Can You Recognize Your Limitations?

We have all read the articles that tell us we need to get out of our own way and embrace challenges. Perhaps you have even been to motivational speakers who urge you to ignore limitations and reach, reach, reach for the brass ring. While all of this motivational encouragement can basically be a good thing, sometimes recognizing our limitations on the job can be a helpful way of focusing on getting the job done.

While it would be nice to think that each of us can do everything and anything that just is not true. In fact, recognizing where we might have limitations can help us to make decisions about what to do about that: get additional education and training, modify our work, hire additional help, specialize, etc. The denial surrounding our unlimited abilities might keep us from making the decisions that will benefit the company as a whole.

Have you ever had a boss or coworker who refused to give up a piece of the work despite his or her obvious ineptitude? This ineptness probably cost the company business, efficiency or even negatively impacted the reputation. Had he or she recognized the limitation and embraced it, a more productive choice could have been made regarding how to cope.

Things in the work place change and sometimes, we are so busy that we do not change along with it. For example, if you were hired for a job seven years ago that did not require any contact with native Spanish speakers and you didn't need to speak Spanish'"BUT the market and company operations have changed requiring a more bi-lingual approach, your inability to speak Spanish can be an obvious limitation. Trying to ignore this factor is not helping anyone. Recognizing that your lack of Spanish skills is a problem can make it possible to take classes, apply for another job, or make other decisions about how to meet the needs of the customers and fulfill the job requirements.

Recognizing your limitations does not mean admitting failure or embracing an inability to perform. By taking a realistic look at both skills and limitations, true progress and learning can be the focus.