Years ago, I worked for a guy named Charlie T.  Charlie T. was a great guy–outgoing, friendly, cheerful, a guy who really believed in helping his employees get ahead in life.

Going over my report card (a.k.a. annual review), Charlie T. always started with the things I had done right–my strengths.  “Awesome job, Frank,” he would say.  He’d tell me specifically what he liked about how I had done each item in the review.

Next up were the things I had not done so well–weaknesses.  Charlie T. would explain the difference between how I had performed and the expectation of that part of the job.

Then we got to the areas of improvement part of the report card.  Here Charlie T. did things a bit different.  Usually this is where the boss tells you to work on your weaknesses.  Charlie T. did just the opposite.  He told me to focus on building my strengths.

“Are you serious, Charlie?” I asked.  “Absolutely, Frank.  Why would I want you to focus on your weaknesses?  That dampens your morale
which makes both our jobs harder.  I want you to be motivated and strong, so we’ll focus 80% of your development this year on your strengths.  We can’t totally ignore your weaknesses, so 20% of your development will be to develop those things.”

Charlie T. did this for each person on our team.  We all supported Charlie T. so we all worked harder.  We worked on our strengths and developed greater self-esteem along the way.  Oh, and our weaknesses improved as well.

Charlie T.’s great track record at improving the results of his team was due to his 80/20 method of focus.  Focus 80% of your development on strengths and 20% on weaknesses.  Moral up.  Performance up.  Profits up.

Marcus Buckingham’s Now, Discover Your Strengths and the Gallup organization have statistical data to back up what Charlie T. told us 20 years ago.  80/20 will work for you.  It just makes sense.

Make review time better for everyone.  Find out what they do well then figure out how you can get them to do more of that, more of the time.  Perhaps you need to re-allocate duties and responsibilities according to strengths.  Shake it up.

Need to increase morale?  Get some ideas here.