[December 1, 2015] As we approach the holiday season of Christmas and Hanukkah, it should be a time of reflection on ourselves as leaders and as members of our family. Holidays elicit considerable emotion and whether we like it or not, the strongest of people will be swayed by sentiments and passions that we don’t even realize. Our weaknesses can easily overcome our attempts to keep them at bay and may cause our downfall.
Experts tell us that we become stronger by dealing with our weaknesses. Most leaders would not necessarily agree because our strengths are what they are, while our weaknesses provide obstacles to those things we most desire. Nevertheless, it is important to realize that our ability to rise above weakness is a skill that most people have not developed and thus they will in due course suffer the consequences.
“Every night before going to sleep, we must ask ourselves: what weakness did I overcome today” What virtue did I acquire?” – Seneca
Realizing our weaknesses thus becomes more of an exercise in improving on our good qualities. Seneca (the Younger) was a Roman Stoic philosopher who was active in Roman affairs and who wrote about the motivations and desires of senior leaders of the day … he was an Imperial advisor to Nero. He offers good advice when he tells us virtues must be achieved to avoid the pitfalls of weakness. For example, to help provide us with motivation, he says that “all cruelty springs from weakness.”
Senior leaders today, perhaps compared to their peers in the days of Seneca, are less enthusiastic about looking at their weaknesses and often go to great lengths to deny them. Politicians are particularly skilled at denying any fault, weakness, or mistake. No one should be surprised then when so many politicians are guilty of fraud, vice, and corruption; they’ve neither studied their own weaknesses nor worked to improve upon their virtues.
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