Boldness as an Overused Strength

My own story

The Role of Boldness in My Career Journey

Boldness (or courage) has always been one of my greatest strengths. Throughout my career, this underlying talent has enabled me to challenge the status quo and speak out honestly in the pursuit of progress, both in corporate settings and as an entrepreneur. In 2005, boldness inspired me to start my first venture: a pioneering positive leadership and online strengths assessment business. At the time, this approach was still nascent and not widely regarded as a scientific method for talent management and people development. Today, it is a cornerstone of progressive organizations’ talent strategies. However, influencing this change in the early years required resilience, perseverance, patience, and above all, the courage to challenge the prevailing weakness-based assumptions about people management and development.

Early Experiences with Boldness and Lessons Learned

My boldness can be traced back to my childhood when I regularly challenged parents, teachers, and other authority figures whenever something seemed unfair or illogical. However, in my early years, this boldness was often used clumsily, leading to unintended negative outcomes…and numerous canings from teachers (yep, those were the days when corporal punishment was permitted). I vividly recall a moment in my mid-20s when I carelessly challenged an executive at a financial services firm where I worked. My challenge, poorly worded as a statement rather than a question, was ill-judged. As a result, my manager, who was present, provided harsh but fair feedback on being more thoughtful when challenging top leaders in the future. This incident might have been acceptable in Scandinavia, where I worked for a few years, but it was certainly not in a traditional British bank in the 1990s.

Challenges of Overusing Strengths and the Evolution of Talent Development

Unfortunately, at that time, there was little understanding of the idea of overusing one’s strengths; strengths and weaknesses were seen simplistically as binary opposites with most of the time focused on fixing weaker areas. Even today, my experience suggests that only 5-10% of people at work are familiar with this crucial concept, which highlights serious failings in our efforts as talent development professionals and coaches to help employees achieve greater self-awareness and mastery over their learning and growth.

The Transformative Impact of Understanding and Managing Strengths

Yet, this concept is transformative for personal development, often providing ‘ah ha’ moments for many we work with. People are more receptive to feedback when they understand it relates to one of their strengths used ineffectively. Most of us strive to use our strengths skilfully because these areas energize us the most and give us a greater sense of unique identity, purpose and value. When we recognize our overused ‘blind spots,’ previously seen as weaknesses by colleagues and others around us, we feel empowered to implement strategies to manage them effectively. You can read more about some of these strategies HERE.

What Overuse of Boldness Looks Like

When Boldness is used excessively, it can manifest as:

1. Recklessness: Taking unnecessary risks that are unwise, careless, or hazardous.
2. Arrogance: Overestimating your own opinions and expertise while dismissing others’ views and concerns.
3. Overly Direct: Expressing opinions and challenging others in a way that comes across as rude, blunt, or brash.

For leaders, this overuse may result in overbearing or domineering leadership, especially if Boldness is paired with decisiveness, confidence, and a strong focus on results.

What Triggers Overuse of Boldness

There are various triggers that can lead to the excessive use of Boldness. These include:

Internal Triggers:

• Perfectionism and High Expectations: An internal drive to achieve perfection or prove oneself can lead to taking excessive risks to meet unrealistic standards. For example, a high achiever might take on too much responsibility for a critical project without seeking assistance, even when it becomes clear they need help.
• Desire for Recognition: A strong desire for approval and recognition can prompt unnecessary risks. For instance, someone might seek their manager’s praise by prioritizing a risky decision over thoughtful action and risk assessment.
• Overconfidence: An inflated sense of one’s talents and abilities can result in underestimating risks and challenges. An inexperienced leader might rush into bold actions without proper fact-finding, listening, or engaging critical stakeholders.

External and Societal Triggers:

• Peer Pressure: Influence and pressure from leaders, peers, or social circles can push individuals to take unnecessary risks to conform or impress others.
• Workplace Culture: A high-pressure, toxic, or competitive work environment can encourage the overuse of courage. For example, actions taken by banks like RBS and Lehman Brothers before the financial crisis.
• High-Pressure and Crisis Situations: Emergencies or high-stress situations can trigger excessive courageous actions. For example, the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which resulted from a flawed reactor design operated by inadequately trained staff and managers.
• Cultural Norms: Cultural expectations and media often amplify heroism and bravery, celebrating heroic leaders and stigmatizing cautious or conservative behaviour. This can create unrealistic standards for leaders, especially under pressure from shareholders and boards to perform.

Reducing the Risks of Overusing Boldness

Below are some proven strategies to avoid overusing Boldness:

1. Improve self-awareness: Reflect on and understand the specific internal and external triggers of your excessive Boldness, together with the risks for your results, relationships and reputation.
2. Invite feedback: Ask trusted friends, colleagues, or mentors for honest feedback about your behaviour and the impact on them and others. Seek their input and ideas to gain additional perspective to help you improve.
3. Build agility: Before acting, take time to consider the situation, risks and potential consequences of your actions. Adapt your style to the audience and needs of the situation.
4. Develop complementary strengths: Balance Boldness with complementary strengths such as Understanding Others and Common Sense. This can help you make more balanced and informed choices and decisions.
5. Use Boldness selectively: Embrace a considered and cautious approach when necessary. Recognise that not every situation calls for bold action. Sometimes, a measured and cautious approach is more effective.

By integrating these strategies, you can maintain your Boldness while ensuring it doesn’t lead to negative consequences. Balancing Boldness with understanding, empathy and situational agility will help you achieve more positive outcomes and build stronger relationships.

To find out how we can help your organization avoid using overused talents to help your employees thrive in their careers, contact us at info@talentpredix.com.