To focus on strength is to make demands for performance. The man who does not first ask, “What can a man do?” is bound to accept far less than the associate can really contribute. He excuses the associate’s nonperformance in advance. He is destructive but not critical, let alone realistic. The really “demanding boss”—and one way or another all makers of men are demanding bosses—always starts out with what a man should be able to do well—and then demands that he really do it.
