A Disneyland Fire
On Saturday evening April 22nd just before 11:00 PM, Disneyland’s visitors witnessed something they will likely never forget. It was was not an incredible performance, a heartwarming picture with a princess, getting soaked on Splash Mountain, or even meeting Bob Iger himself.
Rather, Maleficent, the 45-foot fire-breathing dragon, became engulfed in flames. Check out the video below and then I will share an important leadership lesson from this event.
You see, Maleficent’s greatest strength and feature is its ability to shoot fire from its mouth. But when you play with fire, you get burned and Maleficent became engulfed in flames. This shocking event revealed that the attraction’s feature had actually become a defect. Its greatest strength had become its greatest weakness.
The Leaning Tower Of Pisa
The Tower of Pisa was completed in 1372. Due to a faulty foundation, the 183-foot three-inch bell tower began to lean. As a result, its name was subsequently changed to The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The tilt eventually reached 5.5 degrees and had to stabilized in both 1993 and 2001. It now has a 3.97 degree tilt.
Similarly to Maleficent, it’s greatest strength is in reality, its greatest weakness. What we view as a feature is actually a defect.
A CEO’s Blindspot
Recently, I was in attendance as a CEO was sharing with his shareholders about the company’s health. He proceeded to have a half-dozen executives join him on stage. Pointing to each one, he said and I’m paraphrasing, “This person has been with me 10 years. This person has been with me 15 years. This person has been with me 20 years. And this person has been with me over 30 years. This is why we are so strong.”
This presentation fell flat because the organization had been plateaued for over 10 years. The CEO viewed the leadership’s tenure as a strength. Those in attendance viewed it as the organization’s lid. Thier feature (tenure and stability) was actually a defect (plateaued growth).
3 Signs Your Leadership Strengths Have Now Become Weaknesses
Leaders must have great self-awareness about their strengths. We should always rely upon, improve, and leverage our strengths. However, much like Maleficent, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the CEO previously mentioned, we must have the wisdom to know when our strength has become a weakness and our features are actually defects.
The following are three ways to know when this has happened:
- Your Strengths Put Others In Harm’s Way – Multiple Disney employees were treated for smoke inhalation after Maleficent’s fire. Fortunately no one died but when a leader develops hubris and begins taking unnecessary risks, they put their team in harm’s’ way. Their strengths of courage and boldness can potentially be weaknesses because people and resources are now at risk. When this happens, the features of boldness and courage become reckless defects.
- Your Strengths Have A Faulty Foundation – The Leaning Tower of Pisa was not its original name. It was The Tower of Pisa. It leaned because the structure was built on loose soil. The defect was now seen as a feature. For leaders, our faulty foundation could be our lack of character of faulty thinking. If this is the case, we will eventually be taken down by our defect.
- Your Strengths No Longer Work – In the true story above, the CEO’s organization had been plateaued for a number of years. John Maxwell’s Law Of Inner Circle was clearly at work. Those closest to him were determining his level of success. This was a major blindspot. He considered the stability and experience of his team a strength when in fact, it was his primary weakness.
When your strengths put others in harm’s way, have a faulty foundation, and no longer work, they are actually weaknesses.
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