Shifting Perspective: Turn Weaknesses into Strengths

Get Results: change perspective
Get Results: change perspective

One way of increasing the likelihood you’ll take some desired action, is the ability to look at a goal, plan or task in a different, more inspiring way.

If it doesn’t provide a big enough reason for you to take action, you most certainly won’t take it.

Human beings get stuck in persistent patterns of thinking that frame the subjects of those thoughts in a certain way, and moving beyond these frames of reference can be very difficult if left unchallenged.

For individuals, such thoughts often centre around self-doubt. Self talk may go along the lines of “I can’t do [blank]”,” I don’t have the necessary experience, skill-set, knowledge, resources, etc”.

Businesses can also display this negative thinking; “we can’t compete with [blank]”, “we can’t compete on price” etc.

So what is the consequence of thinking like this? Well, we don’t take action, we don’t even try it, we just talk ourselves out of it and move on.

Maybe this is the right thing to do, maybe thinking abstractly against it is better than ploughing time, effort and resources into a doomed endeavour, maybe, but maybe not.

If we’re not careful, this way of thinking becomes a coping strategy that lets us off the hook and allows us to not take action in an act of self preservation. They become coping excuses.

A more productive way of thinking about it may be in asking “what if”. What if we did this, and what is the possible upside?

“What if” is a creative question. It opens up possibilities, rather than shutting them down. What if we could reframe the way we think about our weaknesses, and recast them as strengths?

In 1962 advertising executive Paula Green came up with a now famous slogan for Avis car rentals, that took advantage of their weaker market position in relation to Hertz, repositioning it from a weakness into a strength. The slogan “we try harder” let prospective customers know Avis would be more attentive to their needs than Hertz would be.

Stella Artois did something similar with their “reassuringly expensive” advertising campaign in 2004.

It’s all about finding a more empowering story that reframes your perceived weakness into strengths, for your own benefit, and also from a marketing point of view.

Here are a few examples:

  • Smaller size; being smaller allows you to be more nimble and adaptable than big players
  • Less experienced; don’t have as much skin in the game, nothing to lose by doing things differently and disrupting the status quo
  • Less prestigious location; can provide better value for money because not paying as much in rental costs.

Check out our marketing guide, here.

Also more about shifting perspective, here.