In this article I will add a few more ways how my weakness can be turned into my strength.

We need communities of accountability to let us know and manage our weaknesses. We also need companions to support us so we do not walk alone.

I belong to a non-profit organization – Eagles Communications. Together with the Founder Peter Chao, and Executive Director, William Tang. Together we have been serving in this organization for 56 years. Presently, I serve as the Chair of the Eagles Board.

The three of us started working together when we were 14 years old. We would tell each other that there is nothing we will not do for each other. And for the last 56 years, we have been doing absolutely everything for one another!

We share the same passion in leadership development and helping the disenfranchised of society. To have survived and thrived in this unique community for this long is truly a miracle. We know each other so well and see each other’s weaknesses and strengths and manage accordingly.

Peter is straightforward, candid and direct and razor-sharp in his insights of people. He cuts through the chase when they try to put up a false front. He calls himself ‘the snake slayer’.

William is more thoughtful, slow to anger, a more behind-the-scenes guy and less driven to act. He is our ‘snake-tamer’.

Finally, I am more of a peacemaker, less confrontational and more willing to compromise and seek agreements. They call me a ‘snake-charmer’.

We deal with conflicts very differently. But we listen to each other carefully and take each other’s advice seriously.

We are not afraid to correct each other, and we know we relate to and manage each other. In major decisions, we are usually unanimous. If not, we will delay until we can mutually agree on a course of action.

But whenever a decision is made, we are in full support of each other and stand united.

One of the secrets of our synergy is the support of one another and our mutual accountability. Once upon a time I made a critical error in my judgement of a person. I had nurtured one of our younger leaders, but he turned against me. William and Peter were the first to be there to comfort, correct, and support me – in that order.

Another time, some leaders in the organization had a fall-out with Peter. There were times he had been too harsh with his words and this had upset them. Peter was always ready to listen to us, we managed to calm him down and persuade him to give them another chance.

In yet another instance, we listened Peter’s findings and agreed with him in support of his decision to lay off people in the team who were becoming toxic.

It is through these checks and balances that we appreciated our mutual strengths and the support we had for one another. The enormous trust we have is truly incredible. Till today, we complement each other so well: we make up for each other’s weaknesses and enhance each other’s strengths.

Our weaknesses have helped us recognize the need for companionship and community.

In my journey of leadership, I have learnt humility. It is one of the hardest lessons to learn and the most challenging to practice. Succumbing to flattery is one of my major weaknesses.

To cultivate this humility, I have learnt to become more conscious of:

• Becoming more other-centered
• Learning to accept my limitations and humanness
• Admitting wrong when I am wrong
• Learning to listen more even to the younger and lower-positioned staff
• Leveraging on the strengths of the others in my team
• Managing my own and other’s weaknesses
• Use my strengths and networks to help my staff succeed and bring up their potential

These are the behaviors that I measure myself against and have given permission to my team to hold me accountable for them.

One of the benefits of appreciating my own weaknesses is to become more realistic about other people. Now, I am seldom surprised and often grieved by a leader’s failures. I have become more conscious of their limitations and humanness, making me less judgmental of others and more tolerant of their weaknesses and mistakes. Indeed, weaknesses can become our strengths if we care to acknowledge them, recognize our need to be held accountable and find people to complement what we lack.

One good example of a recovery from failure and weakness is Sir Winston Churchill. His ability to bounce back prompted the writing of the book, Churchill: A Study in Failures. His tumultuous career had enthralled many researchers and students in leadership, but this great British Prime Minister began as a poor student (the bottom of his class) with a lisp, a speech impediment. He failed the college entrance exam twice. On entering the political arena, he lost the parliamentary election of 1899; and as a head of the British Admiralty, he was held responsible for failure in strategy in World War I. He resigned from his post and then lost another election in 1922. He resigned from office altogether in 1929 when his party was defeated and was out of the Cabinet for ten years.

But he became one of Britain’s greatest orators, writers, and statesmen of the 20^th Century and led the country through the dark days of World War II. In 1941, he declared to students at Harrow, his old school: “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense!”

When Britain was surrounded by Hitler’s troops, planes and ships, he issued the clarion call, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, We shall never surrender!” In his final speech to the House of Commons, his concluding words were, “Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary, never despair.”

This is what we must do when we are confronted by our weaknesses. They may have derailed us, but like all great leaders, we must pick ourselves up. We must never flinch, never despair, never surrender, but bounce back each time to fight another battle!