Ask a Mentor: How Do You Get Around A Weakness?

Edited by Sandra Kleinsasser

When you hand a WCA mentor a bag of lemons, don’t be surprised if she’s serving lemonade shortly. Our volunteer mentors share some solid advice on dealing with weaknesses on the Mentor Program webpage.

Dear Mentors,

What is your “Achilles Heel” and what are you learning from it? – Trying to Make Lemonade

One of the biggest challenges for any small business owner is learning how to wear many hats. You learn a lot about yourself – finding areas of business that you never thought you’d like, but now love. Or just the opposite – finding the areas that you detest and realizing you either “get ‘er done” or contract that part out to an expert.
—Andrea Schulle, Andris Media Group

I have a tendency to be a little ADD – I’m a task-switcher, and I follow the shiny object. In certain fields that would be a huge deficit. However I’ve structured my career in a way where switching quickly between clients or following the bright ideas as they come are the assets I bring to the team rather than problems. I guess if I look closely, I’ve mitigated the potential issues by building a team of focused, diligent project managers who are able to follow through in ways I’m not.
—Jenny Magic, Site Goals

As a professional communicator, my “Achilles heel” has always been the financial management side as I had no training in it. I had to learn it on the fly, which is not a good thing when one is not naturally a math/numbers kind of a gal. Today, when advising students on which courses to take I always strongly suggest they take, at minimum, a finance and accounting or business course
— Jane Baxter Lynn, JBL Strategies.

We’re Here to Help

Need some career advice? Wondering how others have handled a situation? Got a question or comment for our mentors? Contact us at wcamentors@wcaustin.org. Our volunteers are glad to help. Confidentiality will be respected.