The Freak Factory - David Rendall

Freak of the Week: Chris Ferdinandi

I found Chris Ferdinandi's blog, Renegade HR, while doing research for my Freak Factory book. Chris is a human resource and social media professional at EMC in Boston. He's a beach bum, weekend warrior, musician and clean hippie, which means that he loves recycling AND taking showers.

I'm glad he took a break from writing his new book to share his freak factor story, which mirrors many of my own experiences.

1. Do you have any apparent weaknesses that are actually strengths?

I'm really energetic. If I was a kid today, I'd probably be diagnosed with ADHD. In school, it was a bit of a problem, because you're expected to sit still, pay attention, and think inside the box. Memorize and recite. Do it just like you were taught to.

My brain doesn't work that way. I need to question and push boundaries and take things apart. I can be a bit easily distracted when dealing with rote, repetitive types of tasks. But if I'm working on a unique and complex problem, I have laser focus on it. My boss recently told me that when I throw myself at a problem, there's no stopping me.

I think strength and weakness are really two sides of one coin. In order to be great at some things, you have to suck at others.

2. How have you capitalized on your weaknesses to succeed in your life and career?

When you first hit the business world, most of the jobs involve a lot of rote and repetitive work - the kind of stuff a trained monkey could do. You kind of have to suck it up and deal for a while.

But I always made it a point to seek out work - in addition to my day job - that played to my strengths. I identified problems, offered solutions, and then played a key role in implementing them. It's opened up a lot of doors for me professionally, and allowed me to meet a lot of great people I wouldn't have otherwise.

3. Have  you ever had a manager that allowed you to flaunt your weaknesses?

I had a boss who really understood what I rocked at. He made it a point to seek out opportunities for me to do things I was naturally good at. It made grinding through the stuff I wasn't as good at - but was just part of the job - a lot easier.

4. Are you secretly the twin of actor Chris O'Donnell?

That's hilarious! I just did a comparison. You're right!

Become the Best by Being the Worst

Last week I wrote a guest post for Untemplater: Work Where You Want, Live How You Want, Be Who You Want To Be. I was really impressed with the thoughtful and insightful comments. Below is an excerpt. You can read the full post here.

Shaquille O’Neal is more than seven-feet tall, weighs 300 pounds and has missed more free throws than any other player in the history of the NBA. Because of this weakness, he has spent endless hours working with coaches to improve his skills. And he is still terrible.

He’s so bad at free throws that other teams have developed a strategy for capitalizing on his weakness. They call it Hack-A-Shaq. They foul him before he has the opportunity to shoot so that he will have to score his points from the free throw line.

Since other teams implemented this strategy, O’Neal has led two different teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat, to four NBA championships and has been an All-Star in each year of his career. In other words, Shaquille is one of the best basketball players of all-time, even though he is the worst free-throw shooter of all time. Actually, another player holds the record for the lowest free-throw percentage. His name is Wilt Chamberlain and he’s widely considered to be the greatest player in NBA history. . .

Read on to find out how Brett Favre and Michael Jordan demonstrate that excellence requires you to amplify your strengths and allow your weaknesses to get even worse.

How are your strengths related to your weaknesses? Are you the best in one area because you are the worst in another?

If you've been reading this blog but haven't ever posted a comment, I'd love to hear from you.

Freak of the Week: Lance Haun

I met Lance Haun, author of the Rehaul blog, through Twitter last year and I recently featured him in my post about the Top 7  Human Resources Blogs. We started a conversation and he was kind enough to share his own freak factor story, which reminds me of a slogan from Outward Bound. "If you can't get out of it, get into it."

"I get very little sleep which sparks creativity during the weirdest times and places. I've become much better at capturing it than my peers because I've had so many nights where I've stayed up with an idea and I figured it out. I've had some that I've completely lost in the more insomniac phases of my life but, generally speaking, my smartphone, laptop and notebook keep me plugged in with my ideas.

 

For my blog, Rehaul.com, most of my best work comes from an idea driven to paper after midnight. As you can imagine, sleeping infrequently requires coffee which forces me (as a person who works primarily from home) to interact with people. I've got my coffee shop people and my sandwich shop people that I can socialize with on a daily basis.

At MeritBuilder, our organization was built around people flaunting their weaknesses. Manic episodes of coding, writing and creative work followed by downtime of administrivia suited everyone and gained more productivity. I believe that embracing weaknesses is at the crux of smart talent management. It is overlooked consistently in the face of strengths but can be just (if not more) powerful."

Next time you have trouble sleeping, don't take an Ambien. Remeber Lance's story and ask yourself how you could take advantage of the late night hours while everyone else is wasting their time on sleep.  

Your dream job is hiding inside of your biggest weakness

Although many people have found jobs that allow them to flaunt their weaknesses, is is easy to conclude that there is no career that fits your unique flaws. But sometimes the perfect job for you is hiding inside the very words that you use to describe your shortcomings.

- You are a control freak. I've written before about 10 jobs for controlling people, including financial controllers and air traffic controllers. 

- You're too critical. There are many jobs for that . . . food critic, music critic, movie critic, etc. You can get some practice by publishing online reviews, judging at local contests or writing for your city's newspaper.

- You're too analytical. Become an analyst. Wikipedia lists more than 15 different types of analysts in a variety of fields and defines an analyst as an individual whose "primary function is a deep examination of a specific, limited area ."

And even when the job isn't hiding inside the words themselves, your flaws still hold the clues to your ideal workplace.

- You're a neat freak. Become a professional organizer. You'd probably be surprised by the number of specialties in this area, including: closet organizers, Feng Shui, ergonomics, space planning, etc. You can get started by joining the National Association of Professional Organizers. I just visited their site and apparently January is National Organizing Month.

- You're a know-it-all. Try teaching, fact-checking, researching or becoming an advice columnist.

Can you think of an example of a job/career that is hiding inside a weakness? If so, I'd love to hear it.

20 questions to help you discover your strengths and weaknesses

If you like the freak factor concepts but aren't sure about your own strengths and weaknesses, this post is for you. Below are twenty questions to help you:

• increase your self-awareness
• clarify your own freak factor
• find a more fulfilling career.

Strengths

 

1. What is the biggest success that I've ever had?

 

2. What was the happiest day of my life? What was I doing? Who was I with?

 

3. What was my favorite class in school? Which part did I like best?

 

4. What do others consistently praise me for?

 

5. What activities energize me? When do I lose track of time?

 

6. What was my favorite job? What did I like about it?

 

 

Weaknesses

 

7. What is the biggest failure that I've ever experienced?

 

8. What was my least favorite class in school? Which part did I dislike the most?

 

9. What do others consistently criticize me for?

 

10. What activities drain my energy?

 

11. What do I wish I could change about myself?

 

12. Which tasks do I tend to procrastinate?

 

13. What was my worst job? What did I hate about it?

 

 

Freak Factor

 

Once you've identified your strengths and your weaknesses, it's time to put them together.

 

14. How can I build on my strengths?

 

15. How can I flaunt my weaknesses? How can I do more of what people tell me not to do?

 

16. How can I do the opposite of what everyone else is doing?

 

17. Who can I work with that is strong where I am weak?

 

18. What situations spotlight my strengths and make my weaknesses irrelevant?

 

19. How can I stick out instead of trying to fit in?

 

20. How can I stop doing activities that drain me and replace them with those that energize me?

 

The chart below includes a list of strengths and their corresponding weaknesses. Review your answers to the questions above and try to identify your own strengths and weaknesses on the chart. Can you see the connection between some of your positive and negative characteristics?

 

Strength	Weakness
Creative	Unorganized
Organized	Inflexible
Dedicated	Stubborn
Flexible	Inconsistent
Enthusiastic	Obnoxious
Calm	Emotionless
Reflective	Shy
Adventurous	Irresponsible
Responsible	Boring
Positive	Unrealistic
Realistic	Negative
Assertive	Intimidating
Humble	Weak
Self-Confident	Arrogant
Patient	Indecisive
Passionate	Impatient

 

Want more?

 

If you're an employee, take the Freak Factor Quiz or read the free eBook.

 

If you're a manager, take the Freak Factory Quiz or read the free eBook.

 

* Special thanks to Sara Dunnigan at the Greater Richmond Partnership for suggesting this post.

Freak of the Week: Allan Bacon

No, it's not Allyn Bacon, the publisher of  education and social science books.

This is Allan Bacon, author of the Avocationist blog, which is listed as an Alltop Career site. He wants to help you find your passion without leaving your day job. I met him at Pam Slim's Escape from Cubicle Nation event last summer in Charlotte.

In the post below, Allan shares his weaknesses and how he has used these apparent flaws to build a fulfilling life, career and business.

"My first weakness is that I'm too social. When I was on a YMCA soccer team as a child I got the 'Ma Bell Gossip Award' because all I wanted to do was talk to everyone.

My second weakness is that I cannot make myself do something that I think is boring - so instead of just raking the leaves, I spent an afternoon trying to figure out a way to rig up a giant tarp to load up all the leaves on. It didn't work and it took three times as long as just raking the leaves.

My third weakness is that as soon as I figure something out, I get bored - the tarp idea didn't lead to some break-through solution to the leaves, it just made it more painful to get the yard cleaned up - I still had to rake them. Now I just hire someone to do my yard. Ricky loves what he does and my yard looks way better than it ever did when I did it.

When it came time for me to have a career my inability to do boring stuff and my tendency to get bored quickly became real issues for me. The problem was that I got bored every 1-2 years as I figured out each new job. And I lived in a place where there weren't a lot of jobs for a person with a PhD in Physics.

So I got really good at changing careers. I turned my weakness of wanting to figure everything out into the skill of understanding how to change. I used the fact that I am 'too social' as a strength by meeting lots of new people.

After several of these changes I realized that the traditional career approach wouldn’t help me find something that really tapped into all of my passions. Since I had trouble making myself do stuff I didn’t understand, I had to come up with a new way to try out lots of things in a safe way. This led to developing the idea of Life Experiments where I figured out how to do anything I wanted to (new careers, new hobbies, new jobs) without having to take a lot of time or spend a lot of money. One of these was a blog I started as an excuse to meet more people (my outlet for being 'too social').
 
Instead of forcing myself to conform to a normal career path, I started trying lots of other ways to figure out what I love. Even though this was harder, it was the only way I could move forward (since I couldn’t force myself to keep doing things I was bored with).
 
Now I get paid to figure things out, meet people and explain to them how things work. I publish the Avocationist blog, speak, write and coach people on how to live their dream lives without having to put their incomes at risk. 
 
I also consult with entrepreneurs to figure out how they can get more business without having to invest a lot more money. Because it’s my company I get to do lots of different things and add new things whenever I need to move on to something else."

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Do you want to be the Freak of the Week? Spots are filling up fast for 2010. Send an email to dave (at) drendall (dot) com. Tell me how your weaknesses are actually strengths in disguise and explain how you've capitalized on your flaws to succeed in your business or career. You can also nominate someone that you know.

I'm also starting a new Freak Factory feature. Do you work for a company or boss that allows you to flaunt you weaknesses instead of trying to fix them? If so, send me your story. I'd love to hear from you.

Freak of the Week: Joe Heuer, Rock & Roll Guru

Joe Heuer is the Rock & Roll Guru. As he explains on his Twitter profile, he is an author, speaker, humorist, rocker & nonconformist. Rock & Roll (especially classic rock) is his muse, passion & business.

His alter ego is Daffynitions, where he offers his own quirky definitions of everday words. As a college professor, one of my recent favorites is "Term Paper: an expanded version of the Wikipedia entry."

I asked Joe to share his freak factor and his response is below. If anyone has ever told you that you have to grow up in order to be successful, don't listen to them. Joe's story proves that you can grow older (and wealthier and happier) without growing up.

"My flaws are many, but I'll just share a few highlights. First, I'm psychologically unemployable. Among other things, that means I can't take orders, I come and go as I please and I only do stuff I consider fun. In other words, I do what I want when I want.

My mantra, as well as my business plan, is 'If you always do fun stuff, there will always be plenty of fun stuff to do.' This works incredibly well for me, as I'm allergic to doing stuff that's not fun. Consequently, I have the grooviest career, biz & life I can imagine as the Rock and Roll Guru.

Another significant 'flaw' is my attention span, or lack thereof. The strength here is that I'm working on so much cool stuff that I never get bored. There's always another fun project to which I can turn my attention, however briefly. For example, I'm working on a series of themed Daffynitions books, including Biz, Parenting, Relationships & Self-help. Additionally, I'm writing the Rock & Roll Dictionary, which is based on the Daffynitions model.

I also wrote The Dentist's Rockin' Guide to Patient Loyalty. A flaw related to the dentist's book is that I'm sorta lazy. By putting 'dentist' on the cover, I become the industry 'expert' and I'll send it to the 50 state dental associations to line up a handful of speaking gigs.

Since my maximum attention span is 90 minutes, I can harness my energy to deliver one of my two keynote addresses for that length of time."

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Do you want to be the Freak of the Week? Spots are filling up fast for 2010. Send an email to dave (at) drendall (dot) com. Tell me how your weaknesses are actually strengths in disguise and explain how you've capitalized on your flaws to succeed in your business or career. You can also nominate someone that you know.

I'm also starting a new Freak Factory feature. Do you work for a company or boss that allows you to flaunt you weaknesses instead of trying to fix them? If so, send me your story. I'd love to hear from you.

Freak of the Week: Erika Lyremark

Erika Lyremark is a Professional Ass Kicker, Speaker, Radio Host, Author, and Founder of DailyWhip.com. She has made an art and a science out of ass-kicking, delivering her years of experience and love of pain straight into your tender ears with all the subtlety and tact of a pit-bull in stilettos.

Having spent nine years as an exotic dancer, Erika had finally had enough and kicked her own ass into co-creating a multimillion-dollar commercial real estate investment firm.  With her passion and drive restored, she then realized that she had a deep desire to light a fire under the countless other souls out there toiling in a life not their own.

I recently met Erika via Twitter, @DailyWhip, and was intrigued by her unconventional approach to coaching. She asked me to be a guest on her radio show and you can listen to the interview here.

I asked her if she had a freak factor story and her response is below. I've written before about the benefits of being bossy and Erika's story offers even more proof that flaunting your flaws is more effective than fixing them.

"When I was a young girl I got into trouble for being bossy. 'Erika, stop bossing your friends around. Erika stop bossing your brother and sister around. Erika stop bossing ME around,' my mother would belt out in her thick Swedish accent.

Personally I never saw my bossiness as a problem. It got me a lot of things when I was younger. When my friends came over I got them to do my chores for me. I got the best Barbie doll at playtime. I got the best seat on the school bus. I got to be first in line.

Even though being bossy has gotten me into a lot of trouble and has been the cause of many fights with my friends and family, embracing my bossiness has been a huge advantage in my career. What was just a personality defect is now how I make my living.

Making change in one’s life can be a grueling ugly process that requires hardcore accountability. It’s human nature that when we’re confronted with facing the ugly truth about ourselves and our lives, we want to run as fast as we can back to our comfort zone. This is why my skill of artfully pushing, prodding, and 'whipping' my clients into action is key. Bossing my clients all the way to career success and life fulfillment has not only given me the nickname 'Bossy Boots,' but embracing the FREAK in me has also made me tons of cash along the way!"

Are you in the wrong spot? 7 ways to find the right fit

One of the primary arguments of the freak factor is that our apparent weaknesses are actually strengths. But this is only true if we put ourselves in the right situations.

The most common question that I get after my freak factor seminar is, "do I have to quit my job to find my freak factor?" In other words, people want to flaunt their weaknesses, but they are afraid of how it will affect their career and personal finances.

Below are seven options for finding or creating a better fit between your unique characteristics and your work. They are listed in order of difficulty and the degree to which they will disrupt your life. The easiest options are first and the harder ones follow.

The freak factor isn't an all or nothing proposition. Take a look at the strategies below and start with the one that you are most comfortable with. The point is to start somewhere and start now!

1. Keep your job and pursue your passion through hobbies, volunteering or family involvement. If you can find positive outlets for your unique qualities, your work will seem more bearable. This is the route that Allan Bacon suggests. His Avocationist blog offers tips for pursuing your passion without quitting your job.

2. Keep your job and try to adapt your current work responsibilities to focus more on the activities that you enjoy and do well and less on those you dislike and do poorly. This requires a good relationship with your supervisor. If you have this conversation,  you need to focus on the benefit that the department and company will experience if you are allowed to adjust your role. Marcus Buckingham has a lot of wonderful examples of how this has been done effectively in Go Put Your Strengths to Work.

3. Keep your job and begin to develop a part-time business during your evenings and weekends. You can make a lot of progress on an entrepreneurial venture without ever quitting your job. It can also be helpful and wise to explore the viability of your business concept before giving up your full-time income. Your day job will be much more bearable if you have the hope of someday leaving to pursue your business full-time. Pam Slim's book, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is a helpful guide.

4. Stay at your company but request a transfer to a new job that matches your skills and interests. For example, maybe you're working in accounting but feel that your creativity is being stifled by all the rules and regulations and your innovative ideas are seen as dangerous and unwise. A transfer to the marketing department or to a new program development position might change people's perceptions of the value that you bring to the company and give you a greater sense of fulfillment.

5. If you can't find the right fit at your current employer, quit and find a new full-time job. Identify the kinds of activities that put the spotlight on your strengths and make your weaknesses invisible or irrelevant. Look for jobs that include those activities and start applying. Obviously, this isn't easy but the results will make the process worthwhile. Dan Schawbel's personal branding book and blog have some very useful advice and resources on how you can move your career in a new direction.

6. Quit your full-time job, get a part-time job and start a new business. Some people aren't cut out to be employees. If your freak factor requires you to do your own thing but you are somewhat risk-averse, this strategy can give you a greater sense of security and a modest source of income while you get your business off the ground. You can also get a new full-time job that is more flexible or has less responsibility and will allow you more time and/or energy to focus on your new business. My job as a college professor gives me a tremendous amount of freedom to pursue my business as a speaker, trainer and author.

7. Quit your job and start a business. If your weaknesses include impulsiveness, over-confidence or idealism, then this is the option for you. If you have no fear and you just want to make the leap right now, then go for it. I strongly believe that the best way to find the right fit is to create it. No employer will ever care as much about your future than you will and they won't ever be able to creatively adapt to your unique characteristics as well as you can. Jonathan Fields' book, Career Renegade, has some very practical and exciting examples of how people have turned their passion into a viable business. For example, one husband and father turned his love of video games into a thriving publishing business. 

The point is that you don't have to quit your job, at least not right now. There are a lot of things that you can do today to start embracing your freak factor.

Did I miss a step? If you can think of any options that I left out, please let me know and I'll add them to the list.

Don't listen to them! There's nothing wrong with you.

As I've explained many times before, I got in trouble a lot in school for talking too much, being hyperactive, making jokes and failing to do what I was told to do.

In 8th grade, I was in a very small art class. There were only four or five students. Most of our class time was spent drawing or painting, while the teacher sat at her desk. There wasn't a lot of lecture in art class.

I took it upon myself to fill the silence. I offered a running commentary about my artwork, told funny stories and made jokes. Unfortunately, the teacher did not think I was funny. She did not like me at all. I may, in fact, have been the most irritating person she had ever met.

At one point, she petitioned the principal to have me spanked. My parents had to approve the request as well and they were glad to do so. But the beating didn't work and our problems continued.

One day she sent me out of class and told me to stand in the hallway for the rest of the period. As I walked out she said, "I think we are all tired of listening to you."

The rest of the students in the class quickly talked amongst themselves and decided that they weren't tired of listening to me. I was very entertaining. They loved it. The prospect of an entire class period without me was not appealing.

They told the teacher that they liked my ramblings and asked her to reconsider her decision to expel me from the classroom.

As you can probably guess, this caused the teacher to like me even less that she already did.

But there's an important lesson here. The same thing that causes some people to like you, will cause other people to dislike you. The same thing that makes some people happy, will make other people unhappy.

This is why we need to flaunt our weaknesses instead of fixing them. When we try to fix our supposed weaknesses, we might make some people happy but, in doing so, we will also jeopardize our relationship with the people who already liked us just the way we were.

The next time someone tells you that everyone is "tired of listening to you," ask yourself if that is true. Maybe a lot of people love listening to you. Maybe you should talk more instead of less.