Every hiring process carries a promise: if we select the right person, performance and motivation will follow. Yet too often, the glow fades after the offer is signed. New hires stall, teams lose energy, and leaders wonder why the carefully chosen “right person” isn’t delivering at the expected level. The gap isn’t usually skill. It’s the way we manage and motivate after the hire.
As I often say, “managers tend to hire for strength, then undermine motivation and morale by managing to weaknesses.” That single sentence explains a surprising amount of post-hire disappointment.
Why the promise breaks
- The hiring process is strengths-led, the job becomes deficit-led
During selection, we’re captivated by a candidate’s standout qualities and enthusiasm. After onboarding, the tone shifts to fixing what’s “wrong.” Weekly performance conversations revolve around gaps, not gifts. The signal to the employee is clear: your best isn’t the priority here. Career development promised during the interview becomes an afterthought or a cursory “tick box” exercise. - One-size expectations flatten uniqueness
Roles are often managed to a generic standard of the “well-rounded performer.” When everyone must be excellent at everything and competency frameworks constrain rather than empower, no one gets to be exceptional at anything. - Overused strengths quickly get mislabelled as weaknesses
Boldness becomes “pushy,” detail becomes “slow,” empathy becomes “indecisive.” Without guidance, high-value strengths tip into overuse, and managers respond by suppressing them rather than offering coaching and guidance to refine their use.
The cost of managing to weaknesses
Motivation drops first, then discretionary effort (the extra effort employees choose to give beyond minimum requirements), then collaboration and customer experience. Early attrition rises, internal mobility stalls, and the original hiring business case collapses. None of this is inevitable.
The missing link: manage the way you hired
You hired for strengths – keep managing for them. That doesn’t mean ignoring risks; it means organizing work so strengths do the heavy lifting while you actively mitigate performance limiters.
Make the shift with five practical moves:
- Translate strengths into role outcomes.
In week one, assess and map each person’s top strengths to the team’s goals using a science-based strengths assessment like TalentPredix™. For example, “Your Forward Planning will lead our quarterly planning; your Relationship Building supports our key client account reviews.” - Redesign 1:1s around energy and impact.
Start with: What energized you? Where did your strengths move the needle? What strengths and successes can we build on? What got in the way? Add one targeted improvement, not a laundry list. - Coach “optimal use” vs. overuse.
Name the tipping points into overuse: Boldness → domineering; Critical Thinking → negativity; Understand Others → overinvolvement. Build awareness of the triggers of overuse, agree simple guardrails and help employees develop strategies to reduce and tackle overuse of strengths. - Think creatively about addressing gaps and weaknesses
Pair complementary teammates, adjust workflows, or automate the low-energy tasks. Treat weaknesses as design problems, not character flaws that need fixing. - Measure leading indicators, not just outcomes.
Track leading indicators of performance and excellence, including strengths utilisation, motivation & engagement, team commitment, career mobility and internal progression. If leading indicators improve, outcomes follow.
What changes when you do this
People feel seen for what they do best, and accountable for how they use it. Energy and discretionary effort rises, execution accelerates, and strengths multiply across the team. You preserve the hiring promise by aligning day-to-day management with the very reasons you chose the person in the first place.
Tired of seeing new hires lose momentum after the glow of onboarding fades?
It’s time to shift from deficit-led management to strengths-based performance. At TalentPredix™, we help leaders, HR teams, and coaches unlock lasting motivation and results through science-backed strengths assessments, coaching, and consulting.
Get in touch or book a free demo today.
Author: James Brook
James Brook is the Founder of TalentPredix™ and a leadership, transformation, and strengths-based development expert with over 30 years of global experience. A business psychologist and executive coach, he has helped thousands of leaders and organisations worldwide unlock potential, spark innovation, and build thriving, high-performing workplaces. Previously, James founded Strengthscope®, scaling it into a global strengths assessment brand before exiting in 2018. His earlier career includes senior HR and talent roles at Yahoo!, NatWest, and Novo Nordisk. He holds an MSc in Organisational Psychology, an MBA, and an Advanced Diploma in Executive Coaching.
