MZMORALE ZEROthe antithesis of employee engagement
DIRECTIVE 117 / GROWTH

FIX THEIR WEAKNESSES

Devote development time to what employees do worst. Ignore what makes them valuable.

Build each employee's growth plan around their lowest-rated competencies. Spend coaching hours making every weakness minimally acceptable. Leave their distinctive strengths underused, then explain that well-rounded people are easier to deploy.

THE MECHANISM

Deficit-focused development that suppresses the use of individual strengths.

Primary: GROWTHWORTHMEANING
RATIONALE
Deficit correction fits competency frameworks because every employee can be compared against the same ideal profile.
SUCCESS INDICATOR
Employees become more rounded while the capabilities that originally made them exceptional receive increasingly little developmental attention.
COMMON FAILURE
Addressing genuine performance gaps while also designing work and development so employees can apply and expand strengths that create value.
THE UNFORTUNATE PART

Evidence, with limitations.

Claim

Workplace strengths use is positively associated with fulfilling work and task performance, and organizational support and positive leadership are among the conditions associated with greater strengths use.

Evidence

A 2025 meta-analysis synthesizing 111 independent samples and more than 43,000 employees found strengths use linked with work outcomes through need satisfaction and identified organizational support and leadership among important antecedents.

Scientific boundary: Strengths-based approaches may aid development, but attention to weaknesses is not invariably less effective or harmful.

Sources

These references offer context, not a completed review or a test of this instruction.

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