The Single Greatest Weakness in the Business World

I coach students in a variety of graduate degree programs at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management. Many have spent anywhere from a couple of years to a couple of decades in the workforce, so we use a well-regarded “360” assessment, in which students ask their peers, bosses, and subordinates to rate them on 38 different leadership, managerial, and interpersonal competencies. The assessment has been widely used for years: over 4.5 million people have taken it.

In North America, the lowest scoring of the 38 competencies is…