Strength usually takes you further than weakness, but pretending you have it all together will sabotage your potential, it'll sabotage your relationships, and communication. Strength based relationship is no excuse to ignore the benefits of weakness. You don't have to have it all together, and you don't do everything well. It’s healthy to get over yourself. People who deny their weakness often lose perspective and relationships falter because of pride. Without humility they tend to look down on others and fail to benefit from them. And they disconnect from authentic people. Often they experience frustration because they close the door on receiving help, and they will even hinder the team. When you acknowledge your weakness, you can leverage it for success.

So let me suggest four ways weakness is an advantage.

First, weakness opens your heart to receive help. Everyone needs help from other people and God. Receiving support expands your life and your leadership. Those who receive assistance go further than those who work alone. Two are better than one.

Secondly, weakness helps you honour the strength of others honour recognizes the value each person adds. Honouring strength in others affirms them. Your weakness lets you understand that others matter and appreciate what they bring to the team.

Thirdly, weakness helps us benefit from the strength of others. For example, if you're an idea person chances are you desperately need an organizer on your team. Embrace people with strengths that expand you even if they frustrate you.

Finally, weakness is a roadway to connection. You are less trustworthy when you pretend you have it all together. None of us have it all together. Don’t whine about your weaknesses instead let them become an opportunity to find strength in others. When you honour the strength in others, you attract talented people. Admitting your weaknesses requires integrity. And integrity, expressed in honesty and humility, turns weakness to your advantage.

People often say, “Good leaders are well-rounded.” This notion has resulted in some massive frustration for those who embrace it. Today, I want to address this common assumption. What if we traded well-roundedness, for playing to our strength. Trying to be balanced can be exasperated, while playing to your strength can be invigorating. We all know it feels good to work from our strengths. But what makes playing from our strength so powerful?

In my experience, one of the best methods of developing yourself is to identify your natural talents. I learned this when I was in high school and played on the high school volleyball team. Our coach assessed the skills of each player, and then asserted them into the play for optimum effectiveness. Every team player understood how they contributed to and strengthened the team, and because each player performed according to their strengths our team became highly competitive and eventually won the provincial championship.

Think about one aspect of your life that you want to improve. Got it? What would you say the thing you want to improve is? A strength or weakness? Likely, you chose a weakness. Yes, working on a weakness will help you, but not as much as you think. We are all a work in progress and trying to take stock of who we are can improve and help us to live a well-lived life. But focusing solely on transforming our weaknesses is not how we will reach our highest potential. If you devote most of your time to strengthening weaknesses, your personal growth will be slower, less confident, and more frazzled. However, if you spend most of your efforts on improving your strengths, your personal development will be faster, you will be more confident, and less frazzled. There is a strong connection between working from one’s strength and the potential of success. This is especially true in the area of developing your integrity. As you improve your strengths and enhance your good character, your efforts will influence every dimension of your life. And any advancement in your strengths will encourage you, as you address areas of weakness.

If you are interested in making a difference in this world, you need to know three things. Remember these three things and you'll become the best person you can possibly be. Now all of them are Illustrated with a pencil.

First, look at this pencil. You know that for a pencil to be useful from time to time, again and again, the pencil will have to be sharpened. I think if the pencil had feelings we can only imagine how painful and unwelcome the sharpening process would be. But that is what it takes to be auseful pencil. And life is much the same painful experiences and challenges come to all of us, but it is through these opportunities that we build the character that's necessary to become the best we can be.

Now secondly, look at this end of the pencil. Do you see the eraser? The pencil maker recognize that the person who uses a pencil will make some mistakes. So the manufacturer has provided a way to correct your mistakes and help you to continue writing. And life is much the same. We all make mistakes, and when we do make mistakes we will be able to correct the mistakes we make along the way and just keep writing because we've used the eraser. If you learn from your mistakes they will not be ugly marks, but they will become places where you've learned to do it better for the next time. Don’t let mistakes keep you from being useful. Take those mistakes and make them stepping stones and never stop writing. Like this pencil any place that you are used, so to speak, you will leave your mark. You are writing your own story.

Now finally, notice what is in the heart of the pencil. The inside part of the pencil is the most important part. And your inner person is who you really are. Who you areat heart eventually determines the difference you make. So pay attention to your heart. Let wisdom enter your heart and set your heart on what's good. Don’t let your heart just be deceived by wicked schemes or deceit choose integrity. The proverb writer had it correct, “Above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.”

One day, my father and I were reorganizing the family garage. While working together my dad called me over to the workbench and said, “Hey I want to teach you an important life lesson.” He took a litre container and he placed it on the workbench. Next, he filled the container with golf balls, and then he asked me, “Is the container full?" I said, “Well sure, you can't put any more golf balls in it.” Then he took a bag of coarse pebbles and he poured them into the container so that they worked their way around the golf balls. And the container appeared to be full. Then he asked me, “Is the container full?” And I replied, “Yes it's full.” Next, he took a bag of sand and he poured it into the container. And the sand made its way around the golf balls and the pebbles. And he tapped the container so that the sand spread everywhere. Then he again asked me, “Is the container full?” And again I answered, “Yes it's full.” Finally, he poured a cup of coffee into the container that was full of golf balls, pebbles, and sand.

My dad went on to explain, “This container represents your life. The golf balls are the important things like faith, family, friends, and health. The pebbles are the less important things like career, home, vehicle, education. And the sand represents everything else, the small stuff. Now if you put the sand and pebbles into the container first, there will be no room for the golf balls. The same is true of life. If you spend your life and all of your energy and time on the small stuff, you won't have time for the things that matter. So pay close attention to the things that are critical to your joy and success.” My dad said, “Son take care of the golf balls first. Do what's truly important first.”

I wanted to learn the rest of the lesson about priorities because it's important that the small stuff doesn't control our life. And I asked him, “Well what about the coffee?” And he smiled and said, No matter how full your life may be, there is always room for a coffee with a friend."

Well, integrity guides us in setting our priorities and in living to the full.