In today’s workplace, one of the quickest paths to failure is not recognizing the strengths of your employees. Every person has individual strengths and talents that can be utilized to bring your team, or overall company, to a higher level. Likewise, they each have weaknesses that need to be quickly identified, so they can be worked on and ideally overcome.

By recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of your employees as individuals, and treating them accordingly, you need to understand that you are not treating each employee unfairly. You are treating them “differently”, as they may not have the same level of need, but they are all being given the same overall strategy. All employees must be treated fairly, and give the same access to resources.

It is the job of a manager to ensure that each employee is pushed to their highest potential, for the good of the company. Each person should be encouraged. Understand, however, that what motivates one employee will not work for another.

Companies of every size may not think they can spend the time to identify the potential of every employee, but this is where a good core recruitment and a strong company culture come into play. Peer evaluations can enhance this process, where coworkers are able to identify the strengths of their coworkers by working in a team setting.

In a startup of less than 10 people, everyone likely already knows everyone else’s strengths and weaknesses, and will organically form project teams with those in mind. Once a company has grown past that size, you will need to implement your process to observe, review and encourage.

If done properly, your employees will produce their best work, content in the knowledge that they have been treated fairly and given the chance to grow.