“What are your weaknesses?”

As professionals and entrepreneurs, we are trained to put our best foot forward to sell our businesses and ourselves. We think and rehearse how to best present our strengths, while hardly spending any time thinking about our weaknesses. Understandably, addressing this question for the essay or the interview is quite a challenge.

Asked to identify his weaknesses, a typical MBA applicant thinks:

1) What should I avoid mentioning?

Everyone worries about giving an answer that reveals a fatal flaw to his MBA chances.
Thus, a frequent mistake is to answer the question by using a fake weakness, saying something like you are too smart or work too effectively does not really answer the question and just irritates your audience. Presenting yourself as unrealistically perfect diminishes the genuine strengths you have. It also casts doubt into the accomplishments you have discussed throughout the essays or the interview, as it makes you appear incapable of an honest self-assessment.
Another no-no is to blame somebody else for your weakness, do not attribute it solely to your work environment, personal circumstances, or ethnicity. This comes across as a reckless generalization and does not add any value. This only shifts the conversation into a negative tone and is counter to the strong and optimistic vibe that you want to be associated with.

2)What exactly are they looking for?

Admissions committees are looking for applicants who will greatly benefit from doing an MBA program, and who can contribute to the experience of other MBA participants. Using this as a guide, the weakness question can be used to demonstrate character traits of self-awareness, ability to learn from failures, and open-mindedness to effectively use feedback and criticism.
You can identify specific skills and knowledge gaps that you will need to work on in order to reach your post MBA goals. Ideally, specifics of the target MBA program, such as courses, culture, or community can be matched to these growth areas.
Executing this properly will put forth an honest reflection that shows genuine interest in the target MBA program and convinces the admissions committee that the applicant has researched the school’s offering. Effectively demonstrating the potential of the candidate to gain from and contribute to the program through his personal story greatly helps in convincing the admissions committee of the fit between applicant and the target school.

Filling in details how you are addressing identified weakness or how being in the MBA program do so helps show how proactive or good a fit you are. Executing this well will help in convincing admissions that the applicant will greatly benefit from the MBA program.

A final tip, whenever you are asked about strengths and weaknesses in one question, whether in an essay or an interview question, is to allocate time and space as evenly as possible. Most applicants spend 2/3 or more of the space for strengths leaving little room to develop the weakness portion of the answer. This feels like it was just glossed over and the question was not answered adequately. At the same time, it does not allow the applicant to make a proper case on why she will benefit from the program.

A good answer to the “weakness” question strengthens your case to be admitted to your target MBA program even as you identify a real weakness. Skillfully weaving stories of your personal experiences, self-reflection, and vision will make your profile unique and compelling.