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At any organisation, be it startup or a multifunctional corporate, it is ideal to have a team where the skill sets of the employees are complementary. Some are natural leaders, while others need training and hard work to develop leadership skills. By identifying these personalities, it gives the individual an opportunity to work and build the skillset they most want to develop. This is what I am referring to, when I say weakness.

To give a personal example, I find it hard to keep my teammates motivated, both in terms of the quality and punctuality of the work delivered. A good leader or manager is someone who can keep the team motivated and agile enough to get quality work delivered on time. On working with my GC Index coach, I realised that a person is more likely to take initiative when they are given the right space to use their skills. I always thought being a leader meant guiding people towards a specific path, however the understanding that I was lacking was assessing an individual’s unique qualities. While providing a path can sometimes help, what truly motivates a person is the problem you give them to solve. The goal is to achieve a solution, not achieving it a certain way. When I applied this concept, I realised that the person truly understands the trust you lay on them, to develop a solution for the problem. This is both encouraging and motivating, in terms of the responsibilities laid on them.

Nevertheless, despite my initial success, I am still learning a lot in terms of effective management. I accepted the fact that I have a shortcoming, which is the first step before you start building on your skills. By doing the GC Index training exercises I could really develop on the skills I couldn’t pick from my prior experience, and this has helped me grow in multiple ways.

Accept, that you can potentially have a shortcoming. There is no shame in presenting this to your interviewer, provided you do show that you are working on them.

by Malavika Venugopal, Master's in Renewable Energy