's actually concealed as a strength.
And a lot of interviewers want to roll their eyes at this answer because it's
over rehearsed and it's not as authentic as what they really want to know.
So in this video today,
I'm actually going to break down why interviewers ask this question,
what is it that they truly want to hear?
And then we'll go over some examples along with a framework and a template that
you can use so that you can craft your very own response to this question.
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So let's dive in to the What are your weaknesses Question.
Now and want to share that every single human has weaknesses and flaws.
So we're really not looking for a strength here.
We're looking for a weakness that you can demonstrate you've worked on and or
are continuously working to improve.
The worst answer you can state in this question is, I don't have any weaknesses.
We all have weaknesses.
So in this video I'm really going to help you dive in and really extract what
are the weaknesses that are appropriate for you to share during this interview
question.
I actually had a client once who debriefed with me on her interview and she said
the interviewer literally asked her,
tell me about one of your weaknesses and don't give me one of those bs answers
that are concealed as a strength. I really want to know what is your weakness.
So that's what we're going to do here.
We're not going to say that we're a perfectionist or we tend to work too hard.
We're really going to give them what it is that they really want in this answer.
Okay, so what is considered a weakness then? Well,
a weakness is something that you're really working on improving.
You fallen short in the past a little bit.
You have a very specific situation or scenario that you can present to
illustrate this.
And then you can talk about what it is that you've done to combat this and what
is the ultimate result. And that's the most important thing here.
So in other words,
we're going to follow a very similar format to the behavioral questions such as
star, which is the paint, the situation, the task, and the action you took,
and what is the ultimate result that you walked away with because of your task
and your action. So in order to answer this, I like to rephrase the question,
"What are your weaknesses?" to tell me about a time that you personally grew or
positively grew because of a difficult situation that you had to encounter.
With that question in mind,
you can absolutely focus on one specific situation or scenario where you can
demonstrate and this very situational event or situation,
this is what I did and here's why this was a weakness,
but this is what I have been working on in order to move past this.
And here's the ultimate result. So again,
we're going to really follow this format and I'm going to break it down with a
couple of examples and then I'll give you your own template so that you can work
on your own. Here's an example,
so the situation might be in the past I've had difficulty voicing my opinion
when there were a lot of dominant voices in a meeting.
The task and the action that I took might sound like while I have always shied
away from the spotlight,
I've been working on being more assertive because I understand the importance of
sharing feedback and recommendations if it can benefit everyone. In fact,
in this past year I've really challenged myself and actually built up the
courage to start leaning in more into all of our team meetings.
In Our last meeting I shared my perspective on why we should consider a new
vendor based on some of the numbers I crunched.
My recommendation was actually well received and adopted because of speaking up.
We now have a new vendor who's more responsive and allows us to say $15,000
every quarter due to the new contract rates we negotiated.
As you can see from this example,
I painted a picture of a specific moment and time where I had a perceived
struggle,
It was that I am not as vocal about sharing my opinions when I'm in a really
large meeting or room. However,
I also backed it up with what I have done recently that have really demonstrated
my ability to work on this perceived weakness.
And that is I started to speak up more. My voice started to get heard,
and not only that, but my recommendations were actually accepted and adopted,
which has led into the ultimate result of saving the company $15,000 a quarter,
which is amazing, right?
And that's exactly what you want to share with your interviewer.
This is what I'm actively working on and here's what the benefits have been thus
far. All right, now it's your turn.
I want you to brainstorm the possible weaknesses that you have encountered
throughout your career history and really talk about what has allowed you to
move past that and what was the ultimate results of it.
So at the top of a piece of paper, be sure to write the question,
when did I positively grow from a lesser than ideal situation?
Now it's time to draw three columns. You can do them vertically.
And in the very first one, I want you to be able to describe the situation,
just one or two sentences,
what was happening that had triggered this perceived weakness of yours.
And then in the middle column,
go ahead and write down the task on the action that you have taken thus far to
really overcome this perceived weakness.
And then the results column should really talk about what is the ultimate result
that has stemmed from this action that I've been taking and I'm continuously
working on. And there you have it.
You have a weakness that you can now bring to the table to show this very one
specific situation, um,
to really illustrate what it is that you're actively improving upon.
And now it's time to put it all together.
So go ahead and follow along with the template I'm about to provide so that you
can come up with your very own weakness to present it during the interview.
In the past I've had difficulty blank.
So this is where you're going to insert your weakness or area for opportunity.
As an example,
in the past I've had a difficult time setting boundaries because I got a lot of
joy being that goto person for my clients.
Next we're gonna move into the task and the action.
So this might sound like while I blank. So insert,
how has this benefited you or others? I've been blank.
So what is the opposite of this weakness or is the opportunity,
because I understand and really talk about what your self awareness in this
opportunity identified as. That's why I,
and then what are the specific actions you took to improve as an example,
this might sound like, while I enjoy helping others,
I've been focused on being more balanced because they understand I'm only
reliable when I'm in good health and at my best physically. In fact,
in the past month,
I've really challenged myself and set up meetings with all of my clients to set
clear expectations of when they could hear back from me.
I also set up an internal protocol for emergency and urgent requests.
Then you want to insert your ultimate result, which is the big win.
So this might sound like my clients were all understanding and onboard with
these boundaries. Not only did we never miss any deadlines,
we continue to get high customer satisfaction and I feel more productive because
I'm more energized each day as I have achieved work life balance.
As you can see,
a weakness can actually strengthen your application when you can put it into
this behavioral,
situational answer or response and really demonstrate the ultimate tangible
results that has been transpired because of your ability to improve and
continuously work on this so-called weakness of yours. Most importantly,
you want to put this into a situational context so that they can really see this
as something that you have improved,
given a specific situation versus just identifying yourself as a characteristic
floss, such as, I am a perfectionist or I am inflexible.
You really want to demonstrate the time that you have been in a flexible,
but what you have done to improve upon that. And again,
the ultimate result that has stemmed from it.
Let me know in the comment box below, what is one of your weaknesses?
I'm curious to know, and if you found this video helpful, please like, comment,
share, subscribe, and until then continue to cultivate your career.
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