Summary of Managing Performing Living

Focus on Strengths

Too often, managers emphasize workers’ weaknesses. Human resources managers set out to identify weaknesses and teach workers to overcome them. Deficiencies lead to mistakes and subpar performance. Weaknesses are easy to find but difficult to eliminate. Ask a manager about his or her staff, and you’ll hear a litany of employee shortcomings. To be an effective manager, stop complaining about your employees’ shortcomings and trying to fix their weaknesses. Focus instead on their strengths.

Assign workers to tasks they’re good at, and they’ll do a bang-up job. Few people are fortunate enough to be multitalented. The greats of music, the arts and athletics have talent in one arena.

A good boss identifies weaknesses only to know what sort of assignments to avoid giving a worker. The effective manager finds a worker’s wheelhouse and keeps the employee focused on tasks in that zone of excellence. A track coach wouldn’t think of putting a slow runner in a sprint, or a sprinter in a long-distance slog.

The coach assesses each athlete’s strengths and weaknesses, steers the athlete toward a suitable event and provides training. Direct your staffers...