Forget your weaknesses, play to your strengths

We live in a world of motivational memes and inspirational quotes. They are all over social media. Some of them are valid, some of them are downright ridiculous, and some of them are utterly stupid.

There’s nothing wrong with them. At different points in our lives – maybe at the end of the month for sales people or as a big event looms for an athlete – they rev us up.

There is one however which gets my goat. It goes like this:

‘If someone gives you an opportunity and you are not sure you can do it, say yes and learn to do it later.’

What nonsense advice. Please do not do that. Say that is not your skill set and refer it to someone who can. It is bad for your stress levels, work quality and bad for your reputation. People will trust you if you are honest.

Who’s going to complete a task better? A seasoned professional or an enthusiastic, hardworking individual who doesn’t know what they are doing.

The answer is the former. I could use all my efforts to enthusiastically decorate a wedding cake but good luck stopping the bride from crying when she sees it. Yes, grab on to opportunities where you can, but don’t do work you aren’t qualified for.

Too many people spend too much time trying to fit their square skill set into a round hole. It might be great for personal development, but it isn’t the way to get things done efficiently or at minimal cost.

What I am getting to here and I suspect that you can see this coming is the benefit of outsourcing where necessary.

IT is an essential function that most businesses are now already outsourcing or looking to outsource and that is something I am passionate about, which is for four main reasons:

1. Technology is now moving at such a pace that it is widely accepted that there are enormous benefits to paying monthly as a service (in essence this is leasing). Your systems and solutions can,therefore, be regularly updated with the latest tech, and it is your provider, not your business who shells out for it. It is also your provider who has to keep abreast of the latest developments, updates and new solutions on the tech landscape. Win. Win.

2. There is an IT skills shortage, and excellent IT staff are expensive to secure and retain. Outsource, and you have access to the best people for your business at all times. They are also experts in the specific solutions you require. A virtual IT department at your disposal.

3. Most businesses now have to be agile and flexible to succeed. They have to work around seasonal peaks, expand to embrace temporary opportunities or tighten their belts at other times. Paying for IT as a service means that they can. It is entirely scalable. You just pay for what you use, despite the fact that your bundle of solutions is tailor made just for you. Think about it. That is quite amazing.

4. Storage/ maintenance and merging of legacy systems: complicated, costly and a continual hassle. Need we say more.

There are immense benefits to focussing on your core strengths and looking for assistance in other areas. People in all sectors start out with a passion for what they want to achieve and then end up becoming bogged down in functions and operations that they have no experience in or enthusiasm for. A key strength is knowing your strengths and leveraging them, then outsourcing the rest.

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