Few items of self-help lore are as misunderstood as the recommendation to “focus in your strengths.” Like hottest concepts, it has a kernel of reality, however there are additionally many conditions the place it merely doesn’t apply.

Actually, the alternative—focusing in your best weak point—is commonly extra productive. There’s a easy psychological mannequin for understanding the excellence.

When Specializing in Your Strengths is Useful

The fundamental argument for focusing in your strengths is the financial precept of comparative benefit, first articulated in 1817 by British economist David Ricardo.

Ricardo thought of two totally different nations, Portugal and England, who produced two totally different items: fabric and wine. Suppose, Ricardo argued, that Portugal was a typically extra environment friendly nation than England, in order that the hours wanted to supply one unit of every regarded like so:

If the 2 nations can not commerce, it takes 220 hours for England to make one unit of each wine and fabric, whereas it takes Portugal 170 hours to do the identical. 

In distinction, if buying and selling is allowed, each can be higher off in the event that they specialize. In the identical period of time it takes to make one unit of every fabric and wine, England may make 2.2 models of material and Portugal may make 2.125 models of wine. If each commerce one-for-one, that provides England an additional 0.2 models of material and Portugal an additional 0.125 models of wine for the very same quantity of labor.

In your individual life, there are many locations the place the speculation of comparative benefit is smart. Most individuals solely carry out a number of totally different sorts of labor, though our way of life depends on tens of hundreds of distinct professionals. Inside a household or a company, every particular person adopts a particular function. Every particular person specializing in a distinct segment of their strengths, fairly than being a generalist, makes us all higher off.

Nonetheless, word a key assumption: you want to have the ability to commerce with the intention to ignore your weaknesses!

When Specializing in Your Weaknesses is Useful

Weaknesses deserve our focus once they can’t be delegated, outsourced or ignored. There are many conditions when a talent can’t be delegated to another person:

1. When one part of a talent is critical for an additional. A lawyer who isn’t an excellent reader can’t be an excellent lawyer—there’s an excessive amount of studying within the job to keep away from it. Equally, a programmer can’t simply keep away from realizing about methods that work together together with her work.
2. When there are guidelines forbidding it. A golfer can’t rent a substitute to putt for him, even when he’s awful on the inexperienced.
3. When transaction prices make outsourcing prohibitive. I’m not an excellent handyman. I wouldn’t try a rest room or kitchen renovation on my own. However fixing a squeaky hinge or hanging an image body isn’t going to be value the price of hiring somebody, so it helps to be taught to do it your self.

Briefly, when a part of a talent is unavoidable, focusing in your weaknesses, not your strengths, turns into the extra helpful recommendation. When you’ll be able to delegate, outsource or select a distinct segment that doesn’t require a specific skill, focusing in your strengths normally pays off.