Welcome to One Thing Better. Each week, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine (that’s me) shares one way to achieve a breakthrough at work — and build a career or company you love.

Today’s edition is sponsored by Kick, which is how I track my finances (for real!). See details at the end of the newsletter.

Here’s something to reflect on today:

What if your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness?

What do I mean by greatest strength? It’s whatever you think it means — maybe your analytical mind, or your people skills, or your quick thinking, or whatever abilities you attribute your success to.

How could any of that be bad? Here’s an explanation from clinical psychologist Martin Dubin:

“Our challenges often emerge from investing too heavily in our strengths,” he writes in his new book Blindspotting. “The ‘superstrengths’ become supernovas, and tip into qualities that frustrate people around us and get in the way of our success.”

As a result: The confident person becomes arrogant. The friendly extrovert can’t leave people alone. The persistent person becomes stubborn. The visionary struggles with execution. The agreeable boss loves every idea, leaving no one sure where they stand.

This is a hard thing to hear, because it means questioning the things we’re most proud of. But as I thought about it, I realized that this exact thing happened to me! And it truly was a hinderance in my career.

So today, I’ll share that story… along with Martin Dubin’s advice on managing your superpowers to achieve true greatness.

My personal kryptonite

When I first started giving keynote talks, and thought I had an advantage over other speakers: It was my energy.

I’m naturally energetic. I can be fast and loud. So when I went on stage, I thought: My job is to wake people up and hold their attention.

Big voice! Stomping feet! I went ALL OUT.

But about four years ago, my wife attended one of my talks. Afterward, she said: “You were great, but the energy was way too much. It felt like you were screaming at people, and that constant energy felt like its own form of monotone.”

This was hard to hear. I wanted to push back and say: No, you don’t understand, this is my superpower! Energy is my thing!

Then I watched a video of myself at that event. My wife was right. I wasn’t just energetic. I was an uncontrolled explosion.

The trait blind spot

Dubin calls this a “trait blind spot” — when our greatest strengths tip into qualities that impede our success.

As he explains: “We are not as self-aware as we believe. We tend to feel as if most of our traits, instincts, and feelings are like everyone else’s — except for where we see ourselves as exceptional or gifted, in ways that we imagine can only serve as a positive.”

Because we’re so proud of these strengths, we never pause to consider their downsides.

Consider it for yourself: What are you truly excellent at? And has that ever caused a problem?

I can think of plenty more for me:

I’m great at juggling projects… but I keep adding new things, without realistically assessing my bandwidth for them.
I’m great at asking questions… but I can also get too personal with people, without realizing where their boundaries are.
I pride myself on being accessible… but my inbox is overflowing, and I create logjams as people wait for my response.

So, what are we supposed to do?

Good news: You shouldn’t abandon your strengths. But you must become aware of the problem — and work to solve it.

Here’s how, in two parts:

Part 1: Find the problem

Dubin offers these suggestions…

The ‘too’ test. Ask yourself: What words people use to describe you professionally? Is it… decisive? Collaborative? Careful? Now put the word “too” in front of any of those adjectives. Are you too decisive? Too collaborative? Too careful?
Notice complaints. When people give you feedback, do they criticize the extreme version of your strengths? For example, if you’re praised for being thorough, do people also say you’re slow to act?
Consider your context. Sometimes, a superpower in one context can become harmful in another. Maybe you’re an amazing consensus-builder, and that was useful at a large company — but now you’re at a startup, and people just want you to make a damn decision already?

Part 2: Manage around it

Don’t fight your instincts. That’ll never be helpful.

Instead, Dubin writes, “it is almost always more productive to become aware of our traits and then manage around them.”

Here’s how:

Push yourself out of your comfort zone when the situation requires it.
Hire people who can handle the tasks that don’t suit your natural tendencies.
Create systems to harness your strengths while mitigating their downsides.

For example, Dubin writes about a CEO he coached named “Mila.” She’s an introvert, and that served her well in prior roles — where, as an individual operator, could isolate herself and focus on a task.

But now, as the leader of a company, her introversion was problematic. She avoided external-facing activities like sales meetings, keynote speaking, and media interviews.

So here’s what they did:

They hired a “chief of communications and inspiration” to own some external-facing tasks
They booked Mila’s time strategically — say, for only the most important sales closings
They scheduled small “Friday breakfasts with Mila,” where she could connect with employees in a more comfortable setting
They worked with marketing to position her as a “brilliant, compassionate, introverted leader” — really owning her strength

As a result, Mila and the company thrived.

How I fixed my own blind spot

After my wife told me I was too high-energy, I went through a similar process.

I started to experiment. I went on podcasts, specifically to practice a more natural speaking cadence. I found a new baseline tone to speak in — warm and welcoming, with maybe 70% of the energy I used to put out regularly.

I also rethought my superpower: I don’t want to be high energy anymore. Now I want to be highly engaging — and energy is just one part of that.

After a while, industry friends started to notice and compliment me. Clients started to bring me back for second or even third engagements, which never happened before. And my career really began to thrive.

Now I’ve learned: Success comes from balance, not from one strength alone. We cannot fall victim to our own excellence.

That’s how to do one thing better.

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