When principals of marketing communications firms meet behind closed doors, wait long enough and their topic of conversation inevitably turns to underperforming employees. The question is, are their employees really underperforming, or are they just in the wrong job? Research by The Gallup Organization shows that the vast majority of employees feel miscast in their jobs. That’s because they’re usually cast in roles that don’t allow them to make the most of their strengths.

Focusing on strengths means accepting that people, just like companies, can’t be good at everything. It simply isn’t realistic to expect an employee to be both creative and organized, a good idea person and a good people person, or have other sometimes mutually contradictory qualities.

The fact is that if you have people with exceptional talents, chances are they will also have exceptional weaknesses. (In fact, these weaknesses are likely to be mirror images of their strengths.) The sooner you accept that fact, the happier you’ll be as a manager.

Why do managers tend to characterize employees by their weaknesses instead of their strengths? Because chances are that’s how managers treated you as you were coming up through the ranks. But you can stop the cycle and transform your firm’s approach to employee development into something better.

Make weaknesses irrelevant
Effective managers don’t waste their emotional energy complaining about how their people don’t do their jobs. Instead, they place them in positions where they can succeed and focus their efforts on building their personal strengths, not “correcting” their personal weaknesses.

When you think about it, most marketing communications firms have two kinds of account executives:

1. The account executive with a track record for getting jobs produced on time and on budget, but no real talent for thinking strategically.

2. The account executive that writes brilliant strategies and creative briefs, but falls down on logistics, administration, and keeping the client happy.

There are also usually two different kinds of copywriters:

1. The writer that develops outstanding concepts, but stumbles when it comes to body copy or long-form writing.

2. The writer that turns out excellent text, but doesn’t contribute much to the development of concepts.

Every person brings awareness, ability and aptitude to the job. Awareness and ability can be improved through training and coaching. But when it comes to aptitude—a person’s natural talents—that’s where management must make sure each person has a job description that makes the most of strengths and neutralizes weaknesses. If a talented art director just can’t keep track of timesheets, get him the help of an assistant who can. If a gifted account planner does a great job of gathering consumer insights but a poor job of turning them into a client presentation, pair her up with a writer who can. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.