I remember sitting in on some job interviews with a company several
years ago. The CEO was doing the final interviews, and I still remember
what he asked each candidate. “What have you learned in your career
that will most benefit us here at ABC? If you could do one thing over,
in your career, what would it be? Tell me about the best boss you ever
had, and why he / she was the best. What is your greatest strength?”

Now I have heard the “what is your greatest strength?” question in
almost every interview I’ve ever been in. But almost always it’s
followed by, “What is your greatest weakness?” As we were wrapping
things up for the day, I asked this great leader, “You always asked
about the strengths, but not the weaknesses, why?” Here is his response:

“If I know your greatest strength, I also already know your greatest
weakness, for they are one in the same. If you say you’re good with
people, I know you like interacting with people. While that may be good
for when you’re dealing with my customers, it’s not good when you’re
wasting the time of my employees. If you say you’re good with numbers
(accountants always say that) it means you probably aren’t so good at
dealing with people. If you say you’re a leader, I know it may be hard
to get you to follow me. If you say you’re always punctual, never miss
a deadline, I know you’re not going to be very patient with those who
do and that you’re probably not very flexible. So all in all, I don’t
need to have you tell me what your weakness is. You’ve already told me.”

I’ve watched, over the years as people extol their strengths, always
looking at them through my friend’s eyes and it has served me well in
my career. Every employee (or potential employee) has weaknesses.
That’s okay. What you need to know is, do you want to deal with this
individual’s particular weakness at this point in the game. If you do,
great. If not, move on. It’s as simple as that. But you will never see
things the same when you look from this paradigm.

By the way, what did you say your strength was?