Choosing to see the good in others

I’m OK with details, but great with ideas and strategy.  I’m average working down a To Do list, but put me in a brainstorming session and you’ll see me at my best.  What about you? Where do you shine?  We need to ask ourselves where we shine in life.  It’s the presence of our strengths not the absence of our weaknesses that leads to greatness.  To be human is to wrestle with original sin and fatal flaws.  With the Apostle Paul we lament, “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me?” (Romans 7:24)

Too many of us focus on our inadequacies and the deficiencies of others.  We fear the unknown and extrapolate from past failure to predict a dismal future.  It’s a waste of time and summons up negative energy rather than tapping faith.

Abraham Lincoln went through a number of ineffective generals before finally discovering Grant.  And even then he had to overrule Grant’s detractors who felt it was more important to eliminate weaknesses than to play to strengths.  I always use the following story as a point of reference on this subject.

“Grant is a drunkard,” asserted powerful and influential politicians to Lincoln; “he is not himself half the time; he can’t be relied upon, and it is a shame to have such a man in command of an army.”

“So Grant gets drunk, does he?” Lincoln responded.

“Yes, he does, and I can prove it,” was the reply.

“Well,” said Lincoln, with a twinkle in his eye, “you needn’t waste your time getting proof; you just find out what brand of whiskey Grant drinks, because I want to send a barrel of it to each one of my generals.”

Good leaders see the strengths in others and develop them. If you’re
interested in developing this ability into a strength, read
Buckingham’s Now
Discover Your Strengths. Or at least
begin by reading through this
article.