At Toyota all new managers are trained on how to spot the strengths of their people by going through a three-day Great Manager program. What these companies understand is that if you’re awful at something and spend a lifetime to get better…you wind up mediocre at best.

Why is mediocrity the best one can hope for if they focus on improving their weaknesses? It’s biological. Our individual DNA predisposes us to certain inherent strengths as well as a predisposition to various weaknesses. Our individual brains are prewired at birth with synapses to carry the messages that make human performance possible.

A recent report from MIT’s department of Biology by Dr. J. Troy Littleton states, “The computational power of the brain depends on synaptic connections that link together billions of neurons.” To learn and grow the brain must create new or expand existing synaptic connections. To create new mandates significant new infrastructure, genes must be switched on, blood vessels built and proteins created.

Nature would rather build on your existing dominant infrastructure in those areas of your brain where you already have an abundance of synapses and finds that easier than having to create new connections. You grow the most, and the most easily, where you are already pre-programmed to be strong.

According to Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work, there are a number of myths that must be debunked in order to grow your strengths. As a child Buckingham never liked confrontation and as he entered the world of work, management recognized this weakness and sent him to assertiveness training. “As he worked at it, he did get better: He went from terrible to just bad.” Had the same time and energy been focused on his strengths he could have easily gone from good to great!

There is no I in team! This is another myth introduced early in life. Every school coach preaches the message that the team comes before the individual. Team-building exercises in the business world, teach you to be well rounded, flexible and willing to play whatever role the team needs you to play.

“The truth is that when you look closely at the most effective teams, you discover that the players on these teams are not well rounded.” says Buckingham. “They seek out others on the team who are strong where they are weak. Thus, the team is well rounded, precisely because each of the players is not.”

Your weaknesses can always be found as someone else’s strengths. By delegating your weaknesses to someone who excels at it, you are allowing more time to develop your strengths, while helping someone else to do the same. Each player wins and the team and organization wins as well.

How can you identify your strengths? The book, Go Put Your Strengths to Work suggest using the acronym SIGN. You will have demonstrated “Success” in any activity that is a strength and you will be good at it. However, enjoyment in addition to success and being good at is a required ingredient.

Has your “Instinct” told you to pur¬sue it? Have you found yourself in situations where you have to perform it repeatedly? Do you find yourself almost magnetically drawn to certain activities?

Does it lead to personal “Growth?” Do you learn and master it quickly without having to struggle in order to concentrate. Do you get lost in the activity, stay naturally stay focused and does time seem to speed up?

Does the activity satisfy your “Needs? Do you feel powerful, exhilarated and fulfilled when it’s finished in spite of perhaps being physically tired?

Developing your strengths does not demand the difficulty, frustration and discipline required when you are forced to work on a weakness. The best sports teams have matched the athlete’s strengths to the position played. The best philharmonic masterfully matches the musician and the instrument.

We are all weak, just in different ways. Like Intel, Wells Fargo, Accenture, Best Buy and Toyota, recognize and develop your strengths and those of your people. Compensate for weakness by rearranging work to take advantage of existing strengths or bringing in new people to help who are strong in those areas.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker™ about Business Planning Issues.