Possessing strengths can help us overcome obstacles; it is a powerful weapon in face of challenges. Hence, it is important that we put our strengths to good use so that things can be done more easily. However, when our strengths continuously help us to achieve our goals, we start to believe in misconceptions like “This isn't that hard to do” or “As long as I use this to my advantage again, everything will be fine”. We might even mistakenly think ourselves as very competent ones and believe that we can outperform others without devoting our best efforts.

Every one of us must have come across people who rely too much on their natural strengths. The most common types include:

1.People who are physically attractive and naturally charming – Because of their charming appearance and demeanour, these individuals can easily make a favourable impression on others and gain trust, making it easy for them to get things done. As a result, they often become overly-confident or inane because they fail to cultivate themselves.

2.People who can speak eloquently – These individuals are so well-spoken, they can easily persuade and influence others with their words. Consequently, they become too preoccupied with wordplay and forget to speak with substance.

3.People who have exceptional memory – These individuals have grown so accustomed to the examination system from a young age, they have unconsciously developed a habit of memorizing things blindly without understanding it. As a result, they are not used to engaging in deep thinking, and it is difficult for them to understand or comprehend things.

Some people are also overly-reliant on external strengths:

1.When a product is competitive in the market, employees can achieve their sales target easily without having to work hard and improve themselves. As a result, when a product stops being competitive in the market, sales performance takes a massive drop with employees feeling hopeless.

2.When the company has a sound system, professional division of labour and comprehensive training system, it is easy for employees to achieve results. If an individual fails to realise that the company's system is boosting their performance and becomes complacent in continuing to improve their capabilities, they are destined to fail once they leave the company.

Our strengths often mislead us into thinking ourselves as very competent ones. Since we can achieve results without having to work hard, time after time we become over-reliant on using our strengths and begin to neglect working on ourselves. Possessing strengths does not equate to capability as they are only assets you can leverage to achieve small wins. To stay ahead of the game in the future, it is important that we develop our capabilities in different aspects.

The biggest difference between capability and strength is that capability is built up through extended periods of hard work. More specifically, it is slowly developed when an individual tackle a problem through the process of trial and error. Since individuals who are over-reliant on their strengths do not go through this process, they will fail to cultivate their own capabilities and in the long run are likely to fall behind individuals who are truly capable.

Most individuals who possess natural strengths are generally unaware that they are over-reliant on them. If you possess strengths naturally, congratulations! You are very lucky indeed. However, you should remember to refrain from being too dependent on them and constantly remind yourself that facing challenges are great opportunities for your personal development, so that ultimately you can develop true capabilities.

Supervisors must not be easily fooled by the strengths displayed by individuals. When they encounter colleagues with outstanding strengths, they should pay close attention and observe whether they are truly capable. At the same time, they should actively seek weaknesses in these individuals so that they can be guided onto the right path.