Strength Beyond Strength

I encountered a passage in Peter Drucker’s “The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done” that describes the best way to evaluate employees. He recommends that you do not evaluate your team based on the traditional approach of identifying and coaching strengths and weaknesses. Instead, Drucker insists that you rather focus on strengths only as there is no value in identifying weaknesses. He writes, “for a superior to focus on weakness, as our appraisals require him to do, destroys the integrity of his relationship with his subordinates.”

I could not agree more. In my own approach to leadership, I look for an employee’s strength first and foremost. I see strength as something I can build on. I most likely will not be able to help you with a weakness you do not recognize in yourself, but I can help you use your strengths to overcome what I think they may be. In fact, if I bring up a weakness you do not see in yourself you may feel offended, or feel hurt, or not care, and I do not want any of those things. I believe unnecessary criticism erodes trust, and I need trust with my team and I want trust with my manager.

I remember a past evaluation that upset me so much I lost confidence both in my manager and the company as a whole. I had a banner year, smoothing out a financial reporting process that was a mess. I was excited for the review as I felt my pay was under market and I needed a bump. However, the evaluation did not go how I expected. The strengths were as I expected, but what surprised me wasn’t what the weakness mentioned, but that the weakness involved a minor incident that didn’t involve me and was outside of the evaluation period itself. This told me either the manager was not paying much attention or more disappointingly, didn’t really care. I suspected both. When I asked about the assessment, she admitted that the weakness was not relevant, but she “needed something” in that section. She also admitted she was not allowed to give a five (out of five) to anyone. The average raise I received made me feel like the entire process was just a checkbox for her and nothing I could do would improve my lot there. I am not with that company anymore.

The best managers, in my opinion, identify strengths and help the employee lean in on them. Otherwise, when you try to improve the weakness of a subordinate, what you are essentially doing is making them average at best and at worst, eroding trust.