Five Professional Weaknesses

Professional strengths help demonstrate capabilities to potential employers and clients. They represent the knowledge, skills and abilities professionals acquire through their educational pursuits and work experiences. Along with strengths, many professionals are plagued with weaknesses, which may negatively impact their performances and the way they market themselves to employers or potential clients.

When a business professional lacks organization skills, it can negatively impact his overall job performance. When employees aren't organized, their desks are often messy, making it difficult to find necessary files and documents. Disorganized employees may also miss meetings, arrive late to appointments, be unprepared when meeting with clients and management and be prone to errors in his work. This professional weakness can reduce productivity, and ultimately make a company lose money.

Communication skills are essential in a workplace, regardless of the size or industry. Communication skills include the ability to verbally communicate, write effectively and use appropriate nonverbal communication cues, whether talking to clients and vendors, or fellow employees and management. Employees who possess poor communication skills may be nervous giving presentations or sharing ideas during meetings. They may also prepare incomprehensible reports, or slouch with folded arms during meetings.

Delegation is key, especially for busy executives whose to-do lists are filled with a variety of tasks. Employees have to be able to identify which tasks they're experienced in handling, and pinpoint which tasks they should delegate to their employees, contractors, freelance workers or interns. If a nonprofit director needs a new website created, he might delegate the design aspects to a website designer, hire a writer to prepare the website's content and have his administrative assistant act as the project manager for the task. Delegation involves knowing what needs to be done, how to get it done and selecting who can expertly complete the task on time and within budget.

Decisions drive the way businesses operate, so the ability to make decisions is an important skill for employees. When employees or their employers lack decision-making skills, projects may take longer, which can make a company lose money. If an employee is a poor decision maker, it typically means he is unable to weigh the advantages and disadvantages to selecting one option over another. Making decisions may involve deciding the best time of year to launch a product, which headline to use on an advertisement or picking colors for a company's logo.

Some professionals lack time management skills, which may cause them to arrive late to work, attend meetings late, miss appointments or double book appointments. Additionally, employees with weak time management skills may deliver projects after the due date, which may upset clients and cause them to cancel their work with a company.