Sunday, February 26, 2017
Indecisiveness - Greatest Weakness or Greatest Strength?
In preparation for David and Colleen's presentation on character and personal values tomorrow, I took a survey through the VIA Institute on Character (link below) to determine my character strengths. The results gave me my character strengths in order from greatest to weakest. In order, my top five character strengths were judgement, social intelligence, honesty, hope, and appreciation of beauty & excellence. It was funny to me that judgement was my greatest strength, because my friends and family always give me a hard time for my indecisiveness. I have always felt that indecisiveness is one of my greatest weaknesses. Recently, I was discussing possible interview questions with a friend. I was trying to think of what I might answer if an interviewer asked me about my greatest weakness. Indecisiveness came to mind and then I asked, how would I play this weakness off to not be detrimental as an employee? My friend replied in telling me that my indecisiveness shows that I think through decisions and that I am always sure to come to the right decision in the end, although it may take some back and forth in order to get there. I had never thought of my indecisiveness in that way before. The description under judgement in the results of the VIA survey say, "thinking things through and examining them from all sides; not jumping to conclusions; being able to change one's mind in light of evidence; weighing all evidence fairly." So perhaps my indecisiveness is really an ability to judge decisions and situations critically, and is not a major weakness after all.
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That's a thoughtful way of spinning what you have thought of as a weakness. Very often these traits are double-edged, as I think you are implying. If you describe your behavior as weighing the pros and cons before making a decision, then it is a conservative decision making process, not indecision!
ReplyDeleteThis is something to keep in mind as you think about what kind of work you want to do. If you are a person who is most comfortable with having time to work things through, then you would not want a job that requires a lot of snap decisions. I am a bit like you in this sense - I have always considered myself indecisive as well in the same way you described it. So I found I was happiest when I found work that generally allowed me time to think through problems. Strategic thinking is best done slowly, weighing all the options. People who prefer to make snap decisions don't enjoy the deliberation.