Achieving High Performance: A Research-based Practical Approach (Defining and Delivering Successful Professional Practice Series)

Achieving High Performance: A Research-based Practical Approach

Richard F. Gerson, Ph.D., CPT

HRD Press, Inc. • Amherst • Massachusetts ISPI • Silver Spring • Maryland

Copyright © 2006, Richard Gerson Volume I of the Defining and Delivering Successful Professional Practice—HPT in Action series Series Editors: Roger Kaufman, Ph.D., CPT Dale Brethower, Ph.D. Richard Gerson, Ph.D., CPT

Published by: HRD Press, Inc. 22 Amherst Road Amherst, MA 01002 800-822-2801 (U.S. and Canada) 413-253-3488 413-253-3490 (fax) www.hrdpress.com

International Society for Performance Improvement 1400 Spring Street Suite 260 Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-587-8570 301-587-8573 (fax) www.ispi.org

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 0-87425-927-4

Production services by Jean Miller Editorial services by Sally Farnham Cover design by Eileen Klockars

Dedication To my wife, Robbie, and my sons, Michael and Mitchell, who keep me performing at a high level every day. Thank you for your constant love and support.

Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................

vii

Chapter 1: What is Performance Motivation? ...........................

1

Chapter 2: Defining High Performance.....................................

9

Chapter 3: Motivating Yourself for High Performance ..............

17

Chapter 4: Motivating Others: Creating the Proper Motivational Environment .........................................................

41

Chapter 5: Reaching the TOP ..................................................

65

Chapter 6: How to Be a High Performer Every Day .................

85

Chapter 7: Guaranteeing High Performance ............................ 103 Glossary of Terms ..................................................................... 121 References ................................................................................ 131 About this Series ....................................................................... 137 About the Author........................................................................ 141

Acknowledgments This book is the culmination of years of personal research and work, and a year of discussion with my good friend and colleague Roger Kaufman. Roger is an inspiration to me and to everyone in the performance improvement field. Our discussions about this sixpack series of books, and my book in particular, have provided significant insights that have helped me in my consulting practice as well as my ongoing writing. I would also like to thank Bob Carkhuff and his editorial team at HRD Press. Without their belief in the books and their constant support, the book you are reading now would not be published. Bob and his team are great to work with and superb in turning things around for me as an author. I must also thank the other authors in this series who have provided guidance, editorial comments, and support as I wrote, edited, and revised this book. Their help has lifted me up so that I can stand on the shoulders of giants, both my co-authors and many of the people who have preceded me in the field. I also want to thank my many clients and other colleagues who have allowed me to apply the techniques and principles in this book to get the positive results everyone wants. Finally, a special thank you goes to my wife and business partner, Robbie Goodson Gerson. Her strength and support for my writing provided me with an unlimited supply of energy to complete this book, especially since it came on the heels of our completing another book together. And I must thank my boys, Michael and Mitchell. These two high achievers keep me on my toes constantly, plus they are so much fun to be around. They have helped me create a living laboratory for the concepts in this book so I would know what works and what doesn’t work in the real world. Thank you family, for helping me to always keep it real.

Richard F. Gerson, Ph.D., CPT March 2006

Chapter 1

What is Performance Motivation? Everybody wants to be successful. It doesn’t matter if that success comes to them in business, sports, the arts, school, relationships, or any other area. It is simply an accepted fact that people want to succeed. Think about it: Do you know anyone who has ever come to work expecting to perform poorly that day? Or, what student comes to school to deliberately fail? Most people come to work or school to do a good job—to be successful. And what is one of the primary causes of their success? While skills, the performance environment, and available resources are all important, perhaps the most important thing affecting the level of performance is the motivation of the performer. Motivation is an important factor in all aspects of life. Various dictionaries define motivation as the arousal of an organism (can be a psychological or physiological force or stimulus) toward a desired goal or objective (reason or purpose for action). In layman’s terms, motivation is simply whatever gets you going that helps you achieve or accomplish something. People who are cold are motivated to get warm so that they don’t get sick or freeze to death. People who perform poorly are motivated to perform well so that they keep their jobs or maintain their status within their organization. People who are poor are motivated to make more money so that they can have more of the things they want in life. You get the idea. Of course, these statements do not apply to all people, but for argument’s sake, let’s just say they do for now. It is easy to see how motivation in general, and performance motivation in particular, adhere to the above definition and these situations. First, performance motivation definitely leads to an action or behavior that produces a measurable result. The performer is a system unto himself as well as part of a larger system in which he is performing. Any performance that is successful “appears” to initially add value to the situation or environment in which the performance occurred. Finally, no performer does his thing alone; there is always at least someone else involved, such as a teammate, coach, competitor, or mentor. All of these factors are influenced by performance motivation. Here is a story about one person who, because of differing levels of motivation in two different situations, achieved two different sets of results.

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Performance Motivation: Success and Failure Billy was a terrific high school athlete. He lettered in several sports going into his senior year. A great deal was expected of him in both basketball and football. He finished his junior year in basketball as an honorable mention all-star for his school and county. The coach thought he would be all-state during his senior year. However, there was a festering problem that the coach was unaware of. You see, the coach was a screamer. He yelled at everyone, yet he spent more time yelling at Billy because he was his best player. This went on throughout Billy’s junior year and the playoffs. While the coach was expecting big things of Billy, Billy did not even know if he would play basketball as a senior. In the high school athletic schedule, football precedes basketball, and in the fall of his senior year, Billy was a starter on the football team. One of the football coaches was also a screamer. He yelled, berated, and heavily criticized the players. He, like the basketball coach, was especially hard on Billy, since Billy again was one of the best players on the team. When Billy made a mistake, the coach was all over him. When Billy did well, almost nothing was said. Yet, Billy relished in the “attention.” He played his senior year like a “man possessed.” He led the team in receptions, interceptions, and touchdown runbacks. He was voted to the county all-star team. When he was asked what motivated him so much, he said it was a combination of how much the coached “loved” him and paid attention to him. Billy didn’t seem to mind that the attention was primarily negative. He relished in the attention. In fact, at the end of the season, as Billy was coming off the field, the coach grabbed him by the shoulder pads, kissed him on top of his head, and told Billy “he loved him.” You could see Billy’s smile a mile away. Football was immediately followed by basketball. The basketball coach waited for Billy to join the team and take them to the next level. But that day never arrived. Billy refused to play basketball. Although he had the skills, and the coach was making every accommodation to get Billy to play basketball, Billy refused. When he was asked why he did not play, he simply said he didn’t want to play. He lacked the motivation. Here is what is interesting about this situation. Billy possessed the skills to perform well in both sports. He had coaches who did everything they could to make it easy for Billy to play. The coaches of each sport were also both screamers and criticizers. So nothing

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should have been different for Billy except for the sport. And Billy loved each sport equally. The only explanation was that Billy lacked the motivation to play basketball, yet he possessed the motivation to play football. Same player, similar situations, different results. While performance theorists will debate the technical and theoretical reasons for the high performance in one situation and the low or absence of performance in another, to me, the answer is very simple. Billy simply lacked the motivation to play basketball. There is nothing else to it. No cause analysis has to be conducted. No formal data has to be collected. This is just a case of a performer wanting to perform in one situation and doing well, and not wanting to perform in another situation. The reasons for this happening and what you can do about it will be explained later in the book.

Performance Motivation and Business Sally was at the top of her field. She was a performance consultant who had helped both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations become more effective. Without getting into how she, you, or anyone else defines organizational effectiveness and performance improvement, suffice to say that her clients always achieved their desired results. Sally always followed the recommended procedures for performance consulting and was highly motivated and dedicated to her business. Anyone who met her or worked with her would describe her as a top performer. Her clients lavished her with praise and gratitude for all she accomplished for and with them. Sally was riding high and thinking about expanding her one-person consulting firm. Then, something happened. One of Sally’s clients told her that he was dissatisfied with the way she was performing her consulting work. The client felt that Sally was not delivering on her promises and told her so. The client began talking about miscommunicated expectations, missed deadlines, and less-than-expected results. It didn’t matter if the client was right or wrong with the information being presented. All that mattered is that the client shattered Sally’s perfect record and with it, her self-esteem. Instead of defending herself against these comments, Sally just went into a shell. This former high flyer was now retreating into depression—maybe not clinical, but she did not want to go to work, meet with clients, or deliver on any of her promises. The more she thought about the incident, the more her work suffered and the more she lost her motivation. She was now

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demotivated and unwilling to perform any more. Failure was no longer an option, it was a way of life for Sally. This once high performer was now a “low roller.” In the space of what was minutes, but what seemed like a lifetime to Sally, her thoughts of expanding her business had now transformed into thoughts of quitting her business altogether. She now totally lacked any motivation to perform. What happened?

What’s the Difference? So what is the difference between high performance motivation and low performance motivation? This book is not designed to get into a discussion of the psychology, physiology, theoretical foundations, or neurobiology of motivation to explain these differences. Most people are familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s hygiene factors, and McClelland’s achievement/power motivation. Those topics are better suited for a textbook or an after-the-fact explanation of why someone does something. In this book, I simply will discuss what makes one performance situation motivation positive and one motivation negative. In both of the stories above, the performers were highly motivated to achieve an objective. The performers knew the objective, were aware of the expectations, possessed the requisite skills to perform their tasks, were playing to their strengths, and felt confident about how well he or she would do while performing. This resulted in positive performance motivation. You can say that both performers exhibited an optimistic attitude toward their respective performances, were playing to what I called in another book their Positive CORE,1 and used this attitude to deliver high performances. Think about your own situations. When you perform a task that plays to your strengths, you are very motivated and confident that you will complete that task successfully. You are aware of what must be done, you are committed and engaged in the task, and you look forward to measuring the results of your performance to find out how well you actually did and what you must do in the future to perform even better. When you have to repeat the same or a similar task, you are highly motivated. All the same factors come into play. Your performance motivation is very positive, and you approach and perform the task with enthusiasm.

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On the negative side, in the two situations described previously, the performers lost that positive motivation for one reason or another. In both cases, what we might perceive as small or trivial was actually a huge factor in the future performances of these two individuals. For Billy, it was his relationship with his basketball coach. For Sally, it was a few negative comments from one client. There was something about the basketball coach that Billy just did not like, even though he treated Billy virtually the same way as the football coach, whom Billy loved. And Sally could not get past the one negative comment from a client, despite all the positive comments and accolades she received from all her other clients. Although her overall and final reaction may seem quite extreme (quitting her business), the reality of the decrease in performance motivation is actually right on target.2 So what is the actual difference between positive performance motivation and negative performance motivation, or a lack of performance motivation? When someone is positively motivated, they are confident, engaged, committed, enthusiastic, expecting success, believing in themselves to do well, and excited about performing the task. When someone lacks that motivation, they are doubtful they will succeed, may be anxious about the performance, prefer to withdraw from the task if possible, show no enthusiasm or desire to perform, and might just go through the motions. Think about the results and consequences you or your associates achieve depending on the level and type of motivation you have for a task, whether it is in business, sports, or any area of life.3 You will readily see that the positive performance motivation invariably results in better performances for everyone. As an example, look at the underdog phenomenon in sports or business. One team or company is thought to have no chance of winning. Their more talented or skilled opponent also believes this and either looks past this contest or simply does not get motivated to a level that is required to win. The underdog gets pumped up because they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, they go out highly motivated, give the performance of their lives, and upset the stronger opponent. It happens in sports, it happens in business, and it happens in academia. Given the tools and equal footing, the person with the greatest performance motivation often comes out on top. Now don’t think for a minute that I’m discounting talents and strengths. Even with lowered performance motivation, the more talented person, team, or company can win. They win simply because

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they just have more skill. But, if they ever let their motivation levels get too low, the underdog who is more motivated will likely eke out a victory. And, if this upset behavior continues long enough, the original underdog will establish such a high level of self-esteem and confidence that they will consistently believe they can defeat the previously superior opponent. And what you believe, you often achieve. Plus, a string of losses damages the self-esteem of the once-superior performer, team, or company. Now they start to believe they are not quite up to the task of being successful. And thus the transformation: Weaker, less skilled but more motivated performers now become the top performers, and former top performers, who became unmotivated, are now average performers, or worse.

Performance Motivation and Mega You are now well aware of how important performance motivation is to success, achievement, and accomplishment. High skill levels will only take a performer so far. Eventually, motivation will play a role, either positive or negative. One way we can ensure that performance motivation is always high and positive is to help people “keep an eye on the prize.” In this case, the prize is what we call Mega, as introduced by Roger Kaufman in the first book in this series.4 Mega is expressed in the Ideal Vision we have of a better future and a better society for tomorrow’s child. The concept of the Ideal Vision is the key, along with the beneficial effects of whatever we do can have on society or any of our external clients. Mega is the guiding light for all strategic thinking and planning, all performance enhancement and improvement, and all activities of a person, organization, team, group, company, community, government, and social network. We have to be aware of the effect that our performances have on others. As Kaufman says in many different publications, do you want your airline to get you to your destination safely without any damage to you, the aircraft, and the areas it flies over, or do you want the airlines to focus primarily on saving or making money to the exclusion of safety and well-being? Or, do you want your company or organization to only concern themselves with making a profit regardless of who or how many people they hurt to make that profit? There are many more examples that can be written about this approach. The point is that you can easily see the

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relationship between establishing and understanding Mega and your motivation to perform. When you know the big prize—see the Ideal Vision and realize the ultimate and perfect outcome—then you will remain motivated to continuously and consistently work toward that outcome. Many people in the human performance field are focused on the systems and systemic processes that accompany or are affected by performance. They find a weakness or a gap and try to tweak it so that they get a measurable improvement. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. The truth of the matter is that most interventions do not focus on Mega or take into account the motivation level of the performer. You can have all the tools and techniques, processes and programs, training, and coaching that you want. But if the performer lacks the motivation to perform, none of these things matter. The best way to make sure the performer stays motivated is to have that person remain focused on, attend to, and constantly be aware of Mega—the ultimate and perfect outcome that will result from a “perfect” or peak performance. When you have that perfect performance and achieve better-thanexpected results, everyone benefits. This book will teach you how to develop and maintain high levels of performance motivation for yourself and for others. One of the most important things you must remember is: Mega will motivate, if you let it.

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Endnotes 1.

Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

2.

It does not take much to lose confidence and motivation when you perform poorly or you consistently receive critical feedback. There is damage to your self-esteem and to your confidence levels. See, for example, Branden, N. (1995). Six pillars of self-esteem. New York: Bantam Books; and Kanter, R. M., (2004). Confidence: How winning streaks and losing streaks begin and end. New York: Crown Business.

3.

This is especially true in sports, where a great deal has been written on mental training for peak performance. Much of this is based on the performer’s motivation and desire to succeed. You can find out more about this from Gerson, R., (2004). HEADcoaching: Mental training for peak performance; Loehr, J. (1997). Mental toughness; and Ungerleider, S., (1996). Mental training for peak performance: Top athletes reveal the mind exercises they use to excel.

4.

Roger Kaufman is well known for his work on strategic planning and strategic thinking. The first book in this series, which he authored, Change, Choices, and Consequences: A Guide to Mega Thinking and Planning (2006), describes the concept of Mega in a comprehensive manner. The links between Mega and performance motivation will become even clearer as both books are read together.

Chapter 2

Defining High Performance Imagine one of your best performances ever. It can be something from sports, a business presentation, dancing, writing a book, or anything you can think of. Now, in your mind, relive the entire situation. Pay attention to the thoughts, feelings, sights, sounds, and even smells. Get yourself fully immersed in that high-level performance. As you think about it, how does it make you feel now? Are you energized, motivated, ready to go out and do it again? Do you feel better about yourself, stronger, and more positive? Of course you do. You already experienced that high-level performance once and now you’re doing it again. But is this image of your best performance truly your best performance? And what is the real meaning of high performance? Is it really better than normal? How high is high? And what is the difference between a high performance and a peak performance? Lots of questions and they all will be answered.

What High Performance Is and Is Not There are probably as many definitions of high performance as there are speakers, authors, and consultants. Each person or organization usually defines high performance in their own way. An acceptable definition is a performance that is significantly above average or normal, whatever average or normal is to the person or organization making this definition. Another definition involves finding people or organizations with a specific set of competencies that often results in performance that exceeds some expected norm. But competencies (skills, knowledge, and abilities) can be taught and duplicated, leaving a performance previously thought of as high no better than normal or average. If you’re going to go the competency route, you have to develop a distinct set of competencies that separate you or differentiate you and your organization from the crowd. These competencies must not be duplicatable by your competition if you want to remain at the top of the mountain. Yet, they must be duplicatable within your organization so that other people can achieve high-performer status. When this occurs, you have what has been called a high-performing workplace. Now, remember, the high-performing workplace achieves and exceeds its individual and organizational objectives on a regular basis. High performance is sustained over time—it is not a one-time thing. It is an ongoing

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occurrence that is due to the skills of the individual performers and the organization. So, we agreed that high performance is not based solely on competencies of the performer and, by extension, the organization. It is also not a one-time aberration in performance where the results far exceed what was expected, yet no one is able to perform at this level again. This may be a peak performance, which we will discuss shortly, but it is not a sustainable high performance. Now, some may argue that in sports, players and teams will take that one-time peak performance if it gets them that all-important win, especially over a top opponent. After all, we won, we exceeded all expectations, and we outperformed ourselves and our opponents. Yet, now this type of performance is expected to recur and be sustained. And we all know that this will not happen! The performers may be highly motivated, but they played way above their heads. Even though this occurs from time to time, we must look at sustainable high performance. That is because a one-time peak performance that is never repeated lifts the performers’ motivations for the next performance, only to have them crash to the ground when the next performance goes back to or below normal. This is a natural phenomenon seen in sports all the time, and the letdown is either due to the aberrant performance or a decrease in performance motivation. This is not to say that a peak performance is bad, and that people and organizations should not strive to achieve one. On the contrary, peak performances are great. They do wonders for the performer’s psyche, for the organization, and for the team (if it is in sports). The problem with a peak performance is that it can rarely be maintained over time or repeated continuously and consistently. It raises everyone’s expectations, including the observers of the performance. Here is a personal example. Many years ago, I was playing in a recreational basketball league. My team was in the semi-finals against a team we had not beaten during the season. I spent the entire week psyching myself up for the game. I was pumped—as motivated as I could be to have a great game. And when the game started, I was so over-hyped, I couldn’t do anything right. Then, after three minutes, I calmed down, took a shot that went in, and went on to have the greatest game of my life. For those of you asking yourself how much did I score, it was 56 points in a 40-minute game, and I only played 37 minutes. We won the game and prepared for the finals the next week. I did everything the same to motivate myself to have another

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great game (some might say I became superstitious, but that’s for another discussion). At game time, I was again over-hyped. Again, I calmed down, scored 44 points, and we won the championship. And what do you think happened after the game? Now, before I answer my own question, remember that I just scored 100 points in two games, and we won both games as well as the league championship. I didn’t score as many points in the second game as in the game before. I felt good about my performance and the overall “organizational” result—a league championship. Yet other people asked me what happened—why I didn’t have as good a game as the previous week. Isn’t it strange how people begin to judge what should have been an extremely high performance (44 points) by different standards (56 points) because of a previously higher performance? To me, they were both peak performances. They were also both very high performances. Yet, this level of play could not be sustained physically, psychologically, physiologically, emotionally, or even motivationally. While the ongoing peak performance could not be sustained, it was definitely possible to sustain high levels of performance. And that is what I had done throughout the season. The problem was that I set the bar so high that the peak performance became the expected norm and the previously acceptable and average performance level was now viewed as below normal. Go figure! So, if a peak performance or two are not considered high performance, what is?

Defining High Performance High performance is a sustainable series of performances at a level that exceeds what most people (observers, organizations, performers themselves) consider normal, acceptable, or average. Consistent and continuous high performance leads to an elevation of the average or mean performance level. This “raising the bar” is good because you always want performers to stretch themselves to achieve more. By increasing the expected level of average performance, you help people take their performances to another level. High performance also involves a focus on the objective (remember the Ideal Vision and the motivating power of Mega mentioned in Chapter 1), tactics to achieve a particular objective, mental-emotional-physical capabilities to perform at the higherthan-expected level, and the ability to execute/perform well under a

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variety of environmental conditions. This definition naturally leads us to asking, “Who or what is a high performer?” That is someone who consistently outperforms colleagues and competitors over time and in a variety of situations, plus achieves at a level greater than expected. The high performer sustains this level of performance even when systems, processes, procedures, leaders, and the competitive environment change. The high performer is also a role model for other performers, someone whose approaches should be modeled. This is definitely more difficult than it appears on paper or than it sounds. When you ask a high performer what makes him or her a high performer, they usually tell you they don’t know. When you ask them to describe how they consistently achieve their high levels of performance, they tell you they don’t know, or they say they practiced a lot, or they say it just happens. They have what we call the implicit knowledge and skills to achieve these higher performance levels, but they do not have the ability to articulate what they know or how they do what they do. One way around this is to observe the high performer in action. Videotape the person if you have to. Take copious notes on what they do and say. Write down the processes and procedures they follow. Question what they do and why and how they do it so that you can determine their true performance motivation. Do whatever it takes to codify and measure their performance and then create a way to have others model it and learn from it. Only then can you make “high performance” transferable.

Making a High Performer My own research and work over the past 30 years has led me to several conclusions about high performers and their performances.1 They are described by two acronyms. The first is BEST, and the second is FIRE. High performers are the BEST because they Believe in themselves, and this leads them to set very high Expectations for themselves. They also follow a performance Strategy that pushes them to Test their skills and abilities. The belief they have in themselves becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This belief, coupled with their high expectations for success, raises their selfesteem and confidence level. This provides them with higher levels of performance motivation because they want to succeed against all odds. So they invoke a variety of performance strategies that will help them test themselves while achieving their objectives. High

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performers are never satisfied because what was once the top is not the norm. In my work with athletes, business executives, salespeople, and students, this BEST approach has played out over and over again, always leading to better results. Similarly, high performers have a strategy for executing that high performance. FIRE stands for Focus, Imagine, Relax, and Execute. All high performers focus on the task at hand. Some are even so good at it that they develop this laser-like focus to the exclusion of everything else, including food, water, and sleep. Have you ever known someone so engrossed in what they were doing that they kept at it for hours without a food or bathroom break? And when they did stop, they were totally unaware of how much time passed—that’s what I call focus. Next, the top performer imagines what a successful performance and outcome will look like. Proponents of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a field of psychology dedicated to maximizing performance and achievement, tell people to also imagine the sounds, smells, and emotions associated with a top performance. The thought here is that the more senses that are involved in the imagined event, the easier the real event/performance will be. So, after the performer visualizes the best outcome, he or she then relaxes prior to actually performing. When they are ready, and only when they are ready, top performers execute their strategies, behaviors, and actions. Because of this preparation, the result more often than not exceeds what most people consider to be normal. This also gives us another way to replicate high performance by studying their BEST and FIRE performance patterns. You may now be asking how this applies to organizations. The answer is very simple: People make up organizations, and it is the performance of the people that determines how successful and effective the organization will be, now and in the future. While it is important for individuals to be top performers, organizations can use the same approaches to achieve and sustain high performance. For example, the culture of an organization must promote to its employees that it Believes it is the best, that it Expects only the best from its people, that there is a Strategy for organizational growth, development, and sustainable performance, and that the organization is willing to Test out its premises and approaches. This also means the organization is willing to tolerate some degree of failure as a learning experience for its performers.

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Similarly, an organization must stay Focused on its objective (hopefully, its Mega objective). Then, it must be able to Imagine its future and ongoing success, followed by a way to Relax constraints or restrictions so that individuals can Execute well. Of course, regardless of an individual or organizational performance, there must always be some sort of measurement of that performance to ensure proper evaluation and continuous improvement. Top performers use this feedback as further motivation for future performances. The objective of every high performer is to be able to repeat the performance on a regular basis. Given all the right tools and resources, high performers must still possess and exhibit an appropriate level of performance motivation. When all things are equal, it is usually the level of motivation that determines the results of the performance.

Characteristics of High Performers Both research and anecdotal evidence have revealed certain characteristics of high performers. At this point, you might say these are merely generalizations, and you might be correct. However, if you take these general characteristics and hire people who possess most or all of these characteristics and put them in a job that matches their strengths, you can be fairly certain that you will have a high performer. Here are ten of the characteristics of high performers: Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Desire for action—a doer Achievement oriented and intrinsically motivated Enthusiastic and energetic Intelligent, tactful, and considerate Enjoys challenges and taking risks Optimistic: positive mental attitude and positive belief system Creative/innovative Focused on the objective—on purpose Views failure as feedback (and an opportunity to learn and perform better) Results oriented

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How many of these characteristics do you possess? Now, take a look at the people with whom you work. How many of them possess a large majority of these characteristics? You will find that high performers, across the board, exhibit many of these characteristics, traits, attitudes, etc. It is what sets them apart from the normal, average, everyday performers. We can also add to this by helping you identify the components of a high performance. These are definitely different than what a high performer possesses, yet there is apparent overlap and integration. As you study the performances of high performers, you will notice that almost every top-level performance: Y

Follows a specific pattern (the steps the performer takes to achieve the result)

Y

Has measurable results and consequences that are useful and usable

Y

Is sustainable, repeatable, and duplicatable (implicit knowledge can be codified)

Y

Yields a match between the task, the task objectives, and the skills of the performer

Y

Is one the performer is highly motivated to do

Y

Has clearly communicated objectives and performance expectations

Y

Has clearly communicated rewards, reinforcements, and consequences

Y

Benefits the performer, the organization, and external clients

Y

Is evaluated by the performer and others for future continuous improvement

Y

Plays to the strengths of the performer

Combine the characteristics of a high performer with the components of a top-level performance and you will just about guarantee high performance every time. In fact, there will be so many high performances occurring that this will now become your norm. The bar will be raised and it is up to you to motivate yourself and help others motivate themselves to achieve this “new normal.”2

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Endnotes 1.

Gerson, R. F., (1998). Winning the inner game of selling. Menlo Park, CA: Crisp Publications.

2.

You can compare this list with some of the characteristics offered by Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T., (2004). The power of full engagement. New York: Free Press.

Chapter 3

Motivating Yourself for High Performance Motivation and performance are forever linked. Most people think that the higher the motivation, the greater the performance results. While this may be true some of the time—such as for tasks of short duration or requiring a lot of power—unfortunately, it is not always true for most tasks. The best performance results usually occur when the performer has a moderate to moderately high level of motivation rather than an overly high level. This is very similar to the inverted U hypothesis related to motivation and arousal that you learned about in psychology class. Just take a look around at some of the things you have personally experienced or seen people experience. People making public presentations tend to speak rapidly and forget some of the things they want to say when they are overly excited (or nervous) at the beginning of the speech. Athletes who are over-motivated tend to make more errors and mistakes until they calm down a bit after the game has started. Students perform worse on tests when they are overly motivated or highly anxious (what we call test anxiety, which is still a form of motivation, or at least an influencer of performance motivation, albeit a negative one). And machine operators may produce inferior products or increase accidents if they are over-motivated (or undermotivated, since boredom affects our performance as well). Motivation definitely plays a critical role in our performance results and consequences. And what about the people who are supposed to either motivate us or help us motivate ourselves? What role do they play and who are they really? These are teachers, managers, parents, coaches, and anyone else we place in a position to help us perform better. They can even be performance consultants, job analysts, or mentors. How do these outside influences affect our motivation and performance? Here is a real-world example to which most of us can relate. Think back to a time when you played a sport, any sport. Now, think of the best coach you ever had. What did this coach do to make you feel like a great player, to build up your self-esteem and confidence, and to get the team to play well together? What else did this coach do to help you help yourself get and stay motivated?

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After all, as an athlete (player/performer), you came to the sport motivated to do well and to be your best. Your best coach was there to help you be your best. He or she knew that part of the job was teaching you performance skills plus helping you motivate yourself and keeping you motivated. This coach did it well, and you really enjoyed playing for that coach. On the other hand, you have probably had at least one coach who used “negative motivation” to motivate players. She yelled, screamed, begged, pleaded, cajoled, criticized, embarrassed, and even denigrated the players in hopes of getting them motivated to perform. Sometimes, the coach’s antics bordered on being funny, especially when she threw her body language into it. You could almost be sympathetic to the coach because she was really doing her best to motivate the players. These actions might have worked if they weren’t so misguided. While there is some research to show that external sources can provide motivation to performers,1 most of the time the motivation for a performance must come from within. In essence, you can say that aside from built-in instinctual motivation (such as physiological drives), most if not all performance motivation begins as self-motivation. Here is another issue to consider. Everyone talks about the importance of goal setting, and they tell you all about proper goalsetting techniques. Many good goal setters will have you write down your goals instead of just talking or thinking about them. That is definitely one of the most effective ways to achieve your goals. Written goals provide a visual, public, and intellectual commitment to their achievement. Yet, no matter how many times we are told that this technique is effective, more people than not neglect to write down their goals. That is because most people only pay lip service to goal setting. When you ask someone what goals they have set for themselves, they will tell you things like making more money, losing weight, getting a promotion, taking more vacations, and some other wishful thoughts. Even though they have been told to write down their goals and plan how to achieve them, most people do not spend the time, energy, or effort to do so. In fact, many speakers and teachers will tell you that people spend more time planning their vacations than they do setting goals and planning their lives. While there might not be scientific research to support that statement, there is anecdotal evidence. Just ask your family and friends how much planning went into their last vacation and

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how much planning (time, effort, and energy) went into developing, writing down, and achieving their life goals. This is unfortunate because goals, and their even more important related performance objectives, help you achieve great things. In their most basic form, objectives simply state where you are, where you want to be, and how you can tell when you have arrived. This is simple, basic, and vital. And it is in contrast to goals, which are really just statements of what you want to achieve. Kaufman, in the first book of this series, provides more detailed information on the importance of proper objective setting. Also, performers who neglect to or refuse to write down goals and objectives and commit to them most probably will not achieve at the same level as those performers who write down their goals and objectives. The former group also neglects to put measurements on their goals and objectives and they hardly ever specify a time period. So, they conclude that goal and objective setting does not work because they did not achieve what they set out to achieve. You can obviously see the fallacy in the thinking here: Goal and objective setting did not work because the performer did not work at it. Objective setting, at least proper and effective objective setting, takes work. Along with that work of setting objectives comes the requirement to make them clear and set expectations for achieving those goals and objectives.2 In fact, we know that it is the combination of goal setting, measurable objectives, and expectations that affects how well we perform. More than anything else, we have to know where we are going in order to get there. Motivating yourself through proper goal and objective setting is one of the first steps you must take.

Proper Goal and Objective Setting for High Performance Most performers are familiar with the concept of SMART goal setting. This means that your goals and objectives must be Specific, Measurable, Accomplishment-based, Realistic, and Time-based. To translate that into a performance objective, you must specifically state what you want to accomplish, make sure that the statement includes a measurement component, and be certain that you have the skills to achieve the realistic objective and that you can do so within a reasonable time frame. For example, a performance objective for a salesperson would be to increase sales by 10 percent

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during the next quarter as measured by gross revenues. A performance objective for a department could be exactly the same. The key is that you specify the measurable results and consequences so that you can evaluate the end performance and make any changes that are necessary for future performances. SMART goal and objective setting is simply smart. Recently, a more expansive approach to goal and objective setting has been proposed, called SMARTER goal setting.3 This approach adds a few more dimensions to the goal and objective setting process while taking into account the concept of “stretch” objectives. It also forces us to make objectives more exact and rigorous, which turns them into true performance objectives. These performance objectives allow us to determine exactly what we want to achieve, how we will achieve it, and how we will measure our success. There are still similarities between SMARTER objectives and SMART goals and objectives. For example, both must be Specific and Measurable. In this new model, however, objectives should also be Audacious, which the authors describe as super-stretch goals. We see this concept of audacious goal setting in what has been called BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals)4 and “realistically impossible” goals.5 The intent here is to definitely take people out of their comfort zones and get them to achieve things they never thought possible. This audacious concept makes a great deal of sense because you always want to motivate a performer to do better than he or she thought possible. The first R in SMARTER objectives refers to Results. Here, the performance is described in terms of what will be achieved, rather than how something will be achieved. These objectives talk about end results rather than means, activities, processes, or behaviors. In addition, the objectives must also be Time bound. You must be able to achieve them within a specified time period. Your time frame will also be affected by making the goals/objectives Expansive, which means you will be concerned with both the system and systemic effects of your accomplishments. This also allows you to link the goals/objectives to the Mega/Macro/Micro objectives you set (see Kaufman, book 1 in this series). Finally, SMARTER objectives must be written so that you can Review and evaluate the results. You want to review and evaluate constantly throughout a performance so that you can make changes, adjustments, and improve

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ments; identify strengths and weaknesses; and determine any effects that might occur. The challenge is to not only be SMART with your goal and objective setting, but to now also be SMARTER than everyone else. You will see your performance levels measurably increase when you do this, plus your self-confidence will grow as you accomplish more. Here is an example to test your knowledge of the SMARTER objective-setting process. Read the following brief scenario about a salesperson and then answer the questions either Yes or No to determine if the statement fits the criteria for being SMARTER. SCENARIO: The company has set an objective that all salespeople will increase revenues by at least 7%. John, a top salesperson, has written his objective statement down as “I will increase my sales by at least 15% in the next 12 months.”

YES

NO

Was John’s goal/objective stated specifically? Will John or anyone else be able to measure his performance related to the achievement of his objective? Is his statement audacious compared to what the company wants? Are the results of the performance stated clearly? Has the statement specified a time frame in which to achieve the objective? Will the achievement of the goal have an effect on the organization in addition to John? Does the statement provide either a point in time to review the performance or a methodology to review the performance? If you answered Yes to all the questions, you believe that the scenario statement is a SMARTER performance objective, and you would be correct. While it takes some time to write out measurable performance objectives in this manner, it is definitely more effective

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because you specify the behavior, the results, and the measurement to achieve the result. The only thing you do not specify is the method, means, activities, or actions to achieve the results. Although most goal-setting (and objective-setting) training programs tell you that you have to write down how you will achieve the desired result, you are actually limiting yourself when you do this. You are proposing or promoting a solution that might lock you in to a way of being or doing and lock you out of alternative approaches. For example, if the phrase “by doubling the number of contacts I have with prospects and clients every month” was added to the end of the objective statement in the chart, the method of achievement would be specified, which would then result in the salesperson focusing on doubling the number of contacts. The salesperson’s options would be limited and other possible approaches, such as increasing pricing to increase sales revenues, decreasing expanses, and generating more referrals, might not be considered. When you write out your true objective statement, just state how you will know when you’ve arrived—the measurement that tells you the result has been achieved. Leave the methods and means for a later analysis and implementation. Remember this about a performance objective (and all objectives, when properly written, are performance objectives): The objective specifies what result is to be accomplished, who or what will demonstrate the accomplishment, under what conditions the performance will be observed, and what criteria will be used to measure success. It does not specify how (the one way) you will get there.

Another Approach to Goal and Objective Setting Another approach is called the A-O-I method of goal and objective setting. This approach takes into account people’s perceptions of their abilities and their willingness to accept certain levels of performance. Each level of the A-O-I method must also be stated as SMARTER goals. The first level is Acceptable goals and objectives. The results or achievements at this level are minimally acceptable by the performer. It is the baseline measure that will minimally satisfy the performer that she accomplished something worthwhile. For example, a machine operator may set a minimally Acceptable objective

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of completing the workday with only 8 or fewer minor mistakes per day. Of course, a lot depends on how this operator defines minor mistakes, but for now, let’s just leave it as an example. Going on from there, the machine operator may set an Outstanding objective of only 4 or fewer minor mistakes per day. This reduces his error rate by at least 50 percent and should increase productivity, which would help the organization. The final objective should be to operate the machine in an Ideal fashion and make no mistakes during the day. What are your Acceptable, Outstanding, and Ideal objectives for what you do? The concept of an ideal objective is very important to high performance. Kaufman talks about an Ideal Vision for organizations when they do their strategic planning.6 The same requirement should hold true for individuals when they set their ideal goals and objectives for their own performances. Kaufman’s concept of an Ideal Vision, which he calls Mega planning, is that everything you do should add measurable value to society and your external clients (those people and organizations affected by what you do). This concept of what we can now call Mega objective setting makes a tremendous amount of intuitive and common sense. We should all be concerned and considerate that what we do will have a positive and beneficial effect on society. So, when a salesperson sets an objective to earn more money in the coming year by selling more products, the salesperson should also state how that will add value to and benefit society. This should be done to ensure that what she ends up doing and delivering will not actually subtract value (such as pollution, dangerous materials, etc.). Will her selling more create more jobs for people who produce her product, thereby taking more people off of government assistance programs (again, see Kaufman’s examples)? That is just one example. Another would be to ask if those increased sales help others sustain their jobs because now more people require her products. If you take the time to “stretch” out your objectives, you will see how easy it is to make the leap to Mega goal and objective setting. Plus, and this is my own personal bias, when you achieve your individual goals and objectives that truly benefit society, you get a very positive, warm feeling because you are helping people to be better, do better, and become better. What’s more, it not only creates a good feeling, it is also ethical.

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One thing we do when we work with high performers, and something you will see many of them do on their own, is to have them write down all aspects of their goal and objective setting. Let’s combine the SMART, SMARTER, and A-O-I goal- and objectivesetting approaches into one and see how you do. Remember that every objective you write must be SMARTER, you will begin with your Ideal (Mega) objective, and you will work backwards from high performance (which could be ideal or perfect) to minimally acceptable performance. Fill in the blanks for the exercise on the following page. As you complete this brief exercise in self-motivation and Mega objective setting, you see that a virtuous cycle is developed. Your initial objective leads to the requirement for high performance to achieve your ideal personal vision, which then leads to future and ongoing behavior changes, which lead to positive expectations for future success and more Mega objectives. This upwardly spiraling effect is extremely positive and forms the basis for establishing high degrees of confidence, which subsequently leads to ongoing high performance.7

Motivating Yourself for High Performance Most attempts at achieving high performance look at the existing performance gaps between current high performers (also known as exemplars) and ordinary performers. Analyses and assessments are conducted into what the high performers do, think, or believe differently than the average performers that helps them attain these extraordinary accomplishments. Sometimes there are knowledge and skill gaps, resource gaps, and even talent gaps.8 All of these can be closed by proper performance interventions, and a higher level of performance can be achieved. However, there still exists one major obstacle to consistently achieving high performance. It is what I call “the messy middle”—the place where the performer meets the performance, or the rubber meets the road. The messy middle refers to the attitudes, beliefs, and commitments of the performer—commonly referred to as the ABCs of motivation. In fact, a change in any or all of these factors would lead to a definite improvement in performance.9, 10 Motivation, and more specifically self-motivation, is an area that can lead to performance improvements even when there is no gap between desired objectives and current performance. People who

Motivating Yourself for High Performance

Goal- and Objective-Setting Exercise General Objective Statement: Write something here related to a future performance, just to start your thought process.

Mega (Ideal) Objective: Write your perfect achievement, your ultimate accomplishment, and how you will benefit society and add value by achieving this objective. Make sure the statement is SMARTER.

Performance Expectations: All objectives are accompanied by expectations. For now, use a scale of 0 to 100% and write your expectations of success.

Performance Objective: State how your behavior will change for future efforts as a result of achieving your Mega objective.*

*For example, the SMARTER objective of the salesperson to make 10% more money by increasing sales to new and existing customers is also a partial performance objective. I am recommending that you also describe future behavior changes that will occur, such as “I will donate 10% of my increased income to charities each year so that less fortunate people can have more food to eat, better schooling, and live healthier lives.” This also takes your performance objective into the realm of Mega goal setting for another objective. Notice, too, that these process models do not include how you are going to reach the objectives. If you refer back to the section on setting proper measurable performance objectives, you will remember that the selection of the method or means is done after you decide where you are headed, why you want to get there, and how you will know when you have arrived.

25

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are self-motivated choose to actively pursue an objective (complete a task), persist toward achieving that objective despite adversities and obstacles, and are willing to expand the physical and mental effort necessary to accomplish their task.11, 12 This is why it is so important to pay attention to the messy middle and how it affects performance consequences.

The ABCs of Motivation and High Performance Attitude A person’s attitude toward a goal, objective, or task is either positive or negative. Optimism leads to significant performance improvements, while pessimism leads to performance decrements.13 Furthermore, optimistic people tend to persist longer at a task, overcome more obstacles, and achieve at higher levels. Consider the story about the two boys who were asked to enter a room full of horse manure. The first boy went into the room, stepped into the horse manure, smelled the awful odor, and ran out of the room screaming. The second boy entered the room and dove head first into the pile of horse manure. He was flailing around in it and looked like he was digging through it. When he came out of the room, he was asked why he behaved like that. In the true style of an optimist, he said that with all that horse manure, there had to be a horse in there somewhere. Do you have the same type of positive attitude as this child? Is your glass always half empty or half full? Is it partly cloudy in your world or always sunny? Do you wake up every day and read the obituaries first, and figure that if your name is not there, it’s going to be a good day? You choose your attitude, and by extension, you choose your performance results and their consequences. Understand that an optimistic, positive attitude breeds self-confidence, which then energizes a person’s belief system. This then energizes them to achieve high performance.

Beliefs Beliefs are critical to successful performances. If we go into a situation believing we can do well, we will invariably do well. If we go into it questioning our ability or believing that a competitor is far superior, we will definitely under-perform. Our beliefs affect our confidence, which then affects our performance. In fact, a positive belief

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system can lead to a significant winning streak (high performance).14 The implications for sports performance are obvious. Let’s take a brief look at a salesperson who does not believe she can close a major deal. She is well prepared, practices her presentation, even scripts her closing questions and comments. Yet, when she gets to the close, her negative belief system kicks in and she sabotages her entire presentation. Her body language betrays her lack of confidence; her language betrays her lack of confidence; and her belief that she cannot close gets reinforced. She has created a downward spiral of motivation and performance results because of her beliefs. Contrast that with the salesperson who believes she can sell anything to anyone. Closing is so natural that everyone should buy from her. She actually believes that anyone who does not buy right away is simply a future customer. What a positive belief system! Which salesperson do you want on your team and which do you think will consistently be a high performer?

Commitment By now, it should be very obvious that performers with positive attitudes and belief systems will be committed to successfully completing their tasks. Commitment is an intrinsic factor that can be “measured” only through observation. Asking a person about their commitment to a task can give you some insight, yet it is not truly sufficient to determine how committed the performer really is. When you observe a person persisting toward an objective in spite of obstacles and adversities, or when they have achieved their objective and decide to set an even higher objective for the next time and you see them continuing after that objective over long periods of time, that is commitment. One of the popular terms today to describe commitment is engagement. You have to get people engaged to get them to perform at a high level. Engagement mirrors commitment. People who are engaged will persist over time toward achievement of their objective. They are committed. To get these people committed, you must make certain that they have a purpose for their performance, they know the objective is difficult but achievable, and they will receive either a desired tangible or intangible (even psychological) reward for achieving their objective. One thing I do when I coach individuals for high performance is to work with them to clearly articulate their personal Mega-level related vision (objective). For example, one business-to-business

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executive was having difficulty communicating with her management team. Her goal was to communicate better and more effectively. Now, you already know that this is not specific enough nor is it a measurable performance objective. Here’s how I got her to identify her personal Mega-related vision and create a performance objective. I began by asking her a series of what questions, such as “If you communicate better with your team, what will that do for you?” When she answered, I asked another what question. I was drilling down and expanding her thinking at the same time. Every so often, I asked her, “Why is that important to you?” Eventually, we got to her Mega, which was that she would “communicate effectively at least 95 percent of the time (get her point across clearly and concisely) so that her organization would produce quality goods and services that would help customers more effectively perform at their jobs.” I use the same or similar approach with all my coaching clients. Then, everything we work on together keeps that Mega vision in mind. When they have a clear picture of that Mega and it is always with them, they maintain a positive attitude, they believe they are capable of achieving that Ideal Vision, and they commit to doing whatever it takes (legally, morally, and ethically) to achieve that vision. While identifying that a small task objective is important and can lead to high performance, I prefer to have clients identify their Mega and constantly work toward achieving their highest performance possible as they continually move toward the Mega-level results and payoffs. Attitude, Belief, and Commitment are things that happen within the performer. There are also some external factors that occur that affect high performance. These are the Activities associated with the performance objective, the Behaviors of the performer, and the Consequences (reinforcement, feedback, evaluation, etc.) of the performance. Activities refer to the tasks that have to be performed in order for the objective to be achieved. In a manufacturing operation, this can include getting the machines ready, greasing the parts, calibrating the machines, etc. Activities refer to what must be done, and Behaviors refer to how people do things. People can perform a task on their own, as part of a team or group, in a cooperative or competitive manner, as someone who is helpful, and a whole host of other behaviors. What is important in high performance is that the performer will do the behaviors he says he will do, and not just say them and then do something else. The issue of say behaviors versus do behaviors has a tremendous effect on performance

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consequences: For example, a person says he will donate at least 10 percent of his income to charity but only gives 2 percent. That is a difference in say behaviors and do behaviors. The lesson here is that performers should not be judged on what they say they will do, but on what they actually do. Observable results are the key here. Remember that it is the activity plus the behavior that lead to performance results. And every performance result has a consequence—sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Furthermore, to go back to our salesperson’s contribution example, it is possible that this person really did not internalize the value-added benefit of the contributions. In fact, by doing less than stated, this salesperson may have actually been subtracting value from society.15 This does not mean that performance consequences are negative. Consequences are what follow a performance. Consequences can be positive reinforcement, rewards, constructive criticism, negative feedback, punishment, or withdrawal of reinforcement. These are all consequences related to a performance result. It is important to understand the cyclical nature of consequences. Positive reinforcement, when warranted, will lead to a repeat of the activity and the behaviors that caused the positive reinforcement. This is standard behavioral psychology, and it has proven true for over 100 years. Punishment will often lead to the suppression and possible extinction of a particular behavior. In our situation, punishment as reinforcement will often lead to a decrease in future performance levels. Therefore, if you want to reach and maintain high performance levels, find the things a person does that you can positively reinforce. These can be effort, results, consequences, strengths, and talents.16 Just think of the old motivational adage, “What gets rewarded gets repeated.” When you reward high performance, you will often get a motivated and committed performer who will once again do everything possible to meet or exceed that previous high performance.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation By now, you are probably wondering where intrinsic and extrinsic motivation fit into high performance. As you know, intrinsic motivation is motivation to perform that comes from within. You are doing the task for the personal or self-satisfaction you will receive from successfully completing the task. Extrinsic motivation occurs when you are performing a task for the rewards or reinforcements you will

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receive after the task is completed. If the rewards were not there, you probably would not perform the task. Using these definitions, there are basically two camps concerning extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. One says that extrinsic motivators (rewards) ultimately decrease a person’s motivation to perform a task and subsequently decrease the level of that performance, especially in a classroom setting.17 If you want someone to be a repeat high performer, don’t give them rewards for achieving whatever they achieve. They should want to be successful simply because they receive pleasure out of achieving their results or they like what they are doing. However, incentives for performance, which performers receive prior to the performance or at least know about the possibility of earning them, sometimes tend to increase productivity in a variety of situations. So, in some cases, extrinsic motivators can work. The other camp says that we come to a task with a certain amount of intrinsic motivation and desire to perform that task, achieve at a high level, and subsequently repeat that task for the personal satisfaction we receive from the accomplishment.18 Although much of this research work has occurred in “contrived, laboratory” settings, rather than the workplace or field performance settings, the conclusions do seem to be very intuitive. This also fits very well with a strengths or positive psychology approach that says when you play to people’s strengths, they are more motivated to perform and there is an excellent chance they will achieve significantly higher levels of performance than when you have them do something they are not very good at. Again, this appears to be common sense; it may even be uncommon wisdom since not everyone does this. Yet, there is another factor to consider. People can perform at a high level when they are not initially intrinsically motivated to perform. Say you have a task that has to be completed and you select the people to work on it. You clearly specify the performance objectives and expectations, including how the results will be quantitatively measured and evaluated. You get these people to understand the purpose, contribution, and impact of successfully completing the task. You work with them to ensure that they have a positive attitude and belief system before they begin and that they at least say they are committed to high levels of achievement. Now it is time for them to perform. If you take an either/or position on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factor, you will question whether or not the performers can achieve at high

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levels. After all, they did not pick the task nor do you have clear rewards specified. What will happen? The truth is that when people understand their purpose and the impact of their behaviors, even when the task is “thrust” upon them by someone else, they can become very motivated, committed, and effective.19 They become involved in the task, become highly engaged because they decided to own it since now they know their purpose and the impact their results can have, and put forth significant effort to achieve at a high level. Clearly, this is a combination of the two types of motivation discussed in this section. A conclusion you can draw is that high performance can result from either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, and that motivation (and the messy middle) must be considered as you plan for high performance and success.

Planning for High Performance and Success One of the questions that sometimes comes up is “Can you actually plan for high performance and successful accomplishments?” Does performance at these levels just happen, almost as if it was beyond the control of the performer? While this may be the case with some instances of peak performance (a perfect performance that occurs and that the performer wishes would occur again), it is becoming more and more possible to train yourself to achieve that high performance level on a regular and consistent basis.20 Executives, athletes, salespeople, students, and a whole host of others are hiring personal mental training coaches to help them develop, recreate, and get into the peak performance zone. While truly peak and perfect performance may be an isolated occurrence, high performance is definitely something that can be planned for, trained and practiced for, and achieved on a consistent and continuous basis. The first step to accomplish this has already been mentioned: Start with your Mega vision and plan everything you do around that.21 Having a Mega-related vision and mission allows you to clearly define your related performance objective, break it down into subtasks, set your expectations, clarify your perceived consequences, and establish your performance path. It also allows you to begin with the end in mind.22 Mega thinking and planning is the perfect launching point for high performance. Since we already know that there are certain barriers to motivation that can lower performance levels, such as inaccurate and inadequate beliefs, vague and

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unclear performance expectations, feedback and objectives, constantly changing objectives without performer involvement, biased rewards and consequences, and a poor match between the performer’s strengths and the task to be performed, we must do everything possible to create the conditions that will lead to high performance.23, 24 The first step is to create the Mega-related vision that will help the performer develop the proper attitude, beliefs, and levels of commitment, and then we must work with the performer to specify the activities, behaviors, and consequences so that the performer knows exactly where to go, what to do, and what is expected of him or her. Mega, since it is actually the ultimate achievement of a “perfect” performance and thus a measurable contribution to yourself and our shared world, helps a performer definitely begin with the high performance end in mind. This is the first step to guaranteeing high performance. Go back to the exercise you completed earlier in this chapter. Look at your Mega objective and related Ideal Vision. Review how you defined high performance in your Mega-related vision. You may find that you did not think grand enough. You may have to expand your thinking to raise your performance to that higher level. If so, go back to that exercise and revise your Mega-related performance objective. The next step is a combination of self-management and time management. Both involve what can be called life event management. Here, you are setting yourself up for success by structuring your performance environment so that you have the proper tools, resources, and time to complete the task at a high level. The best performances usually occur without conscious intervention (what has been called the flow state or the zone25), and where the performer’s attention is focused squarely on the task without any outside interference. Additionally, time appears to stand still. Time management experts will tell you that poor time management is a leading cause of stress and a major contributor to inadequate performance.26 When you are feeling pressure because there is too little time to accomplish your task, your performance tends to deteriorate. In effect, you have got to manage your time and your self simultaneously to enable you to effectively deal with the stress. Good time management will help reduce any stress or pressure you might feel, which should lead to better performance. That is why you might say time management, self-management, and life management are almost the same thing or, at least, very closely related.

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Performers who are good self managers prepare themselves properly for their task. As mentioned before, they get themselves in the right frame of mind. They also establish practice times, learning times, and performance times. They create the proper environment for themselves so that they will virtually guarantee themselves a high performance. Then, since they are so well prepared, they perform the task and achieve their objectives. This is a slightly different approach to performance management than is traditionally talked about in Human Resources. Where motivation and high performance are concerned, performance management involves managing all aspects of the performance. That includes personal readiness, environmental readiness, and the actual performance itself. It also includes learning and utilizing a variety of performance enhancement techniques from sports psychology, such as visualization, affirmations, modeling, etc. These techniques and others are used by the top-performing athletes in the world to help them achieve their lofty status. If mental training and performance management are good enough for the best athletes in the world, it would be wise for all performers to adopt these techniques so that they can achieve high performance on a regular basis. Think about a time when you had to do something where it was essential that you did it extremely well. As you go back and reimagine this event, picture in your mind achieving the positive end result first, then how you prepared for it, both mentally and physically. Review what you did in your mind and expand on the good and great points. Also, look at where you could have done better and replay those actions in your mind now as you do them better than before. Now, play the whole scene in your mind perfectly, and as you achieve the result you desire, notice how good you feel about yourself and how motivated you are to perform that task or activity again. You have just completed a visualization exercise similar to what athletes are trained to do, as well as other top performers. Visualizing a successfully completed activity will motivate you to want to perform it again. If you’re ready to be a high performer, picture it in your mind first. Then, when you actually do perform the task, it is like déjà vu all over again. This brings us full circle. Proper self-motivation leads to high performance, and ongoing high performance leads to continuous self-motivation. The messy middle has a powerful influence on performance results and consequences, and we must pay attention

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to it. We can provide performers with the tools, resources, environment, techniques, and rewards they desire to achieve high performance. But, if they don’t come to the situation with the proper motivation—the proper performance management and planning— then all that is for naught. Lack of motivation will lower performance faster than anything we can do to raise it. The objective, then, is to help performers clean up that messy middle, get properly motivated, plan and manage their performance situations, and focus on achieving high performance all the time. After all, no one truly goes into a performance situation deliberately trying to fail (unless they are illegally shaving points in a game or purposely trying to bring about failure).

Goal and Objective Setting Redux Let’s take one more look at the goal and objective setting exercise you completed earlier in this chapter. I asked you to write, and even revise, your Mega-related objective, which is part of your Ideal Vision for what you can achieve to benefit society and other “external clients.” Now I want you to extend that exercise. Go back to your Mega objective and take a few additional steps: 1. Write down your personal Macro objective, as Kaufman calls it. This typically has to do with your organization or company, so let’s assume you are working for some organization. What is your Macro objective that will benefit the organization as your stakeholder, based on your original Mega objective?

2. Write down your personal Micro objective. This has to do with you as an individual. It relates to how you will personally benefit from achieving or working toward your Mega goal.

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There you have it: several ways for you to motivate yourself for high performance. Set your objectives, write them down, roll them down from Mega, align the Macro and Micro objectives so that they truly line up with your Mega objective, and implement a plan of action to get you there. Make sure your action plan includes measurements for success, reinforcements for accomplishing your individual and organizational objectives, and a way to modify your future actions based on performance feedback. This will help you keep your “eye on the prize” and keep you motivated to move toward high performance on a regular basis. One final note, for your benefit: Many authors tell you what to do and how to do it, but they never share with you their own statements. Not me. Here are my own Mega, Macro, and Micro objectives that I live by every day. Use them as a guide to create, develop, or revise your own statements. Mega: What I do and deliver will result in everyone I interact with becoming successful and happy and they will achieve a better standard of living than they are currently experiencing now, become more self-sufficient so that they can enjoy their lives more, plus “pay things forward” so that they can contribute more positive things to our shared society. Macro: My company will deliver new coaching, consulting, and/or training programs each year that will provide clients with the skills to achieve success as they define it and to define happiness on their own terms. Micro: I will increase my skills, knowledge, and abilities as I continue to be better able to educate others so that they can develop the skills and competencies to achieve their personal definitions of success and happiness.

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Endnotes 1. For more information on external influences on goal setting, motivation, and performance, see Clark, R., & Estes, F. (2002). Turning research into results. Atlanta, GA: CEP Publications; and Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P., (1984). Goal setting. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 2. The relationship among goal and objective setting, along with expectations for performance success, are described in Vroom, V., (1994). Work and motivation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 3. This concept is described by Kaufman in book 1 of this series, as well as in Kaufman, R. (2000). Megaplanning. CA: Sage Publications; and Kaufman, R., Oakley-Brown, H., & Watkins, R., (2003). Strategic planning for success: Aligning people, performance and payoffs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 4. The concept of BHAG was introduced in several publications at various times, and most notably by Collins, J., & Porras, J., (1994). Built to last. New York: HarperBusiness. The BHAG is very similar to the stretch goals and objectives that Locke and Latham call hard but obtainable goals. The concept is designed to get people to stretch beyond what they originally thought they were capable of achieving. 5. This is just another approach to motivate people to perform beyond their perceived capabilities and expectations. Usually, when you get people to commit to what they previously thought was an “unreachable star,” they find a way to “achieve the impossible dream.” You will also find this approach used in Georgescu, P. (2005). The source of success. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 6. Again, see Kaufman in book 1 of this series as well as the references cited above in #3. 7. Thad Greene has written extensively on the belief system of motivation and its effects on performance. While most of his work focuses on sales organizations, he also applies his concepts to business and other types of organizations. You can read more about the belief system of motivation in Greene, T., (2000). Motivation management. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

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8. For an extensive review of this area, see Clark, R., & Estes, F., (2002). Turning research into results. Atlanta, GA: CEP Publications. 9. This relationship is a foundation of the positive psychology movement. Work in the area of optimism and high performance by Martin Seligman supports the relationship among attitudes, beliefs, and performance. His book, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press, 2002) covers this in more detail. 10. You will also find information on this relationship and how these factors affect confidence and future winning performances in Kanter, R. M., (2004). Confidence. New York: Crown Business. 11. The concept of engagement and commitment to perform well on a task has received a great deal of attention in recent books. A series of books by the Gallup organization, including First, Break All the Rules, by Buckingham, M., and Coffman, C., (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999) and The One Thing You Need to Know, by Buckingham, M., (New York: Free Press, 2005) and several others, talks about the power of engagement and commitment and their effect on high performance. For more on this topic, you also can review Loehr, J., & Schwartz, T., (2004). The power of full engagement. New York: Free Press, and Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black. 12. Performance improvement can occur as a result of mental effort, even when physical effort stays constant. People who are motivated and committed to achieving an objective will exert more cognitive energy and mental effort in order to successfully achieve that objective. This concept is described in Clark, R. E., The CANE model of motivation to learn and work: A two-stage process of goal commitment and effort, which was published in Lowyck, J., (Ed.), Trends in corporate training. (1999). Leuven, Belgium: University of Leuven Press. 13. Once again, see Seligman’s work on positive psychology and optimism in his book, Authentic Happiness as cited above in #9. 14. Here, again, we refer to Kanter’s book on Confidence, where she talks about the relationship between confidence and winning streaks as well as losing streaks caused by a lack of confidence. Plus, you have experienced similar results in your own lives when you felt confident about doing well on a task: You usually did well. When you doubted yourself in any way, the result was less than expected or desired, most of the time.

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15. This is a big issue in motivation, performance, and results. If you are not adding value to society, then are you subtracting value from it? For more on this concept, read book 1 in this series by Kaufman, and book 2 by Brethower. 16. You can find out more about helping yourself and others achieve high performance by “accessing the CORE,” which is the foundation for getting people to perform at high levels. Positive CORE is a model of performance enhancement and improvement introduced in Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: DaviesBlack. 17. The classic work in this area has been done by Deci and Ryan. They have published extensively on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. You will find a comprehensive summary of their work as well as others in this field in Deci, E., & Ryan, R., (2005). The handbook of selfdetermination research. New York: University of Rochester Press. 18. Again, you can look at the work of Deci and Ryan and others in the field of intrinsic motivation. You can read a counter viewpoint to the concept of rewards and incentives, and one that further supports the concept of performing for the sake of performing, in Kohn, A., (1999). Punished by rewards. Mariner Books. 19. See Clark & Estes, Turning Research Into Results (2002) as well as Clark’s CANE model (note #12 above). For an excellent treatment of how to help people perform under pressure, you can also read Loehr, J., (1993), Toughness training for life. New York: Dutton. 20. Again, see Loehr & Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement (2004) and Gerson, R. F., HEADcoaching: Mental Training for Peak Performance (2004). 21. See any of the Kaufman references in the notes for this chapter. 22. While the concept of beginning with the end in mind is almost as old as time itself, it has been popularized as one of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey (New York: Fireside, 1989). Additionally, the skill of visualization becomes even more powerful and effective when a performer starts the imagery process with a picture of the desired result in his or her mind, and then works back toward the start of the activity. When you know the result up front, you do everything you can to achieve it.

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23. The concept of flow provides an excellent description of the conditions under which a high or even peak performance will occur. This concept has been around for almost two decades, and everyone talks about being in flow, in the zone, playing out of your mind, etc. The concept was introduced in Csikszentmihalyi, M., (1990). Flow. New York: Harper. It has been written about by him and many others over the years. 24. See the reference notes on Gerson for HEADcoaching and Loehr for Toughness Training. 25. The concept of flow keeps coming up, and it does not relate only to sports. Performers in any endeavor can and will experience flow. When you are in this state of flow (the zone), you just have to let the performance happen. Any conscious intervention or thoughts about what you’re doing or how you’re doing it tend to hurt the results of the rest of the performance. 26. One of the foremost authorities on time and life management is Lakein, A., (1996). How to get control of your time and your life. New York: Signet.

Chapter 4

Motivating Others: Creating the Proper Motivational Environment It is vitally important for a performer to motivate him- or herself in order to achieve high performance. It is also necessary, at various times, for someone else to help motivate the performer. This can be a manager, senior executive, teammate, colleague, coach, parent, child, teacher, or anyone who has an influence on the performer or the performance environment. The various motivational methods can be any combination of incentives (prior to the performance), rewards (subsequent to the performance), consequences, schedules of reinforcement,1 money, prestige,2 or anything else the performer perceives as motivating. One of the most important things is to remember that each performer will perceive any one of the above motivators differently than other performers. The key, in this case, is to make certain that any external motivators are specific and customized to each individual performer.3

Assessing Motivational and Performance Requirements The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) standards provide a variety of ways to assess performance requirements, and they are covered by both Kaufman and Guerra in other books in this series.4, 5 Any performance situation must begin with a true needs assessment and gap analysis—identifying gaps in results at all levels and then prioritizing the gaps (needs). You must determine the existence of a measurable gap in desired results. Then you conduct a cause analysis to determine if the performance decrement is based on the environment, resources, or something intrinsic to the performer. The simplest approach recommended by the model is to follow the six “boxes” in Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model (BEM) to determine your cause or causes. 6 This linear approach is supposed to help you identify where performance improvement is truly required. The same model can also be used to identify the causes of high performance, although we do not often do so. You may use the BEM to find out why someone consistently outperforms her peers and what factors contribute to that consistent high level of

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performance. Gilbert’s model can also help you identify performance patterns of these high performers if you simply follow each of the six factors to their logical “conclusion” through observing someone’s performance. There are two problems with linking your analysis too closely to this model. The first is that the model appears to be very linear and that you would expect one item to follow after another. This is definitely not the case in the “real world.” Human motivation is variable and the reasons people engage, disengage, or refuse to engage in a performance might not always be identifiable using a linear approach.7 The second problem is that while performance improvements or performance achievements may be determined with the model, there is very little done to assess the motivational mindset of the performer. Only one aspect of the BEM appears to directly address motivation, and it is the last box in the model. This would seem to relegate it to a subservient place as a potential contributor to either low or high performance. However, do not be misled. Although the BEM does not emphasize motivation as a separate item, it does emphasize motivational variables. For example, the model talks about incentives that can be used to influence a performer or a performance. Also, as you look into the model, the skills, resources, and environment can all have a motivational effect (either positive or negative) on the performer or performance. We know from experience and research that motivation plays a key role in the “process” of a performance, the tendency to perform, the level of a performance, and the results achieved by a performance.8 You can have all the tools and resources in the world available to someone, but if they simply do not want to “play,” their performance will suffer. Therefore, you must assess the full range of motivational variables of a performer simultaneously while you are assessing the requirements of the performance. Motivational assessments are usually done through interviews, written tests, or projective tests. What we must do as performance consultants is find a way to determine how motivated a performer is to effectively and successfully complete a task. We can do this simply by asking the person to describe or rate her motivation level, or we can observe her performing the exact or similar tasks and rate her level of motivation as an outside observer. We can also wait until the task is completed, and based on the results and consequences, ask her how motivated she was to perform and achieve

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her results. The performer’s descriptive answers can provide us with an assessment of her level of motivation relative to the task. We can also assess motivation using a concept I call the Talent Optimization Performance System (TOPS).9 This is not a direct measure of motivation, nor has it been validated by scientific research. But it has been proven effective through anecdotal research based on my work with individuals and organizations, along with application of the concepts in a variety of settings, including business, sports, and academia. You may notice some similarities between the contents of the TOPS model and some of the “concepts within the boxes” in the BEM model. This is by design, since the BEM model was considered to be one of the foundational elements used to create the TOPS model. More information on this approach can be found in the next chapter and in another recent book.10 Basically, TOPS is a guide to motivational engagement and performance improvement. Using a series of interview questions, rating scales, and charts, TOPS identifies ten areas of motivation that may be the source of performance strengths or the cause of performance problems. The first group of areas is what we call the fantastic four of motivation and performance improvement. They are followed by the supporting six. The areas are: 1.

Competence: Skills, knowledge, and abilities

2.

Confidence: Belief in oneself and one’s abilities

3.

Consequence: Reinforcers for performance

4.

Commitment: Dedication to successfully completing a task

5.

Communication: How clearly are performance expectations communicated?

6.

Culture: How well does the organization promote and reward successful performances?

7.

Challenge: How challenging is the task?

8.

Conflict: How much stress or conflict exists for the performer?

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Control: How much do performers believe they control the consequences?

10.

Concentration: How much attention do performers pay to the task and for how long?

When a person’s performance continues at a high level, as with most top performers, you can be certain that many or all of these factors are in play. When a person’s performance deteriorates or is sub par, you can be sure that it is also due to a deficiency in one or more of the above “motivational” categories, assuming of course that the requisite skill levels exist to potentially complete the task in a successful manner. It is up to everyone involved in the performance and even those impacted by the performance to identify the cause(s) of the motivational problem and then develop potential resolutions for the problems. For example, if competence is the issue, then more skill training or education might be necessary, job aids might be required, or a job change might be in order. If the performer lacks confidence, then we must develop a series of performance activities that are similar to the required performance where this person can be successful so that he builds up his confidence, self-image, and selfesteem. This will lead to the development of self-efficacy for that task or series of tasks, and the confidence that the task can be performed again successfully.11 When success is achieved, we must reinforce the positive behaviors and consequences with appropriate praise so that the person will continue to perform well. Over time, the performer can develop his or her own version of a winning streak, which will serve to further enhance motivation and positive performance results.12 When performance standards or expectations are clearly communicated, then everyone knows what must be done and what the result should be. When expectations are not clearly communicated, then the performer has no idea what is expected of him or her or what constitutes a successful result. If the person is under so much stress that he or she is unable to perform, we must find ways to reduce that stress and create a positive performance environment. When we do these things, we will have a motivated and engaged performer.

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Solutions to Motivation-related Performance Problems The most effective solution to any problem is to first ask the performer. Too often, managers identify a problem, and they are the ones who prescribe the answers. They tell the performer what to do, how to do it, and when it must be done. Then, the managers wonder why it either never gets done or does not reach the desired performance level. The reason is simple: The manager (or the organization or the system) owns the solution, not the performer. This coincides with Drucker’s comment that there has been no “transfer of ownership.” The performer did not own the problem or solution and therefore had little reason to fix the situation. These poor performance results also coincide with work cited earlier by the Gallup organization that showed when people were not engaged in their activities, performance suffered. So always ask performers what their problem is first, and ask them what they propose for a solution. It may be that they do require more performance-related training, or that they want to change how they are reinforced for their performances, or that they are getting reinforcements that they don’t really want, or that they require more guidance and coaching. Whatever the problem, you can be sure the performer has been thinking for a long time about the suboptimized performance and the possible solutions. Therefore, as a manager or anyone responsible for helping motivate a person, ask the performer how she would resolve the issue. Also, ask the performer what current benefit she is receiving from performing at the current level, and how she handles the consequences of those performance levels. By doing so, you might find out that what you thought was the real problem was just a symptom of another bigger problem. When you do this, you move the performer to a state of engagement (involved motivation). Measurable success and high levels of performance occur when people are fully engaged in their tasks. Recent research by the Gallup organization and the Performance Assessment Network (PAN)13 supports this conclusion about fully engaged performers and high performance. Managers, coaches, and performers must be engaged in order to be successful. The way to get people motivated and engaged is to pay attention to the strengths of the performer and the ten Cs of the TOPS model mentioned above.

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Total engagement means the performers own the problem and the solution; feel in total control of their performance behaviors, consequences, and reinforcers; know the consequences for performance or non-performance; and have the confidence and skill set to do the job well. People who are motivated and engaged are completely committed to achieving successful results for themselves, for their companies, and after reading these books, for society. Performers who are engaged will continuously challenge themselves physically and mentally and raise the performance bar, plus do whatever it takes to get the job done so that everyone wins. They will also remain committed over time to the activity and exert the appropriate amount of mental effort required to complete the task successfully.14 And isn’t that what we want from all our performers? So, to identify and solve any motivation and performance problems, you can use the Human Performance Technology (HPT) model and drill down into the BEM for a causal analysis. If that is your approach, fine. It will work up to a point. You must, however, also take into account the individual performer’s motivational state and skill level, along with their beliefs about what they are capable of accomplishing.15 That means using the TOPS model, individual interviews, or other assessments. Whatever your results from these assessments, you must also ask people what they perceive the issues and solutions to be. Then, work through the assessment and analysis with them to help them identify other causes. And finally, work with them to implement the appropriate performance improvement intervention. This approach will resolve 80 to 90 percent of your performer motivation and performance improvement problems, regardless of your industry.

Analyzing the Performance Environment Many of the “performance and quality gurus” tell us that if you put a good performer into a bad system, the system will win almost every time.16 Similarly, we have been told for years that 80 to 90 percent of all performance problems are caused by the system or the organization controlling the system (cf. Deming and Juran). You would have to agree that most people, if not all, come to a work situation or any performance situation determined to do a good job—nobody deliberately tries to fail. Yet, people’s thoughts, feelings, and attitudes can get in the way of effective high performance,

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or they can support high performance. It is up to us to identify the constraints, restraints, and supporting factors that make up the performance environment, and then do the same for the performer in that environment. The ISPI HPT model, which many people use as a starting point for analyzing a performance environment, does have its limitations. However, it does provide performance consultants and practitioners with one possible approach to assessing, analyzing, and managing performance-related problems. Without explaining the model in depth, a performance technologist analyzes a situation, determines the existence of a performance gap, identifies factors that may cause that gap, selects an intervention from a cadre of possible solutions, implements that solution, and then evaluates the effectiveness of that solution to determine how well the solution helped close the original gap. The model, as it currently exists, is powerful and helpful, yet it has two flaws that can work against high performance. First, before you can conduct an analysis of a performance situation, you have to determine if that analysis is truly necessary. You must complete a needs assessment prior to a needs analysis.17 As Kaufman has described for years, a true performance need is a gap in results, meaning that there is a measurable difference between what currently exists and the desired state. For example, a training needs analysis, sales needs analysis, and cultural needs analysis are actually solutions in search of problems. The solution, such as training, sales, or cultural change, has already been determined before we know if a true need (gap in results) exists. So, the first thing we must do if we are following the HPT model is to complete a needs assessment to determine if a true measurable gap exists. Another reason this is important is so that the performer knows what is expected of him. Every top performer plays to a scoreboard or scorecard—they measure themselves against a variety of standards or performance expectations. The salesperson has a quota, the basketball player has a scoring average, the student has grades, and the list goes on. Performers already know they have to test and evaluate themselves against a scoring system. That is why the needs assessment is so important. It inherently builds in the scoring system for the performer, which becomes a motivating factor in and of itself.

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Another reason we must conduct the needs assessment before anything else (and perhaps this reason is even more important in analyzing the performance environment) is to decide if a performance really must be “intervened” upon. If the needs assessment does not reveal a measurable gap in results, and if the performer does not believe there is a gap in results, then all the analysis and “chest beating” by management will not make a performance improvement intervention happen. You can conduct the typical cause analysis and go through the various categories to find out if there is a problem with the environment, resources, knowledge, skills, incentives, etc. But, if there is no true gap in results, and if the performer does not perceive the requirement exists to change, then all the analysis in the world won’t cause a performance to improve. And this leads to another issue with the HPT model: We seem to have left out the analysis of the performer.

Performer Analysis: MASTERY There has been a great deal written on the topic of mastery in many areas. Two of my favorite books on the subject were written many years ago by George Leonard, who called one book Mastery (New York: Dutton, 1991) and the other The Ultimate Athlete (New York: Viking Press, 1975). In them, he talked about what it takes to become a top performer and sustain that high level of performance. He is actually describing high-level athletes, or what he calls the ultimate athlete. While his comments in the books are based on his own “historical and secondary” research and not his own experimental research, his descriptions are applicable to all performers. And they make a great deal of common sense. He ends one of the books with a statement that a dancer may not be the ultimate athlete, but the ultimate athlete is certainly a dancer. And isn’t this so true about all high performers? They perform as if they are “in a dance (trance?).” Anyone and everyone you can think of who is a top performer is fluid and graceful, performs her task with ease, does it without conscious intervention, appears to be in the zone or in a state of flow, and enjoys what she is doing. Think about the basketball player who can’t seem to miss a shot. Or the tennis player who hits ground strokes that land on the baseline almost every time. Or the writer whose words “flow” from her fingertips as she types on the keyboard. Or the performance consultant who readily and easily

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assesses where the gap in results exists and just as easily selects the proper intervention. This person, in each situation, has certainly mastered the skills and task requirements to perform a given environment. This top performer has achieved a state of mastery over herself and her environment. She may have done it on her own, had a coach, or simply practiced extensively over the years to achieve this state. However she got there, she provides clues for us to help others be successful. It is incumbent upon us as performance technologists—and imperative so that we help our performers—that we learn what goes into making someone become so motivated to achieve high performance. Elsewhere I have provided a detailed description of how to improve the HPT model by paying more attention to the performer. My premise then, and now, is that we pay so much attention to the environmental and organizational causes of performance gaps that we tend to neglect the most important factor in the whole thing: the performer. It is the person, or people, doing the performance who will eventually determine the results. Even though we said earlier that a poor system will overcome a good performer, we still must do everything possible to determine what the performer brings to the system. You may improve the system to the point where you think performance will be elevated, but if the performer has little or no interest in “doing the task,” you will not get your desired results.18 Let’s go through the performer analysis. For ease of description, I have broken down the analysis part into an acronym for MASTERY. I will define each of the seven aspects of MASTERY for the performer analysis along with each item’s components. These components are recommended examples of what you should consider when assessing and analyzing a performer. You can add or subtract from these components based on your situation. When you complete this performer analysis, you will know what makes the person tick and what you have to do to help them stay motivated to achieve high performance. Or, if you find out that they do not possess the proper motivation for high performance at this time, your best solution may be to take no action and wait for a later date or better time for the performer.

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Motivation We must consider three types of motivation when we are analyzing a performer. The first is approach/avoidance. This is also often described as gain/loss or pleasure/pain. Basically, people will either approach a task or avoid it as a result of some internal criteria that only they are aware of. We do know that more people will avoid an unpleasant situation (pain) than will approach (gain) an apparently pleasurable one. All you have to do is watch someone perform a task. There are many times they will not do the task, even though it might make them happy. Yet, when the pain of not doing something exceeds the pleasure of the moment, they are motivated to “move away from the pain” and complete the task. You see this many times with salespeople who help buyers identify their pain or problem, build up that pain, and then help them move away from it with a solution (the salesperson’s product or service). The second motivational issue to consider is the relationship among achievement, affiliation, and power. We all have a desire to achieve things, and this desire is stronger or weaker in each of us depending on how much risk we are willing to take, how important the outcome is to us, and how much we will benefit from the improvement. We also want to affiliate with other people because we are “social animals.” However, some people have a greater desire to be with people, while others have less. You must consider the socialization factor of the performance situation and how the associated affiliation motivation can influence the performer and the performer’s social network. Also, the results and consequences of the performance can have an effect on the social network and serve to increase or decrease the performer’s desire to be with other people (affiliation motivation). This subsequently has an effect on future performances. Finally, we all have a desire to control ourselves and our situations. This is one aspect of power motivation. It is also closely related to how much stress or pressure we feel when performing. A person who feels in control of the situation will be more motivated and confident in his performance and less stressed out during the performance, and vice versa. This relates to an increase in both self-image and self-efficacy. The third motivational issue is the intrinsic/extrinsic continuum, which was described in a previous chapter. People are more motivated to perform for intrinsic reasons than they are for extrinsic

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reasons, or at least we would like to think so. While much of this research was based on contrived classroom settings, and may or may not be truly transferable to work or organizational settings, we must consider how much the person really wants to perform a task for the inherent satisfaction they will feel or receive when they successfully complete the task (intrinsic motivation) or how much of that performance motivation is based on factors outside the control of the performer as well as the possible reward or payoff for successfully completing the task (extrinsic motivation). Remember that too many rewards that are not related to the actual performance results or consequences can lead to a decrease in future accomplishments.

Attributions Attributions are the reasons people give for the results and consequences of their performances. Attributions can be internal or external and they have an effect on future motivation and associated performances.19 For example, if a person attributes a performance decrement to a lack of ability, it is considered an internal attribution. Similarly, if a great performance is attributed to a high level of ability, that is also an internal attribution. If they attribute their performance results to a lack of or an increased effort, that is considered an external attribution. Both internal and external attributions have an effect on subsequent performances. You want the person to attribute a successful performance to things such as ability, positive effort, and an understanding of how the task should have been performed. You also want them to attribute a poor performance to things such as a lack of effort (which they can change for a future performance) rather than a lack of ability (which will negatively impact their confidence on future performances). Because attributions can be made to a variety of things, you have to ask the performer what his or her reasons are for achieving the current or previous results or consequences. Once you have these answers, you may have to help the performer realign attributions or even take them through what is called an attribution retraining process. The objective here is to make sure that successes are attributed more to internal factors, and failures are attributed more to external factors. This way, the performer remains confident and believes he is capable of succeeding in the future.

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Self-Confidence Top performers are highly self-confident. There are no two ways about it. People who do well on a task believe they will do well again and again. As you already know, this is called self-efficacy, and it is really a high level of self-confidence and a belief about controlling the outcome of a performance. Confidence is a major factor in performance results, and possibly the major factor, especially in winning and losing streaks. People who are confident more often than not perform at a higher level. They believe in themselves and their ability to achieve. They develop a high level of commitment to the task and work hard to increase their competence related to the task. Self-confidence is also closely related to self-esteem, which is how we feel about ourselves (high self-esteem means we have positive feelings toward ourselves and low self-esteem means we have negative feelings toward ourselves or think less of ourselves). When we work with people to increase their self-esteem, we usually see a positive result in their related performances. People who feel good about themselves do better than people who are down on themselves. There is no denying the effect self-confidence has on a person or a performance. Just look at the way people who are selfconfident carry themselves. They sit and stand taller; they walk more assuredly; and they speak with confidence. They are willing to tackle a task because they honestly believe they will succeed. In fact, they sometimes are even willing to take on more complicated or difficult tasks because their confidence is so high. The implications for performance improvement are obvious. When you find a performance gap, ask the performer if they believe they are capable of successfully completing the task. It may not be a resource, skill, or process problem at all. It may simply be a belief problem. So, if you can change the “confidence belief,” you might easily get the performer to achieve at a higher level. Similarly, when you ask high performers to rate their confidence levels on a scale of 1 to 10, you will get a 9 or a 10 out of all of them. Help performers build up their self-confidence through successive approximations, positive reinforcement of successes, and affirmations. The old adage of “What the mind believes, the body achieves” holds true here. Even if you have no scientific evidence that affirmations “work,” you do have evidence of placebo effects— the belief that something works. When I coach individuals, I have

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everyone establish a set of positive affirmations that are repeated daily. After a week or so, their belief in themselves (self-confidence) soars to new heights, and their belief that they can successfully perform a task also increases. To corroborate this, all you have to do is ask them how they feel about themselves after using the affirmations and look at how they carry themselves when they walk and talk.

Thoughts Thoughts affect behavior, so it is imperative that you know what a performer is thinking relative to a given task. The performer’s thoughts affect what he or she does and how he or she does it. To help you in your performer analysis, here is what you must consider with regard to a performer’s thoughts. I have created another mnemonic called BEHAVE. Beliefs. Beliefs affect self-confidence and subsequent performances. Find out what beliefs the performer has regarding the task. Ask the performer what his disabling beliefs (thoughts that hold him back) and enabling beliefs (thoughts that propel him forward) are. Work with the performer to reduce the disabling beliefs and increase the enabling beliefs. Sometimes, this is easily accomplished through reviewing past successful performances and identifying what the performer thought about at those times. Then, you simply reinforce those thoughts and help the performer transfer them to the current situation. Emotions. Emotions affect performance—there is no doubt about it. Both positive and negative emotions will determine the outcome of a performance.20 People who are happy and confident and have pride in what they do will usually perform well. People who are depressed, anxious, and nervous will usually not perform well. While this is intuitively obvious, where do we consider this in the current HPT model? (This is one of the existing limitations of the model.) We must always take into account the performer’s emotional state at the time of the performance. If the person had a bad day before “coming to the office,” she might be down and out and might not want to perform. Or, if the person had a great morning before coming in, she might be ready to take on the world. Think about how your emotions affect you and what you do, and you’ll

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realize the importance of taking the performer’s emotional state into account. Habits. Every one of us has performance habits or rituals. We see it all the time in sports. Just look at any basketball player shooting a foul shot, or a tennis player before serving, or a golfer before driving the ball. Each performer does certain things every time they have to perform this same task. These are the performance habits or rituals. We must know the habits of our performers because habits will affect future performances. When habits and rituals are positive, aligned, and practiced correctly, you will usually get a high level of performance. When they are not aligned, people will revert back to their poor performance habits at the expense of changing them to improve performance. That’s because habits, either positive or negative, create a comfort zone. So, one of the things you may have to do is help performers modify their habits so that they can get out of their comfort zones and achieve higher levels of performance. Attitudes. The simplest way to say this is that people have either positive or negative attitudes toward everything they do and everyone they work with. Find out what attitudes the performers you are working with have toward the task and each other (if it is a team situation). Positive attitudes lead to positive beliefs, increased selfesteem, and increased self-confidence. Negative attitudes do the opposite. Optimists outperform pessimists. This is true in sales, school, sports, and any place else you can think of. Values. Values (principles or concepts we hold in high regard that also affect our decision making) drive behavior. All conscious and unconscious decisions related to what we do and who we are come from our values. Find out what values the performer has simply by asking. It is even more instructive to ask them to prioritize the values so that you will truly know where they are coming from. When a person has to perform a task that aligns with his values, he is more motivated to do so than someone whose values and task are misaligned. Additionally, when you know the values that are important to the performer, and you can help him live those values during the performance, you will realize an increase in productivity because the performer is “validating his values” through the performance. If this sounds too squishy and soft, it probably is. If you feel it is too subjective without enough scientific proof, you may be

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right. However, I urge you to ask your performers about this and listen to what they say and see how they feel. Then you can determine for yourself the importance of values in performance improvement. Experiences. People’s past experiences determine their future behaviors. We see this as a foundation for behavioral interviewing when hiring someone. It is also true in other areas. If someone has had positive and successful experiences with a task or situation, they probably will expect to have them again (see Expectations in the next section). Experience also helps develop judgment and decision making, which impact performance. Find out about the experience levels and the past experiences of the performers. You will see a definite link between those experiences and present performance behavior.

Expectations Expectations are our beliefs about our probabilities for success. Success probabilities may also be affected by our expectations related to the consequences of a performance. More often than not, though, expectations refer to our beliefs about our chances for success. They are intricately linked to our past performances and our beliefs about future performances. Quite often, the expectations a performer has about his potential for success will actually predetermine the performance outcome. Since you become and achieve what you think about most, performers who think about (expect) success succeed more often than not. Those who think about failure most of the time expect to perform poorly and they usually do. Vroom (1994) described the power of work motivation to perform as being highly influenced by performance expectations. His expectancy theory validates the concept of believe and achieve that is promoted so often in popular literature. Expectations also affect the results and consequences of a performance. People actually assign a mental probability to a range of consequences they can achieve, and their performance levels usually mirror those ranges. If someone truly believes she will be 100 percent successful and can measure that success, then she will be highly motivated to perform a task. If someone has an expectation that they will only be 50 percent successful, or 60 percent successful, then they will probably apply a reduced amount of effort to

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effectively complete a task and achieve the desired outcome. This also goes back to the concept of enabling and disabling beliefs mentioned earlier.

Readiness No one does anything well unless they are ready to perform. Sure, you can force someone to do something, but the result will most likely be less than optimal. The situational leadership model as it is applied to performance improvement21 refers to the readiness of a performer and how it relates to the most appropriate leadership style to guide that person. The same concept applies to performance in general. Someone who is ready and prepared to perform usually possesses skills, knowledge, and a high expectation of success; has had successful past experiences; knows the reward that is available for effectively achieving the objective; and has a high degree of confidence. The performer’s state of readiness can be determined by observing pre-performance rituals and ongoing behaviors, interviewing the performer, testing the person’s knowledge relative to the performance and expected results, and reviewing practice routines. Readiness is a critical factor in performance improvement. Again, you can have all the tools and resources available, but if the person does not want to or is not ready to perform, either the performance will not occur or its results will be less than desirable.

YES After a performer takes the first six factors into account, and they are all positive and aligned, then he or she makes a decision to go forward. (For one possible model describing a decision-making process, see the Greenwald model in book 1 of this series by Kaufman.) This YES decision occurs only after the performer goes through the entire process described above. Now, this trip through the mental processes of mastery may not even be done at the conscious level. Rest assured, though, that it will be done. Every performer goes through a series of mental processes and decisionmaking stages before he or she says, “Yes, I will perform this task to the best of my ability.” And every time this decision is made and the task is successfully completed, the reinforcement the performer receives enables him to run through this mastery process even faster next time.

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Remember the Messy Middle It would really be great if the current HPT model worked in real life as smoothly as it flows on paper. Unfortunately, life is not sterile, mechanistic, or linear, nor does it fit easily into a set of boxes in a flow diagram. That being said, I propose we add another box to the model that sits right in the middle of the model. Since we now must always consider the messy middle (the thoughts, emotions, and motivations of the performer) in every performance analysis, we should give it a rightful place in the HPT model. Again, I can assure you that people I speak with about this concept of the messy middle and the performer analysis all tell me that it is so intuitively obvious, they do not know why it is neglected and/or excluded from the model. While there is one related concept in the “motivation and expectations” portion of the cause analysis, this does not go deep enough or far enough to find out what the performer brings to the table. Motivation is critical to performance success. You can provide someone with all the tools and techniques to achieve a high performance. You can create the proper environment in which that performance will occur. You can even establish the incentives, rewards, and reinforcements that are specific to that particular performer. You can even get everything set up and lined up so that a top performance is almost a given. Yet, when push comes to shove, and you get right down to it, the performance either is less than stellar or does not occur at all. The reason is that the performer was not motivated to perform the task, let alone perform it at a high level. That is why you must always analyze the performer’s motivations related to accomplishing a task before you even decide on an intervention that you hope will close your performance gap in results.

Doing With vs. Doing To There is another point to consider: Performance technologists tend to analyze situations in a vacuum. What I mean by this is that they complete their analysis without directly involving the performer. That is because other things are easier to deal with and maybe even quantify. We do the performance assessment, analysis, and intervention “thing” to the performer and the situation when we should be doing it with them.

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A very popular topic is engagement—how we get people committed and motivated to perform well, over the long term. Engagement is used for employees, customers, vendors, and everyone else involved in a situation. The key to engagement is motivation. If the person is not motivated, he or she will not be engaged. Commitment is an overt display of motivation, as when someone sticks with a task to successful completion. We give lip service to this important point, yet we often neglect to ask the performer how committed, engaged, or motivated he or she is to perform the task. There are three other things we must know from the performer’s perspective. However, we must find these things out by talking with the performer and not to the performer. We must involve the performer in the entire assessment and analysis process so that he or she works with us and not against us because we are treating him or her as a non-entity. Working with the performer will enable us to learn the performer’s intent to perform well, how they plan to perform well, and if they even like the task we are asking them to perform. Intention creates desire and direction for motivation, which helps the performer carry out the performance plan. Also, we must find out if the person even likes to do what we are asking or expecting them to do. Liking is critical to sustained high performance over time because people will eventually stop doing what they don’t like to do. Just look at what you do in your own life. Most of the time, you are involved in activities that you like to do rather than things you don’t like to do. So, one of the things you must consider in completing your performer analysis is how much the person likes to perform the task at hand. This alone may be the determining factor in the level of performance achievement.

Motivations to Perform Now that you know what makes the performer tick and what factors will affect their motivation to perform in a given situation, you must identify their motivational drivers. These different types of motivation will spur a person on to great achievements or, if they lack any of these motivations in the proper setting, they will be left at the starting gate. For example, we know that the most powerful type of motivation is a dichotomy that is called by many names: approach/ avoidance, pleasure/pain, and gain/loss. We have read it many times in the popular self-help literature that people will do more to avoid pain than they will to gain pleasure. Or they will do something

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to prevent their fear of loss more so than they will to acquire something. Let me give you some examples of the power of this motivational dichotomy. The first is called the $20 bill auction. Take a bunch of people in a room and tell them you are going to auction off a $20 bill. The highest bidder gets the $20 bill, and bidding begins at $5 and goes up in $1 increments. The only caveat to the auction is that the person who ends up in second place (the losing bidder) must also give you whatever amount of money he bid for the $20 bill. As the auction begins and continues, many people will stay in it until around $15 or so. Then, as people drop out and there are only two bidders left, the person who is always in second place will keep raising the bid. Sometimes, the $20 bill gets auctioned off for over $100. The reason is that the second bidder is more afraid of losing his money and not getting the $20 bill (being a winner) than he is of paying more for the $20 bill and winning the auction. Here is another example. Everyone knows that it is important to eat right, exercise, and get the proper amount of rest. Yet, most of us don’t do it. We take our health for granted (gain/pleasure/ approach). Now, if something terrible happens (such as a heart attack or a doctor’s warning), we start to eat right, exercise regularly, and rest more often. We are now motivated by the fear of loss (losing our health or our life) more than we are motivated by the pleasure of gain (better health for health’s sake). And the same thing happens on the job. Many managers think the best way to motivate their employees is through fear and threats. First, the manager asks the employee to do a task, and it may or may not get done in a timely manner. Then, the manager offers some potential consequences for not completing the task. Finally, the manager threatens the employee with her job if she doesn’t complete the task according to certain standards. Now, with the threat of job loss looming, the employee “gets going.” We can talk all we want about rewards and reinforcements, positive feedback, and positive motivation. Yet, in our day-to-day world, most people (managers, parents, coaches) revert back to using fear or loss as the motivator of choice, and when people respond to that motivator, it reinforces the person’s use of it in future situations. So, how do you break the cycle? Consider the person involved in the performance situation. What is their level of self-esteem? How confident are they to perform in this situation? How do they feel about positive strokes

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instead of criticism as a motivator? Get to know your performer, and you will find out the answers to these questions for every situation. While fear and loss may motivate people in the short term, over the long run, you will get better performance from a positive approach. Point out what someone does right, well, and good. Give them encouragement so that they want to perform the task again. Help them understand that when they succeed, it is due to their abilities, efforts, and training. If they fail for any reason, help them determine what temporary situational factors caused that result. This attributional approach will lead to a more optimistic attitude and higher levels of future performance. It will also create a bias for action on the part of the performer. Use the job aid below to help you determine the motivational readiness of your performers. Using a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best or highest, rate each of the motivational areas. Motivational Area

Rating

Comments

Self-esteem Self-confidence Desire for positive reinforcement Knows personal strengths Makes internal attributions for successful results Evidences motivation to perform on future tasks Any rating below 7 requires attention. You can use this job aid to support the principles of the Talent Optimization Performance System (TOPS) described briefly in this chapter and in more detail in the next chapter.

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Endnotes 1. The father of behavioral psychology, B. F. Skinner, talks about the power of the various schedules of reinforcement in multiple publications. One early one was Science and Human Behavior (New York: Free Press, 1965). You can also read his books, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (reprinted in 2000) and About Behaviorism (Vintage Books, 1975). 2. Albert Bandura wrote extensively on self-efficacy. His work from the 1970s is still quoted today, especially in relation to emotional intelligence, positive psychology, and performance improvement. Self-efficacy is the belief that you have control over a situation or performance and that you will do well, i.e., achieve positive results. Providing someone with the reward of prestige (a new job title, some type of promotion, a medal or trophy, etc.) has a positive influence on a person’s feelings of self-efficacy and future feelings of control during a performance. Bandura’s early book, Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985), still provides an excellent foundation for understanding self-efficacy. 3. See one of my first articles in the Performance Improvement Journal, “The People Side of Performance Improvement” (1999), for more on the individualization of rewards and reinforcements. You will also find similar information in Daniels, A., (2000). Bringing out the best in people. New York: McGraw-Hill. 4. Kaufman, R., book 1 in this series. 5. Guerra, I., book 6 in this series. 6. Go to www.ispi.org to find a graphic of the Human Performance Technology (HPT) model. Also, read the classic book in the field, Gilbert, T., (1978). Human competence. New York: McGraw-Hill. You can also review an article by Chevalier, R., (2003). Updating the behavior engineering model. Performance Improvement, 42(5), 8–14. 7. For a simple and concise review of the reasons people engage or disengage from an activity (tasks, sports, exercise, etc.), see Anshel, M., (2005). Applied exercise psychology. New York: Springer Publishing Company.

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8. Anshel’s book, ibid, also provides a good description of the emotional aspects of performance. See my article, Gerson, R. F., (2000). The emotional side of performance improvement. Performance Improvement, 39(8), 18–23, and the book by Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black. 9. Gerson & Gerson, ibid. 10. Gerson & Gerson, ibid. 11. See Daniels, A., (1994). Bringing out the best in people. New York: McGraw-Hill, and Kanter, R. M., (2004). Confidence. New York: Crown Business. 12. Again, see the work of Seligman on positive psychology and optimism, and Kanter on confidence and winning streaks. 13. Go to www.panpowered.com. 14. Clark, R. E., The CANE model of motivation to learn and work: A twostage process of goal commitment and effort, in Lowyck, J., (Ed.) (1999). Trends in corporate training. Leuven, Belgium: University of Leuven Press. Also, see Gerson, R. F., (2004). HEADcoaching: Mental training for peak performance. Indiana: Authorhouse. 15. Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black. 16. While you may hear this or similar quotes related to this statistic from the total quality management arena, one of the most quoted sources in the performance improvement field is Rummler, G., & Bache, A. (1995). Improving performance: How to manage the white space in the organization chart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 17. See Ingrid Guerra’s book in this series for more on this point. 18. See Gerson, R. F., (2006). The missing link in HPT. Performance Improvement, 45(1), 10–17. 19. There are many excellent reviews of attribution theory, all of which cite the originators of the theory. One comprehensive review is Martinko, M., (1995). Attribution theory: An organizational perspective. Florida: CRC Press.

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20. See the previous references to Gerson & Gerson, Loehr & Schwartz, and Anshel. 21. Hersey, P., & Chevalier, R. Situational leadership and executive coaching, 26–36, in Goldsmith, M., & Lyons, L., (2005). Coaching for leadership. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Chapter 5

Reaching the TOP Two of the biggest problems every employer faces today are how to continuously motivate employees and how to achieve ongoing improvements in performance. Companies and managers struggle with both situations, often throwing incentive programs and increased benefits packages at the problems. Yet, they don’t always get the results they want because, as we now know, the problems are frequently inside the employees, and external controls such as incentives will not always get the job done. That is why two of the “most watched” areas in human performance today are talent optimization (which is really achieving peak performance) and employee engagement (which is really motivation and commitment combined). In another book, performance models were introduced along with explanations of how they will help improve performances and benefit the performer, the organization, and society.1 Presented in this chapter are two models to help you optimize your talent and performance and then to get people so motivated and committed to do their best that you will begin to wonder, “Why wasn’t it this easy before?” These models are the Talent Optimization Performance System and Positive CORE.

Maximizing Motivation and Guaranteeing Improvement There is a way to virtually guarantee you will get the job done and achieve higher levels of performance. This “tool” will help you identify motivational and performance roadblocks as well as which factors contribute to high performance. It is called the Talent Optimization Performance System (TOPS), which was briefly mentioned in Chapter 4. Basically, it is a guide to talent optimization, motivational engagement, and performance improvement. It identifies ten areas of performance-related factors (such as motivation, organizational culture, and stress) that may be the source of performance strengths or the cause of performance problems. The areas are: 1.

Competence (skills and abilities)

2.

Confidence (belief in oneself)

3.

Consequence (reinforcers for performance)

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Commitment (dedication to successfully completing a task)

This first set is known as the big four of motivation and performance improvement. They are followed by the supporting six: 5.

Communication (how clearly performance expectations are communicated)

6.

Culture (how well the organization promotes and rewards successful performances)

7.

Challenge (how challenging the task is)

8.

Conflict (how much stress or conflict exists for the performer)

9.

Control (how much performers believe they control the consequences)

10.

Concentration (how much attention performers pay to the task and for how long)

When a person’s performance continues at a high level, as with most top performers, you can be relatively certain that many or all of these factors are in play. When a person’s performance deteriorates, or has never been up to par, you can usually be sure that if it is motivation related, it is due to something that is lacking in one of the above categories. It is up to managers and companies to identify the cause of the performance problem using this TOPS model and then develop potential resolutions for the problems. For example, if competence is the issue, then more skill training might be necessary, job aids might be required, or a job change might be in order. If the performer lacks confidence, then we must develop a series of performance activities that are similar to the required performance where this person can be successful so that he builds up his confidence and self-esteem. When success is achieved, we must reinforce the positive behaviors and consequences with praise so that the person will continue to perform well.2 When performance standards or expectations are not clearly communicated, then the performer has no idea what constitutes a successful result. Or if the person is under so much stress that he or she is unable to perform, we must find ways to minimize that stress and maximize a positive performance environment.

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Solutions to Motivation-related Performance Problems The most effective solution to any problem is to ask the employee first. Too often, managers identify a problem and they are the ones who prescribed the answers. They tell the employee what to do, how to do it, and when it must be done. Then the managers wonder why it either never gets done or it does not reach the specified performance level. The reason is simple: The manager owns the solution while the employee still owns the apparent problem. At no time was the employee/performer involved in generating the solution. So always ask employees what their problem is first, and ask them what they propose for a solution. It may be that they do require more training, or that they want to change how they are reinforced for their performances, or that they are getting reinforcements that they don’t really want, or that they require or prefer more guidance and coaching. Whatever the problem, you can be sure the employee has been thinking about it and the possible solutions for a long time. So, as a manager, ask the employee how they would resolve the issue. When you do this, you move the employee to a state of involvement, which we also call engagement. True success and high levels of performance occur when employees are fully engaged in their jobs. This is because they are more motivated and focused on the tasks at hand. Both managers and employees must achieve these levels of motivation, focus, and engagement in order to be successful. And the way to get there is by paying attention to the ten Cs mentioned previously. Total engagement means the employees own the problem and the solution, feel in total control of their performance behaviors, their results, and reinforcers, know the consequences for performance or non-performance, and have the confidence and skill set to do the job well. Employees who are engaged: •

Are completely committed to achieving successful results, both for themselves and their companies

•

Will do whatever it takes to get the job done so that everyone wins

•

Will continuously challenge themselves and raise the performance bar

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And isn’t that what we want from all our employees? So to identify and solve any motivation and performance problems, ask your employees first what they perceive the issues and solutions to be. Then go down the list of the ten areas related to motivation, engagement, and high performance to help them identify other causes. And finally, work with them to implement the appropriate performance improvement intervention. This approach will resolve 80 to 90 percent of your employee motivation and performance improvement problems, regardless of your industry.

The Talent Optimization Performance System (TOPS) This guide to motivational engagement and performance improvement includes two exercises—one for the manager and one for the employee. Exercise 1, with two parts, helps the manager serve as a performance coach. Each of the ten areas in Part 1 has five questions associated with it. The manager sits with an individual performer and asks these questions, takes notes on the answers, and follows up with additional probing questions of his or her own. The purpose of this interview is to engage the performer in a conversation about motivational issues that affect his or her performance, either positively or negatively. The questions in Part 2 are optional at the manager’s discretion. Once this interview is completed, the manager will move on to working with the performer to rate his or her own skill set in each area on a linear scale. Finally, the results of those ratings will be graphed to create a visual for both the performer and the manager. The graphic representation allows both the manager and the performer to identify areas that require improvement as well as areas of greatest strength. The typical profile would have 9 of the elements moving in a positive direction with Conflict showing lower numbers. Any motivational area that is 7 or less with Conflict 4 or higher requires intervention. A simple change in one or several of these areas could lead to measurable performance improvements. You are basically taking the “messy middle” of a performer’s motivation and emotional involvement with a performance and making it visible. Plus, a retest in 30, 60, or 90 days can show a change in the profile that would correlate to a change in performance.

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Note: The following material is taken from Gerson & Gerson, Positive Performance Improvement: A New Paradigm for Optimizing Your Workforce (Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black, 2006).

Part 1: Manager’s Interview Questions Directions: Feel free to adapt these base questions for the interview to fit your situation or organization. You may also want to shorten each question series from five to three if time is a problem for you. However, we strongly recommend that you complete the entire series of questions to get the best information possible to help your employees improve their performances. You can also provide these interview questions directly to the performer and ask him or her to respond to each one on paper or electronically. While this does allow a manager to have more people “interviewed” in a shorter period of time, it also detracts from the nuances of the personal interaction. And since one of the major elements of high performance is the relationship between managers and performers, we suggest you conduct each interview individually. Competence: Having the skills required to do the job 1. Do you currently have the skills or have you ever had the skills to do this job? 2. What were the results of previous jobs like this one? 3. Do you have similar skills that you can adapt to this job? 4. Can you learn new skills to do this job? 5. How satisfied are you with your current skill level and how satisfied will you be when you increase your skill level? Confidence: Having a belief in one’s ability to successfully complete a task 1. Do you believe you are capable of successfully completing the job? 2. Have you successfully completed similar jobs in the past? 3. What is your success ratio for jobs like these? 4. How confident are you in your abilities as a performer? 5. How will your self-esteem be affected by the result of your performance?

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Consequence: The effects of rewards and punishments on performance 1. What are the positive consequences (rewards) for doing this job well and the negative consequences (punishments) for doing this job poorly? 2. How much will the consequences influence your current and future performances? 3. How much control do you have over the consequences for your performances? 4. How closely are the consequences tied to the performance results and which specific consequences would you prefer? 5. To what extent will your performance add value to your group, organization, external clients, and/or our shared society? Commitment: The desire and dedication to perform 1. How much do you want to do this job? How passionate are you about this work? 2. How will you, your organization, your clients, and our shared society benefit from you successfully completing this job? 3. What reinforcement will you receive for successfully completing this job? 4. How did you feel when you successfully completed other jobs like this one? 5. How likely are you to do this job or a similar job again, for the same or an even longer period of time? Communication: The ability to clearly express a point of view 1. Have performance expectations been clearly communicated so that you fully understand the expectations and objectives related to your performance? 2. How often do you feel listened to, and how well do you listen to others? 3. What type of performance feedback is provided to you and when is it provided?

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4. What are the preferred methods of communication in this organization and how do they match up with your preferred methods of communication? 5. What are the communication problems that exist between men and women, management and staff, and among staff members, and how can they be resolved? Culture: The beliefs and environment of the organization 1. How does your perception of the organization’s culture influence and affect your performance? 2. What changes in the organization’s culture will help you be more motivated and improve your performance? 3. How does the organization’s mission and values align with your personal mission and values? 4. What are the specific organizational motivators and demotivators? 5. What aspects of the organization’s culture convince you that this is the best place for you to do your best work? Challenge: The degree of difficulty that exists in accomplishing a task 1. How hard or easy is it for you to complete your job? 2. How often do you establish stretch goals and objectives for your performances? 3. How often are you challenged physically, emotionally, and mentally to exceed your previous performance levels? 4. How much control do you have over the way you do your job? 5. What must you learn to do a new job well? Conflict: Unresolved emotional or interpersonal issues 1. What causes stress or conflict in your life? 2. What emotions do you feel when you’re involved in a conflict or under stress? 3. How often do you think your life is out of control or out of balance? 4. What do you do to effectively resolve conflict in your life?

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5. Would your life be better with no conflict or stress in it, a moderate amount of conflict or stress in it, or do you thrive on constant stress and ongoing conflict? Control: The amount of control or choice a performer has when performing 1. How much control or choice do you have over your performances? 2. How much certainty and predictability exist when you perform? 3. What are the reasons you give for the results and consequences of your performances? 4. How much do you or must you rely on others when you are performing? 5. Do you prefer situations where you work individually, as part of a team, or against others? Concentration: How well focus or concentration is maintained during a performance 1. How much difficulty do you have maintaining your focus to successfully complete a task? 2. What distracts you while you are performing a task? 3. What specific thoughts go through your mind when you are performing? 4. What do you remember about times when you performed well? 5. How difficult is it for you to concentrate on one task over a long period of time? Now that you have completed the initial TOPS interview, you may want to ask a few follow-up questions to help you further identify any performance problems.

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Part 2: Manager’s Follow-up Questions for TOPS Directions: These follow-up questions can be asked either as part of the initial interview or as a separate approach following the interview. Again, feel free to change or adapt the questions to fit your situation. You may also decide to skip these follow-up questions and go directly to the rating scales. The choice is yours. Problem Identification Questions 1. Do you know what is expected of you? 2. Do you believe that what is expected of you can be achieved by you? 3. Do you understand what to do? 4. Are you capable and confident of doing what you’re being asked to do? 5. Do you believe that what you are asked to do is worth doing? 6. Do you require any help achieving what we ask of you? 7. Do we require too much of you? 8. What problems, if any, do you see in doing what you’re being asked to do? 9. What do you expect to receive if you do a good job? 10. What do you expect to get if you perform poorly? 11. Do people who perform well get what they deserve? 12. How do you feel about the way performance is rewarded? 13. What do you feel about the reward system here? 14. How well do we follow through on our commitments to employees? 15. What do you think about the way people are treated here? 16. Are top performers treated differently than average or below average performers?

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Emotion Identification Questions 1. Why do you feel that way? 2. What caused you to have those feelings? 3. What feelings are you having, exactly, in relation to this situation? 4. What thoughts are going through your mind related to this situation? 5. What else can you tell me about the situation that’s causing you to feel this way? 6. Can you tell me anything else? 7. Can you be more specific when describing your emotions? 8. How are your feelings affected by the situation? 9. How much in control of your feelings do you think you are? 10. Does the job provide you with more positive feelings or more negative feelings?

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Once the interview is completed, it is time to put some numbers to the response categories. Use the scales below to have the performer rate him- or herself on each item. Then you will use the graph that follows to plot the performer’s scores for each individual item, which can range from 0 to 10. You will want all the scores to move in a positive direction except for the conflict score. That score should be low, otherwise the performer may have a problem. Your interpretation of the scale results or the graph is really very simple. Any score that is 7 or below (with Conflict 4 or higher) requires some type of intervention. That factor (and it may be more than one) is probably having a negative effect on performance. You will then select and/or design an intervention that will help optimize the next performance. If all the scores are high and/or in the right direction, then you have to raise the bar on future performances. It is imperative that the performer knows he or she has to improve on a regular basis and that you will help him or her achieve this by setting higher expectations, playing to his or her strengths, and challenging him or her more. The model works for both performance improvement and performance (strengths) enhancement. You only have to apply it.

TOPS Rating Scales Directions: Please circle the number that best represents your response to the question associated with the TOPS factor. Competence: Do I have the skills to do this job? 0

1

2

3

I do not possess the skills.

4

5

6

7

8

I possess some of the skills.

9

10

I possess all of the skills.

Confidence: How much do I believe I can do this job well? 0

1

2

I cannot perform this job as expected.

3

4

5

6

I may be able to perform this job satisfactorily.

7

8

9

10

I will successfully perform this job.

(continued)

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TOPS Rating Scales (continued) Consequence: Will the consequences (reinforcements) be tied to my results? 0

1

2

3

4

I do not believe consequences will be tied to performance.

5

6

7

8

I am not certain consequences will be tied to performance.

9

10

I know for a fact that consequences will be tied to my performance.

Commitment: How dedicated am I to performing this task well? 0

1

2

3

I have no desire to perform this task.

4

5

6

7

8

I am not sure how much I want to do this.

9

10

I am totally committed to successfully completing this task.

Communication: How well is information communicated in this organization? 0

1

2

3

Information is not shared.

4

5

6

7

8

I sometimes don’t get all the information I need to do my job.

9

10

Information is clearly communicated and shared.

Culture: How do the beliefs and values of the organization meet my needs? 0

1

2

3

The organization’s beliefs and values do not match my own.

4

5

6

7

8

The organization’s beliefs and values somewhat match my own.

9

10

The organization’s beliefs and values completely match my own.

Challenge: How hard or easy is it for me to successfully complete my job? 0

1

2

The job is very easy and does not provide much of a challenge for me.

3

4

5

6

The job provides a moderate challenge for me, but it is not very difficult.

7

8

9

10

The job is very challenging, and it motivates me to be successful.

(continued)

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TOPS Rating Scales (concluded) Conflict: What unresolved emotional or interpersonal issues exist? 0

1

2

3

There are no conflicts in my life.

4

5

6

7

8

There is some stress and conflict in my life that I must resolve.

9

10

There is too much stress and there are too many conflicts in my life.

Control: How much perceived choice or control do I have while performing? 0

1

2

3

I feel I have little or no control over my performance.

4

5

6

7

8

I have some control and/or choice while performing.

9

10

I have complete control over my performance and its consequences.

Concentration: How well do I concentrate or focus my attention on a performance? 0

1

I have a great deal of difficulty focusing my attention and concentrating.

2

3

4

5

6

I am capable of focusing my attention some of the time.

7

8

9

10

I always maintain my concentration and focus while performing.

Now plot the ratings to provide yourself and your performer with a visual representation of his or her motivational approach to performance improvement.

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TOPS Profile 10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0 Competence

Consequence

Confidence

Challenge

Communication

Commitment

Culture

Control Conflict

Concentration

Positive CORE: A New Approach to Performance Improvement The other model is called Positive CORE.3 Let’s start with an analogy: Those of you who work with personal trainers or who work out at health clubs know that a major focus of high-level fitness is to have a strong core. The fitness industry defines your core as your abdominal, hip, and back muscles, which basically support your entire body. That’s why they have begun focusing on strengthening the core for people who want to attain overall fitness. The focus on building a strong CORE began over 20 years ago, except it was to develop more “fit” business professionals. The objective then, as it still is now, was to link performance interventions and performance improvement to an enhancement process. I started focusing on strengths back then, and I continue to focus on them throughout this book. While I called the programs Performance Enhancement Programs at that time, instead of Positive CORE, they were definitely the precursor to this new approach to performance enhancement.

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Positive CORE is an approach to performance improvement enhancement that was designed based on three areas: sport psychology, positive psychology, and appreciative inquiry. With this approach, performance consultants can identify the CORE elements of an individual performer that make him or her successful. It involves all the stakeholders of an organization in an effort to determine, define, and describe how the performance contributions of individuals have led the organization to where it is, why and how it functions as it does, and how it accomplishes what it does. Positive CORE then seeks to take the organization to another level of performance by making it more effective, productive, and successful in all areas by upgrading the current mental make-up, strengths, and motivational involvement of its individual performers. The primary focus of Positive CORE is to identify successes and strengths rather than weaknesses and areas for improvements. The emphasis is placed on those strengths to create a “multiplier effect” so that they are increased and leveraged. The focus on the positive puts people in a better frame of mind, motivates them more to continue to achieve, and creates a virtuous cycle of success seeking success. The elements of the Positive CORE program for individual performers are Confidence, Outcomes, Relationships, and Engagement. Each of these elements are composed of sub-categories that are identified in the Positive CORE Elements chart.

Positive CORE Elements Confidence

Outcomes

Self-esteem

Objectives, expectations, and reinforcements based on adding value to external clients

Relationships Engagement Managers

Commitment

Strengths and Measurement and talents evaluation and continual improvement

Friends and family

Emotions

Reinforcements Results and returns: and financial, personal, and consequences society

Social, professional, and community

Motivation and optimism

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The Positive CORE program results in performance improvement and performance enhancement because there is buy-in from the performers (they are totally engaged), the focus on strengths and previous successes creates an ongoing positive atmosphere in which performance takes place, and the organization finds it easier to implement the “new” performance culture because its people are more motivated.

Positive CORE and Sales Success: A Practical Example Implementation of Positive CORE is very easy to accomplish, especially in a sales environment. We all know that sales success is easily measured, sales strengths are easily identified, and the psychobehavioral and motivational make-up of salespeople virtually energizes them to constantly improve. One organization with 175 salespeople found itself to be stagnant relative to its sales growth. The individual reps were doing as well as in previous years, but no one was growing their share of the business. As such, the company began handing out negative consequences when reps did not meet daily objectives and quarterly quotes. Still, performance did not improve, so the company put everyone through a standard sales training program. Again, there was no measurable increase in performance. Obviously, what they were doing was not achieving their desired results. In helping out this company, we began the Positive CORE process with the sales managers. After going through the four categories and their sub-categories (see the chart above), a clearer picture emerged of the desired versus current culture of the organization, the strengths of its performers, when they were at their best, who had the strongest relationships, who knew what was expected of them, how they became engaged in a task, and how the company and the individuals defined sales excellence. This profile was then described and taught to the rest of the sales force. The initial results were encouraging as more sales reps started hitting their numbers. The Positive CORE approach was expanded to include work in the area of intrinsic motivation and development of higher levels of self-confidence. This was then followed by a unique sales training program that taught all the reps the principles of psychobehavioral setting, influential communication (for both

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inside and outside the company), and the art of asking questions and listening. These skills enhanced the existing strengths of the sales force while simultaneously improving the CORE elements. The result of the entire Positive CORE intervention was an increase in sales (the measurement program is still ongoing), an increase in the confidence of the sales reps as they engaged in more client-centered behaviors, and a change in the corporate culture from internally competitive to cooperative.

Positive CORE and Performance Enhancement: A Practical Management Example A large healthcare organization was having difficulty achieving high performance with one of its departments. Each of the managers was well-trained and dedicated to the organization. Yet the department as a whole only met their base objectives or performed slightly below their baselines. This did not seem to make sense, so we were asked to determine how to turn this group into high performers. Positive CORE interviews were conducted and determined that, while each of the managers possessed the competencies to perform well, their performance objectives and expectations were not clearly spelled out. The managers were sort of operating in the dark without a scorecard because they did not have quantifiable measurements (results) to shoot for. In addition, the department head was the strong, silent type, until something went wrong. Then he became very vocal and readily pointed out the mistakes his people were making. This prevented the managers from being totally engaged in their performances. The interviews also uncovered the strengths of each of the managers. It was suggested to the managers that they enumerate their strengths to the department head, develop their own performance objectives and results measurements, and then present these to the department head. Since the managers would own the performance activities, their intrinsic motivation to perform and achieve would likely increase. And it did. We convinced the department head to let his managers “run with the ball” based on what they created. His agreement helped the managers become even more engaged in their attempts to enhance current performance levels and improve whatever had to be improved.

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The results were excellent. In three months, the entire department had exceeded previous performance metrics and was consistently outperforming their colleagues. The managers had taken ownership of their performance requirements and were totally responsible and accountable for their own consequences. This led to constant engagement on their parts, and each manager became a cheerleader for other managers. We also coached the department head to praise his people when appropriate and to take a step back and not jump on them when he saw them doing something wrong. Most people know when they have made a mistake, and pointing it out to them is not always necessary. Plus, when all you do is point out mistakes without ever giving praise or positive reinforcement, people will eventually be turned off by you. This is one of the reasons we all know now that people work for companies, but they leave managers. The results of this Positive CORE approach led to increased performances across the entire management team: a trickle-down effect where employees increased performance, and the department head underwent a change in leadership behavior. One year following this approach, the department was the most profitable in the healthcare organization, the department head was promoted to senior vice president, and several of the managers became department heads—all in all, not bad results for everyone involved.

Why Positive CORE Works The reason Positive CORE works as an approach to performance improvement is because it focuses on the positive aspects of performance. You tell the performer where they are already good or great and work with them to make them even better. This motivates them to continue performing and improving (think of a parent who used positive reinforcement to help their child learn to walk). Now a virtuous cycle is created within the organization where everyone is intent on getting better in addition to helping their colleagues improve their performances.

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A New Paradigm of Thought for Human Performance Technology (HPT) Here is what we are suggesting, and these suggestions apply to the individual, the organization, and our shared society. We must move from a deficit/pathology model to a strengths/abundance model of performance. We must move away from the improvement/intervention approach, which is almost always perceived as negative by the targeted performer, to an enhancement/engagement approach, where the performer builds on his or her behavioral and emotional strengths. We must also then work to reinforce the performance of our top performers more so than those of our bottom performers. We do most what we feel we do best. We perform at what we get praised for, more than what we get paid for. Remember that what gets rewarded gets repeated (both good and bad). So, it is time for us to take a more positive approach to performance improvement and do the following: •

Keep our current models and systems that work and apply them in a new way.

•

Identify the strengths of all our performers and work to improve them.

•

Focus on the top 20 percent of our performers and make them even better.

•

Engage all performers through praise, reinforcement, and rewards.

•

Take a positive approach, focus on the positive, and stay positive.

•

Stay focused on useful results for everyone.

•

Keep the Ideal Vision in mind and make a positive impact on society.

Benefits to the HPT Practitioner Here are some ways that you, as an HPT practitioner, will benefit from this new performance enhancement approach. First, you will find it easier to work with your clients because they will be more receptive to your suggestions. After all, you are no longer pointing out where and why they are weak. You are helping them advance

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their strengths. Second, economic buyers (CEOs, CFOs, etc.) will be more likely to fund your efforts because they will see the quantitative and qualitative results from their top performers. Every executive wants all their people to do well, but they especially want to get even more from their top producers because these people are the greatest contributors. Finally, you will enjoy your work more because you will have an easier path to do what you do best and enjoy the most—helping people succeed. You will find that clients are more receptive to you and that they will even welcome your efforts. You will also find that you will be able to help them achieve measurable success, prove to them they have been successful, and enhance your own self-esteem because you are able to help others. When you combine the positive approach to performance enhancement and what it does for both the performer and the consultant, with the level of results and the speed with which those results are achieved thanks to the motivation and engagement of the performers, you have a whole new paradigm for performance consulting. You also have a way to more positively communicate what you are offering and promising to achieve when you talk to your clients. To paraphrase an old commercial, “Try Positive CORE, you’ll like it.”

Endnotes 1.

Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

2.

Daniels, A., (2000). Bringing out the best in people. New York: McGraw-Hill.

4.

See Gerson & Gerson, Positive performance improvement as well as Gerson, R. F., (2004). A new paradigm of thought for HPT. Performance Improvement, 43(9), 16–20.

Chapter 6

How to Be a High Performer Every Day Your success in everything you do is fundamentally up to you. As you have read in previous chapters in this book, as well as in some of the other books in this series, you choose what you do and what you produce, and how you respond to your objectives and the consequences of your actions. All these things are either a function of motivation or a precursor to further motivation. You choose to take action and complete a task, or you choose to do nothing, or you even decide to fail. You choose to make your life and the world a better place, or you decide (choose) to accept mediocrity. You, and you alone, determine the drive, desire, and intensity you will bring to every situation, and that has a significant influence on the results of your action. Many people want to be high performers, yet they are not willing to do what it takes to achieve that lofty and satisfying status. Practice, more practice, and still more practice that is focused on your ideal objectives is essential. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” That is why you must also practice perfectly; otherwise your performance will contain errors. No sense in practicing how to perform a task incorrectly. Therefore, one of the things you must do to become a consistent high performer is practice to high levels of performance on a regular basis. You must also establish your objectives for each task, as mentioned in a previous chapter. Again, this is easy to say and do and sometimes harder to implement. Yet, you must establish measurable performance objectives so that you can tell how well you are doing, both while you are performing and afterward. High performers in all fields do this on a regular basis, whereas average or lower-than-average performers have no goals and objectives to give them a sense of direction. If you think about one of your signature skills in which you almost always exhibit a high performance, you will find that you have clear goals and objectives, you practice your skills prior to performing, and you are confident that you will do well. Conversely, when you compare yourself to an average performer, you will probably find that they do not do the same things you do. They might only do one thing differently, or they might do

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many things differently. In any case, their performance lags behind yours. If you are involved in an individual competition, your opponent’s sub-par performance will work to your benefit. However, if you are part of a team, work group, or organization, as most of us are, your results may be partially dependent on the results of these inferior performers. This would then require you to help them achieve the status of a high performer. The questions become: “How will you do that?” “How can all of us become high performers on a regular basis?”

Motivational Style and High Performance Over the past 30 years, I have noticed in my work with performers at all levels that each of us has a preferred motivational style. Similar to behavioral and communication styles, our motivational style identifies us and affects our performances. Using the work of Rotter in locus of control and Vroom in expectancies of success as a basis for this concept, our motivational style can be described as either inner or outer directed, and either positive or negative in approach (Vroom calls this valence).1 The figure below shows the quadrants of motivational style.

Outer Direction

Outer Negative: Expresses self-criticism, negative self-talk, and anger verbally and with actions.

Outer Positive: Pumps self up vocally, gives self positive reinforcement, and gets the same from others.

Inner Direction

Inner Negative: Talks to self in negative or critical manner, berates self for mistakes, and feeds off this negative energy.

Inner Positive: Uses affirmations and silent positive self talk, doesn’t require anyone else to pump him- or herself up.

Negative Valence

Positive Valence

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A little explanation of each style is in order now. First, be aware that while you may think either of the two positive valence styles is better to motivate someone to achieve a high performance, that is actually not the case. There are many people who use negatives to motivate themselves. We have seen this with athletes in all types of sports, both team and individual. We also see it with professional speakers who use one of the negative motivational styles to pump themselves up before a speech. Using the positive styles, regardless of direction, seems to be the intuitive and logical choice for motivating high performers. But, if you take the time to think about it, you will be able to identify many situations where someone, even yourself, used self-criticism or anger as motivation to achieve a high performance. Outer Negative people are expressive. They talk about their negativity, and then even yell at themselves to get themselves going. They will put themselves down out loud, curse themselves, and say anything and everything they can think of (in a negative manner) to psych themselves up for the performance. Inner Negative people do exactly the same thing, but they do it quietly, subvocally. They appear to be in control of their emotions and their actions because they do not express themselves to any degree that someone can observe, yet their internal dialog is negative. Again, this is simply their motivational style. It is neither good nor bad as a style, as long as it results in a high performance. Outer Positive people are also expressive. They talk about their positive attitudes, their positive self-esteem, and their confidence to motivate themselves. They may also yell and scream, but they are saying positive things. They love to hear reinforcements for past accomplishments, and when they don’t hear it from other people, they tell it to themselves out loud. They actually vocalize their affirmations. The Internal Positives do the same things in their own quiet manner. Remember, no one style is better or worse than the others. No one style is more preferred than the others. As long as the style you select helps you achieve a consistently high level of performance at whatever you do, then that style is right for you. Now, someone might say that the negative styles are pessimistic. This is definitely not true. Your motivational style differs from your attitude of optimism or pessimism. You can pump yourself up negatively and still be very optimistic about your outcome. How you get psyched up is up to you. Remember, we are talking about a motivational approach

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here (valence or direction), not attitude. Performers can have a positive or negative attitude with any of the motivational styles. So which quadrant do you fit into most of the time when you achieve high performance?

Next Steps to Being a High Performer Every book in this series provides you with a systematic and results-focused process to achieve a useful objective. With that in mind, the rest of this chapter will provide you with ten steps you can take to ensure that you achieve high performance in whatever you do. These steps will be described in one possible order. Remember that since each performer is different, you could possibly, and probably would, alter the order to best fit their approach. The ten steps are: Y

Know and commit to your Mega (your Ideal Vision).

Y

Ensure that your mission (individual and organizational) is clear and related to Mega.

Y

Affirm your own self-esteem repeatedly (use positive selftalk and optimism).

Y

Create and maintain confidence (believe you can achieve and reinforce success).

Y

Establish measurable performance objectives and expectations of success.

Y

Capitalize on your strengths (review the TOPS model in Chapter 5).

Y

Raise the bar in future performances (make excellence your average).

Y

Help others achieve their Mega first.

Y

Embrace and manage change (keep what works well, change everything else).

Y

Go with your flow (do what you love and challenge yourself).

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Know Your Mega You may read in other books in this series about the importance of having an Ideal Vision and making sure you are adding value to society, not subtracting value from it. Many times, Mega is related to what an organization or larger group (government, charity, etc.) can do to positively impact society. From a motivational standpoint, individuals can also have an Ideal Vision. This will serve to motivate them when they perform any task. For example, my personal Mega or Ideal Vision is that we will live in a world where everyone will be successful and happy, based on how they individually and independently define success and happiness. This Ideal Vision is with me every day, and it motivates me in whatever I do. When I coach executives, salespeople, or athletes, I am working toward learning about their definitions of success and happiness. When I play basketball, I do whatever I can to make my teammates successful and winners. I even coach them while we are on the court to help them perform better. My belief is that if I can help them be successful and happy in one situation (business, sports, family life), they will pay it forward in their next situation. We have also witnessed this in our communities where neighbors have developed neighborhood watch programs to keep everyone safe. We also witnessed it in our responses to natural and man-made disasters where strangers began contributing and pitching in to help those less fortunate. The Ideal Vision of a “well society” where everyone is self-sufficient and self-reliant is what motivates people to do these things. For the individuals who make contributions, you can be sure they feel successful and happy because they are able to help. Here is a challenge for you: On the next page, write down your personal Mega or Ideal Vision statement. I know you’ve done this already in previous chapters, but now your knowledge of objective setting and establishing a motivating Ideal Vision has increased. You will definitely be able to do a better job this time around. So consider how you can make the world/society a better and/or more perfect place. Consider how whatever you do, use, produce, and accomplish contributes to achieving your Ideal Vision. When you do this, you will also find that your mission and purpose in life become very clear.

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My Mega statement or Ideal Vision is:

Ensure a Clear Mission Related to Mega Every performer should have their own individual, as well as organizational (if you are part of a larger group), mission statement. Without getting into the why’s and how’s of forming mission statements, let’s just agree that your mission statement and your purpose are the same. Based on my Ideal Vision (mentioned above), my mission or purpose is to provide methods, programs, and opportunities to help people become successful and happy. I do this through my coaching, training, and consulting programs. I also provide people with books to read, create opportunities to learn (by serving as an advisor to college interns), contribute time and money to charities, and serve as a role model for others. My mission/purpose, which is clearly related to my Mega and readily communicated so that everyone understands it, is the driving force in my business, my family, and all my relationships. What are you doing to create your mission statement and relate it to your Mega? If you don’t have your own Mega or Ideal Vision, and you would like to borrow one, please refer to book 1 in this series and use the Ideal Vision statement written there. It talks about a better and safer world for tomorrow’s child. How can you adapt that to fit your purpose in life? What can you do to make it your personal mission, both individually and as part of an organization, to make this world a better place for your children, grandchildren, and everyone else? This is what will motivate you to get up in the morning and to do the best you can do at whatever task you take on, to push yourself to achieve those audacious goals and objectives, and to help you persevere in the face of adversity. When your mission/purpose is clearly related to your Mega, your level of confidence while performing goes up, your ability to overcome obstacles increases, and your resilience to perform despite stress, challenges, and barriers also increases. On the next page, write

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down your mission or purpose statement and make sure it relates to the positive impact you want to have on society. My mission/purpose statement is:

Affirm Your Self-Esteem Positive affirmations (statements about who a person is, what they do, what they produce, and results they commit to achieve) make people feel better about themselves. Affirmations are closely related to optimism, autosuggestion, and positive self-talk. The statements you make to yourself actually pump you up for the task ahead. Affirmations also help you develop a positive mental attitude. All this leads to higher self-esteem and greater self-confidence. Here are some affirmations you can use: Y

I’m okay. I’m a good person.

Y

I love my family and myself.

Y

Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.

Y

My success in life is dependent upon how many other people I help be successful.

Y

The more I give to people, the more I receive in return.

Y

Helping people without expecting anything in return leads to true satisfaction.

Y

I add value to the success of myself and others who I can affect.

Y

I am a great person (business owner, employee, father, husband, wife, mother, parent, brother, sister, cousin, athlete, etc.).

Now, what other affirmations can you create that are specific to you or your situation? One that I help my clients develop refers to peak performance. It is: “I am a peak performer in everything that I do.” This simple statement, repeated at least three times a day every

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day, convinces your mind that you are truly that peak performer you are talking about. Then, when you go into any situation, you will have the confidence and the expectation that you will perform at a high level. Optimists use affirmations to keep their spirits up and their motivation high. They consider good things that happen to them as permanent and personal, meaning they expect those good things to happen again, and they take responsibility for them happening. Pessimists believe that good things are fleeting or a matter of luck, and they take no responsibility for the results. This is also one of the major differences in confidence levels of performers, which we will discuss in the next section. Finally, optimists outperform pessimists in a variety of situations, including sports, sales, academics, and relationships. Think about it: Do you want to be around people with negative attitudes who see the world darkly, or do you want to be with people who are positive and find the good in everything they and you do? Here are 20 tips for you to build your self-esteem that will then increase your optimism, self-confidence, and motivation to perform well: Y

Know your strengths and weaknesses.

Y

Know your limitations.

Y

Be happy and satisfied with yourself and your personal life.

Y

Be happy and satisfied with your work life.

Y

Look forward to each day for the adventure and challenge it brings.

Y

Count your blessings; focus on what you have.

Y

Love yourself and your family.

Y

Help others, especially by adding value to their lives and our shared society.

Y

Believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish things.

Y

Believe that you have the power to control your life.

Y

Commit to a life of continuous self-improvement.

Y

Think positively and speak positively.

Y

Associate with positive people.

Y

Expect yourself to be the best you can be.

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Y

Reward and reinforce yourself for successes.

Y

Take risks that you feel comfortable with, then expand your boundaries.

Y

Failure and losing are lessons to be learned on the road to success.

Y

Know that you are always trying to be the best you can be, and that is enough.

Y

Do good and nice things for yourself, things that make you feel good about yourself.

Y

Tell yourself every day that you have a high level of selfesteem, and then go out and do things that support this affirmation.

Create and Maintain Confidence Confidence is one of the most important factors in high performance. Anyone who believes he or she is capable of achieving something great often outperforms his or her counterparts. Confidence is a major factor in winning streaks, playing in the zone, defeating a superior opponent, achieving high grades in school, running a successful business, maintaining a successful relationship, and any other activity you can think of. Lack of confidence also contributes to losing streaks, poor performance, and selfdoubt. A person with confidence maintains a positive and optimistic attitude toward life, while a person who lacks confidence often becomes a pessimist and a defeatist. Confidence levels also affect our belief systems, and vice versa. What we believe often determines what we achieve. People have a tendency to subscribe to a set of enabling beliefs related to a situation or a set of disabling beliefs. Use the job aid on the next page to write down your enabling and disabling (if any) beliefs in each of the motivational/performance areas. The more enabling beliefs you have in an area, the more confidence you will also have. One way to do this is to use your affirmations to verbally create an artificial environment in your mind where you start to believe you will achieve and succeed. Then, eventually, you will become successful, and your belief system will remain positive, confident, and optimistic.

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Everyone has a right to be successful in whatever they choose and they can be. Some people, though, never seem to achieve success. That’s because they have some beliefs that hold them back. Beliefs are what motivate us to act or not act in a given situation. Beliefs help us make choices and decisions. Beliefs can either be disabling or enabling. Obviously, successful people work from a set of enabling beliefs. In the columns below, fill in your disabling/self-limiting beliefs and enabling beliefs for the ten areas of success. Be as specific and descriptive as possible. When you finish this exercise, you should have a comprehensive list of what holds you back from achieving your goals, dreams, and objectives in each area of your life. Life Area Mental Emotional Physical Personal Professional Family Community Financial Social/Society Spiritual

Disabling Beliefs

Enabling Beliefs

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Establish Measurable Performance Objectives and Expectations of Success This point is so critical to your becoming a high performer that it must be repeated. We talked about this in Chapter 3, and we mentioned expectations of success again earlier in this chapter. Performance objectives must be established for everything you want to accomplish. These objectives must be SMARTER and they must go beyond the basics. They must also specify the results you will achieve, how you will measure your achievements, and what your expectancy or probability of success will be. For example, you would not make a measurable performance objective of becoming a millionaire if you had only a 5 percent expectation of success, you were not willing to put in the time and effort to become a millionaire, and you did not know the things you had to do to achieve this objective. On the other hand, you would make a measurable performance objective of becoming a millionaire if you had an 85 percent or higher expectation of success, you were willing to make, save, and invest the money it takes to achieve millionaire status, and you were willing to continuously improve yourself so that you could more easily achieve this “high performance” level. In book 1 of this series, Kaufman talks a great deal about measurable performance objectives and the importance of aligning these objectives with your Mega, Macro, and Micro levels of results, consequences, and payoffs. He emphasizes how important this is for strategic thinking and planning. In addition, he talks about how we must establish our performance objectives and consequences so that we have a positive impact on our shared society. These same principles are also extremely important for self-motivation and high performance. You have to know where you are going, how you are going to get there, what to expect while you are going, and how you’ll know when you get there, because all this affects your belief systems and confidence for achieving high performance. The link between individual motivation for achieving high performance and strategic planning becomes very clear when you consider aligning performance objectives for both areas. The link is also strengthened when you add the psychological attribute of expectancies of success. There is a great deal of research in both the motivation and performance realms to support the position that a person’s expectation of success on a given task strongly affects the outcome of that task as well as influences the

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expectations for success and willingness to perform the task again in the future. (See the Vroom citation in endnote #1 in this chapter.) When objectives are aligned with expectations, confidence increases and so does performance, both on current and future tasks.

Capitalize on Your Strengths A great deal of research has recently been published by the Gallup organization talking about motivational and performance strengths. Their research supports the conclusion that people perform better when they focus on their strengths, rather than their weaknesses.2 This relates to the TOPS model described in Chapter 5, which helps performers identify their top motivational strength areas. Furthermore, think about what you would rather do: something you are good at or something you are bad at. The answer is obvious: We all prefer to perform in areas we are good at. It is true that sometimes we will have to do something that does not play to our strengths. It is then up to us to work to improve our weaknesses, to a degree. In the long run, though, we all are more effective when we use our strengths. For example, you would not expect a 5’1” basketball player to play center in the NBA, nor would you expect a person who could not dance to enter competitive dance contests. You would also not ask a person lacking in artistic talent to draw or paint something for you, nor would you ask a carpenter to perform brain surgery. This is not denigrating to what some people do; it is just pointing out that we all have certain strengths that we should play to. In actuality, we are better off enhancing our strengths than simply working to improve our weaknesses. This is an area that requires more research in performance improvement. Most of our models and interventions find a weakness or gap (cf. Kaufman’s definition of a true need—a measurable gap between current and desired results) and then determine or develop an intervention to improve the problems and/or close the gap. We have to take a different, yet related, approach, and this approach is now being promoted in the fields of positive psychology and appreciative inquiry. The approach is to find where and when a performer does well (his or her strengths) and then help that performer enhance those strengths. The premise, and it makes great sense, is that the increased performance based on strengths will more than make up

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for the original gap, and it will also bring along any other weaknesses that may have existed. A strengths adjustment will result in more and more high performances than anything else. Also, playing to your strengths raises your self-esteem, self-confidence, and expectations of future and ongoing success. One other point must be made: After you have worked with and enhanced a performer’s strengths, you may still find that some areas for improvement exist. Now is the time to work on them and identify the appropriate intervention that will close the performance gap. Like anything else, if you are looking for a weakness to work on and try to improve, you are likely to find one. You may be working on the wrong thing at the wrong time. Consider the story below as a metaphor for this point. Both approaches begin with a gap between your current results and consequences and your desired results and consequences. This suggested approach is about personal motivation and the personal decision to be successful. It is one way to choose to close gaps in results. A man was hacking his way through the jungle with a machete. He was making great progress cutting down and through the bushes. After a while, he came upon a man who asked him what he was doing and where he was going. The man with the machete said he was obviously cutting a path through the jungle and he was going to the City of Gold that would appear at the end of the path. The stranger said to him that it was obvious he was cutting a great path through the jungle, but if he was going to the City of Gold, he was in the wrong jungle. The moral of the story is that you should not work hard at being good at the wrong things (always starting with weaknesses). But if you work on strengths first, you will always be working on something that is right and that will have a positive effect on future performances and results.

Raise the Bar in Future Performances High performers are never satisfied with ordinary performance. They are continually seeking to improve their performances. They have set their objectives at certain levels, and they raise them on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter to them how you measure their performance (in dollars, in hundredths of a second, in shareholder value, in ratios, or in society impact). What is important to them is that there is some sort of scoreboard they can use to measure their performance, reward themselves when they achieve the desired

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level, and then raise the bar for the next performance. High performers are not afraid of striving for excellence, actualizing superior performance, or reaching the pinnacle of success. In fact, that is one of the things that keeps them motivated to continue performing. High performers know that average and very good is not good enough. Excellence—success—must be the baseline for what you do and achieve. High performers are always seeking to raise the bar. They always want to get better. Even when they do well, but not excellently, they are not satisfied. They seem to have a bigger version of what they want to accomplish than their average or normal performing counterparts. If it is possible to make this conceptual leap, you might say that high performers know their Mega and the impact they are going to achieve and to have on society and external clients, while other performers are focused on individual and/or average achievements.

Help Others Achieve Their Mega This is an adaptation of a concept you will hear if you’ve ever listened to a motivational speaker. The concept states that you can achieve more of what you want out of life if you just help others get what they want first. Basically, this means that you help others achieve their goals and objectives first, and then they, and many others, will help you achieve what you want. I have extended this concept here, and the leap makes intuitive sense. As a high performer, you have already defined your Ideal Vision for yourself and/or your organization. You know the impact that achieving your Ideal Vision will have on external clients and society. You strive every day to make your Mega a reality. Now, take the time to help people around you define and identify their Mega. While Kaufman in book 1 in this series writes about society and a “perfect world,” many people have difficulty, at first, understanding a concept that global. So when I coach high performers and people striving to be high performers, I help them define “their Mega—the value they can add to our shared society.” This adaptation of Kaufman’s concept actually works very well for individuals as they perform in their own and their organization’s reality. I advise clients to help the people they interact with to identify and achieve their own Mega. Then, these people will, in return, help the original high performer continually improve and achieve high levels of performance.

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If we are all striving to improve our shared society, then we should all help each other achieve our Mega. This collaboration and cooperation could lead to never-before-seen levels of performance at all levels and in all areas. And what would happen if we had a society of high performers, all striving to help each other achieve their Mega?

Embrace and Manage Change High performers love change. They love the fact that change makes them better. They know that in order to continuously improve, they have to keep what works and change everything else. When I train and coach sales professionals, I teach them that if they keep getting the same objection during the same part of their sales presentation, then they have to change the presentation. It is not working the way it should. That is unless they are using the objection as a preplanned springboard to facilitate making the sale. But in most cases, they will have to make a change and keep everything else that is working. High performers also know that what has worked in the past might not work in the present or the future. That is why they are always looking to improve. They practice their skills regularly. Athletes, musicians, dancers, etc., practice daily. Business professionals should also practice their skills daily, in addition to doing their job. This way, they can refine their skills, get better at identifying what works well and what doesn’t work well, and make the appropriate changes. Change, almost always, is good. Nothing improves or gets better without changes being made. You’ve probably heard that people don’t like change. That is not at all true. People, and high performers especially, like change. Some even love and embrace change. They just don’t want to be forced to change. Change will occur when the motivation or pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing. Smokers are an excellent example. When the pain of staying a smoker is greater (such as dying from lung cancer) than the pain of being a non-smoker (not having cigarettes to enjoy), smokers will quit smoking. They will change. After a while, they will even embrace the change. The same is true for high performers in any field. They are constantly looking for ways to get better and willingly make the necessary changes.

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Go with the Flow We have all heard of the concept of flow.3 It is that one time during a performance where everything is working perfectly. You are in the zone. Everything you do is easy. You are immersed in the activity, and you are not even thinking about what you are doing or the results. The right things are just happening. You are physically and mentally challenged, you are mindful of what you are doing without being critical of yourself, and you seem to have stepped into a time warp where everything slows down as you perform at the highest levels. You are doing what you love and it is working out perfectly for you. You are into your performance. Just go with the flow. Let it happen. Don’t over-analyze it. Don’t critique it. And don’t start to wonder about it. Just let it continue to happen. You know where you are headed and why you want to get there. How and when you get there (achieve your objective) is up to you. Your results can and will be amazing and the feelings of self-esteem and self-confidence that you get when you are successful are truly great. On the other side of the coin, if you ever want to interrupt someone’s flow or peak performance, ask them this question: “How, specifically, are you doing exactly what you are doing today?” They will begin to think about it and their performance will deteriorate. Now, that’s just for fun. High performers don’t do that gamesmanship thing. They are only focused on their own high performance. They know that to continue being a high performer, they must maintain the proper attitude, challenge themselves while they do what they love, and keep their motivation high.

A Review Once again, here are the ten steps you must follow to become a high performer and to maintain your status as a high performer. Adapt, adopt, and modify these into your mental and behavioral skills repertoire and you will find yourself achieving your objectives, performing at the highest levels possible, and motivating yourself to continually improve. Y

Know and commit to your Mega (the Ideal Vision: the value you will add to our shared society on your way to personal success).

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Y

Ensure that your mission (individual and organizational) is clear and related to Mega.

Y

Affirm your own self-esteem repeatedly (use positive selftalk and optimism).

Y

Create and maintain confidence (believe you can achieve and reinforce success).

Y

Establish measurable performance objectives and expectations of success.

Y

Capitalize on your strengths (review the TOPS model in Chapter 5).

Y

Raise the bar in future performances (make excellence your average).

Y

Help others achieve their Mega first (and we all become successful).

Y

Embrace and manage change (keep what works well, change everything else).

Y

Go with your flow (do what you love and challenge yourself).

Endnotes 1.

Rotter, J. B., (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80. (Whole No. 609). Also Vroom, V., (1994). Work and motivation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

2.

A series of books by the Gallup organization talks about how a focus on a performer’s strength has a powerful effect on high performance. The series includes: Buckingham, M., & Coffman, C., (1999). First, break all the rules. New York: Simon & Shuster; Buckingham, M., & Clifton, D., (2001). Now discover your strengths. New York: Free Press; and Buckingham, M., (2005). The one thing you need to know. New York: Free Press; and several others.

3.

See, again, Csikszentmihalyi, M., (1990). Flow. New York: Harper.

Chapter 7

Guaranteeing High Performance We’ve covered a variety of ways to become a high performer as well as to maintain your status as a high performer. We’ve covered motivating yourself and motivating others; how to plan to achieve high performance; the relationship between performance, motivation, and emotions; the different types of motivation that may spur you to achieve high performance; the relationship between high performance and Mega planning; and how high performance affects you as an individual, your organization, and society. We’ve also presented several models to help you more effectively achieve high performance. And a blueprint was provided in the previous chapter on ten ways to motivate yourself to be a high performer every day— to achieve success every day. This final chapter will tie everything together for you. It will help you achieve and become what many professionals are afraid to go out on a limb to say—you can virtually guarantee high performance every time. This chapter will teach you how to guarantee that you will be a high performer all or most of the time. It will also tie together some of the concepts from the other books in this series. After all, while this book is able to stand alone to help you become a high performer, the principles and ideas in this book are much stronger when it is read and viewed as part of a system—the sixpack series of these books.

A Reminder about Obstacles Let’s go back and take a look again at some of the obstacles to achieving high performance. We begin where most people begin— with a needs analysis. This is a mistake because you cannot analyze a performance requirement (a need you choose to reduce or eliminate) until you have determined which needs you have selected to deal with and thus require analyzing. If this sounds circuitous, let me explain. You must first begin with a needs assessment, which is the determination of the existence of a need (a measurable gap between the results you get now and those results you want to accomplish). Once you have determined one or more performance needs, you then prioritize which ones you will work on. Then, and only then, you conduct the needs analysis. You use the analysis to learn what is causing the gap in results between what

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the current performance is achieving and what the results of the desired performance should be. So to overcome one of the first obstacles to guaranteeing high performance, you have to know where to start in relation to where you want to go and why you want to go there. Another obstacle is incorrectly assuming that the system, or parts of the system, is flawed. The HPT model (even though it is linear and somewhat limited) has you systematically analyze various possible causes of a performance gap and then create an appropriate intervention to close that gap in results. This works in many cases, but it still does not guarantee high performance. You have got to carefully and thoroughly analyze the performer who is involved in this situation. Many times, the tools, resources, and environment are appropriate for optimal performance. Yet, the performance is still below par or expectations. The reason is that something is going on inside the performer and we do not pay enough attention to the effect this has on the results of a performance.1 A third obstacle, and one that we have already talked about in this book, is goal setting, or more specifically, objective setting. Too many people set goals that are incorrectly worded. Goals such as “I will increase my sales” or “I will make fewer errors in my performance” are not very effective. They are not true performance objectives because they have no measurement component embedded in them. They talk about process and do not focus on results and payoffs. These goals are more global statements. In order to be truly effective and influence performance, goal statements must be made quantifiable. They must become performance objectives. They have to state where you are headed and how to tell when you have arrived. For example, “I will increase my sales” becomes “I will increase my sales and the related profit for my organization by at least 10 percent by the end of the second quarter,” and “I will make fewer errors in my performance” becomes “I will perform with 100 percent accuracy every time.” The performance objective includes both the measurement component and the time component. Notice, though, that it does not consider the “how” component—the methods or processes you will use to achieve the objective. That is because once you specify a method, you might be excluding all other possible avenues for achievement.2 So make sure you clearly and specifically state what you will achieve and by when. You will

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become even more effective if you can also state how you will achieve the desired results. One final obstacle is the lack of a holistic approach to performance improvement. When we follow the conventional HPT model and the standards promoted by ISPI, we have a foundation for our work. However, these building blocks are still somewhat selflimiting. The model is too linear and the standards are not explicit or definitive enough. Plus, they leave out the most important part of the equation, and that is the person doing the performance. A more holistic approach would involve analyzing not only the external factors that affect the performance, but also an analysis and identification of the internal factors, such as the performer’s motivation, mindset, and attitudes toward the performance.3 We must be more personal in our work and not so mechanistic (systems oriented and unfeeling) when we help people achieve high performance.

Ten Ways to Guarantee High Performance Here are ten things you can do to guarantee high performance. While they can be done in the order I present them here, several of them can be mixed and matched. If you want to achieve high performance virtually every time you do something, then you should follow these recommendations as closely as possible.

Properly Identify Performance Gaps Every performance intervention starts with a gap analysis. You have read about what to do and how to do it in several of the other books in this series. Just the fact that it is mentioned and covered so often should give you a hint to its vital importance. Yet, performance consultants jump into this activity often with preconceived notions. They have a solution or an intervention idea in mind, and they make the gap analysis support that idea. They jump from unwarranted assumptions to foregone conclusions. This is incorrect and inappropriate. If you’ve already identified a solution, all you are doing is searching for a problem that the solution will solve. We must properly identify performance gaps by conducting an appropriate needs assessment. Kaufman discusses the approach in detail in book 1 of this series, so it does not have to be repeated here. The important point about properly conducting a needs analysis is to determine what is causing the gap, why it is existing, who (including society) is affected by this gap, what performer factors

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are also contributing to this gap, and what the consequences are of ignoring the existence of the gap. There are many ways to collect the data for this needs assessment (again, see book 1 by Kaufman for a whole host of data collection tools as well as book 6 by Guerra). The key is to collect the data objectively and then properly identify any and all needs (measurable gaps in performance results) that must be addressed. You can use the HPT model as a guide for you to conduct this needs assessment and gap analysis. Because of its limitations, you should also use the investigative models described by Kaufman in book 1 of this series to give you a broad picture of the situation. Complete the causal analysis as described in the HPT model to give you an external look at some of the contributing issues. And follow the recommendations of the TOPS model in this book as well as the performer analysis recommendations (see Chapter 4 in this book to review the MASTERY acronym as a foundation for a performer analysis) to carefully and comprehensively complete the needs assessment. You must make an accurate determination of the needs to be addressed and the gaps to be closed before you can do anything about guaranteeing high performance.

Identify the Main Performance Problem and Link to Mega Once you’ve completed the needs assessment, you must select the most important need or problem to be solved. This should be the one that has the most significant effect on the performance results as well as everyone involved with or affected by the performance. You do not want to select the “wrong” problem to work on. For example, think about a time when you had to check into a hotel. Perhaps the desk clerk did not smile at you or greet you warmly upon your arrival. And perhaps the clerk was a little slow with the computer. As a guest, which less-than-stellar performance component would bother you more? Most people, after a trip and upon arrival at a hotel, prefer to be greeted warmly and made to feel welcome. I know I do, yet hotel management might incorrectly perceive the problem as this desk clerk not being as fast on the computer as other clerks. So they would train this person to speed up data entry. Now the clerk would be as fast on the computer as others, but would still be a grouch. Do you want this person to serve you?

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This is a very simple example, yet it clearly describes selecting a wrong performance intervention and throwing it at the wrong problem. Let’s play it out a little further and I’ll show you how this simple act of smiling and warmly greeting a new guest also links to Mega. First, typing in a guest’s name quickly and correctly on the hotel reservations computer will in no way affect the organization or society. In fact, most guests prefer that the information goes into the system correctly so that their bills will be correct. I know when I travel, accuracy on the clerk’s part is very important to me. It is more important than the speed of data entry. Now, a smile and a warm greeting from the desk clerk can do wonders for a weary traveler. If that person smiles at me and makes me feel good about being there, then there is an excellent chance that I will pay it forward. I will probably smile back at the clerk, be polite as I wait for my key, and be in a better mood when I meet other people in and around the hotel. The more people I affect positively makes me feel better, and they too will feel better. So now they go out and are positive toward people they meet. If you take this example to its logical conclusion, everyone is spreading the smile and positive feelings toward everyone else, all because the desk clerk smiled at me and greeted me in a pleasant manner. So the problem is not typing in data too slowly. It is smiling and communicating warmth to a guest. I’m sure you can think of your own examples like this one. They may even be more complex and you’ll still be able to extend them to see the link to Mega. The key here is to properly identify the problem, figure out the appropriate intervention, determine how you will measure successful achievement, and link the desired result to Mega. You may be wondering why there is this big push about linking to Mega if you’re trying to guarantee high performance. The answer is simple and clear: All performers want to have an impact based on what they do. Surveys of employees have shown that when employees know that their work has a positive impact on some segment of their organization, their customers, and our shared society, they are more engaged, involved, and committed to doing a better job each time. The same is true with any person who is striving to be a high performer. The larger the scope of the impact they are trying to achieve, the more motivated they will be to perform at the highest levels. Give someone something great to strive for, and they will more often than not surprise you with the results.

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Match the Task to the Performer’s Strengths This point is so important to high performance that I am repeating it again. It is a little bit of a twist on typical performance improvement work. I know you will agree that most of our work consists of finding a gap in performance and then creating an intervention to close that gap. Basically, we are looking for a weakness and then trying to figure out a way to overcome that weakness. This happens all the time in organizations with annual performance reviews where a manager evaluates an employee and suggests areas for improvement, works with them to develop a performance improvement plan, and then comes back at a later date to evaluate the hopefully improved level of performance. This focus on weakness or areas for improvement can have a negative effect on a person’s motivation to perform. Think about it for yourself. How many times will you want to hear what you are doing wrong or below expectations before you either give up, retire on the job, or stop doing the task completely? What if we took a different approach? What if we conducted our needs assessment and gap analysis to determine a person’s strengths for closing gaps in results and then how to make those strengths even stronger? Think about how you feel after you’ve completed a task that you did well and people compliment you. You feel very good about yourself and you’re motivated to go out and perform that task again. You’re probably even motivated to do a better job next time you perform. And, as long as you are allowed to continue playing to your strengths, you will keep at the task (sometimes losing sense of time—what has been called the flow experience). There is considerable support for this strengths approach to performance. The Gallup organization has done extensive research on the benefits of this approach,4 and it is also supported by the fields of positive psychology and sport psychology.5 The common result from all this research is that when a performer’s strengths are matched to a given task, performer motivation and commitment increase and performance results meet or exceed objectives and expectations. Then future performances are also completed at higher levels of achievement. Basically, a strengths-based approach to performance enhancement enables everyone to keep raising the bar. The recommendation here for guaranteeing high performance is two-fold. When you have to identify a performance weakness or

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gap, do so appropriately and initiate the correct intervention. Take into account the performer, the performance, and all the factors that can affect the results. You should, however, consider “forgetting” about the weaknesses and find the performer’s strengths. Then match those strengths to the proper tasks, and you’ll see a consistent uptick in performance. You will also find that the performer persists at the task over time until that high level of results is achieved. You can conclude that this performer is motivated to perform because of this persistence over time, and that the motivation of the performer played a role in reducing or eliminating the selected need (because the gap in results has now been closed or eliminated). Here are a couple of examples. Let’s say you’re a golfer whose short game is very good. You chip and putt well, and you can get up and down from bunkers with the best of them. You are only an average driver, yet you are fairly accurate. You have to play each round to your strengths. It will do no good to determine that a gap exists between your current driving ability and hitting it 300 yards, even though this is a measurable gap. If you work on increasing your drives, you might add some distance, but at the expense of your short game. It might be that you are not physically equipped to drive the ball far. Your ability to become a consistently long driver might be limited by your skill set, physical status, and mindset. If we keep trying to get you to drive the ball farther, and you continue to fail, you will eventually become discouraged and might even stop playing golf. However, if we work on your strengths, your game will constantly improve and you will be a high performer. Your motivation and self-esteem will remain high, and you will be committed to getting even better at golf because you are playing to your strengths. This will also enable you to relate what you are doing and how you are doing it to the whole golf event, not just its individual tasks or parts. And, a strengths focus leads to a focus on winning, which, when reinforced by successful performances, raises motivation and self-esteem. Here is another example from one of my past clients. The solution appears to be so simple, yet the organization could not see the forest for the trees. This company had a receptionist whose greatest strength was dealing with numbers, not people. She was extremely detailed oriented, and people were an intrusion on her day. Yet she was kept at the front desk as the receptionist. The more she had to deal with the people coming in, the grumpier she got. Her supervisor coached and counseled her, but to no avail.

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This receptionist was in a bad match situation between her strengths and her task. My advice was simply to put her in a back office job where she could deal with details and numbers and to get a new receptionist who loved people. The company took my advice, and everyone’s performance was elevated. The original receptionist became a valued employee who stayed with the company until her retirement, and her performance evaluations were all highly rated once she moved to the back office. These two examples of matching a performer’s strengths to the task should serve to motivate you to figure out the best way to achieve high performance for yourself. What are you now doing that you are not good at and not achieving at the level you want to achieve at? What could you be doing that you are good at that will benefit you, your organization, and society? Play to your strengths. It will keep you motivated to continually strive to reduce or eliminate the gaps in results that you have selected to work on. This concept is the core of performance enhancement and high achievement.6

Make Incentives and Reinforcements Personal There has been an ongoing debate about the effectiveness of incentives as it relates to performance improvement. One camp argues that incentives ruin both the motivation to perform and the actual performance itself. Another argues that incentives increase motivation as well as performance. As the old TV commercial said, “They are both right.” The issue here is not whether incentives work. We know from Psychology 101 that they do. That is the basis of the entire theory of reinforcement. Proper reinforcements, given at the appropriate time, will change behavior. This behavior change can be an improvement in performance, the stopping of negative behaviors, or the acquisition of a new behavior. In any case, the reinforcement helps to acquire or advance the new behavior. The only difference between reinforcements and incentives is that reinforcements are typically unknown to the performer or the performer does not know he or she will be receiving one, while an incentive is typically known prior to the performance beginning. They are both provided after a behavior or performance occurs. Their effectiveness is related to two things: the relevance of either the reinforcement or incentive to the performer and the timing of when they are provided.

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Relevance is critical to making incentives and reinforcements work. Whichever is being used, they must be personalized for the individual. The best way to do this is to ask the performer what he or she prefers in the way of incentives and reinforcements. For example, if a person does not like to travel and a travel award is offered as a performance incentive, that person might deliberately reduce their upcoming performance so that they don’t win the award. On the other hand, if that performer likes to dine out and the award for a high performance is a gift certificate to a gourmet restaurant, that person might be highly motivated to excel and win the award. The simple key is to make the incentives and/or reinforcements personal. The more personal you make them, the greater the chance that the performer will be intrinsically motivated to perform well the next time because the incentives and/or reinforcements are meaningful and relevant.

Agree on Performance Expectations, Results, and Measurements This concept might be intuitively obvious to high performers and their coaches, but it is surprising how many managers, leaders, and others in business do not clearly communicate performance expectations. Let’s go back and review the concept of goal setting and developing performance objectives. Unless you have wellstated performance objectives, you will not know what is expected of you and how you will measure your achievement. The powerful link between objectives and expectations is apparent. When your performance objectives are clearly stated, then you can establish your performance expectations (your perceived probabilities of success). You will know throughout your performance as you monitor yourself exactly how well or poorly you are doing. You will know how close you are to achieving your objective and how far you have to go to improve to get where you want to be. A coach, manager, or leader must work closely with every performer to establish the performance objectives and the associated performance expectations that the performer finds useful and worthy of effort. Since the desired result and final metric is already built into the objective, it should be easy for both parties to determine the final level of performance. The important factor is that the performer and the person who will be evaluating the performance agree on the objective, performance expectations, and the measur-

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able results. The reason agreement is important is because people might consider different things as evidence of high performance. So if you agree up front, then the performance result can be compared to that agreement, and every performer will know if and when a level of high performance was achieved.

Mentally Rehearse Before Each Performance Mental rehearsal (imagery, visualization) is one of the most powerful high performance training techniques available to everyone. Imagining a performance in your mind before you actually go out and do it goes a long way to making that performance occur perfectly. Athletes are well known for using mental rehearsal to help them perform better. When you imagine a performance before you do it, you are conditioning your mind, body, neuromuscular system, and everything else to be tuned in to that performance. When the performance occurs just like you imagined/rehearsed it, it is like déjà vu all over again. The techniques of sport psychology, including relaxation, affirmations, and visualization, are important to learn if you want to be a high performer.7These techniques prepare your mind and body for what is to come during the actual performance. During mental rehearsal, you are successfully performing your task at the highest level, so the act itself becomes personally reinforcing and selfmotivating. In addition, the mind is actually “laying down” the neuromuscular “tracks” during mental rehearsal in a very similar way to what the mind and body do when you actually perform a task. For example, in a study done decades ago, basketball players were asked to either shoot foul shots, mentally rehearse shooting foul shots, or do nothing at all. At the completion of the research period, those who did mental rehearsal performed as well as or better than those who practiced physically. However, the combination of mental rehearsal and physical practice will usually result in the best performances overall. The same techniques are used in healthcare to help people recover from serious illnesses or surgery. The relaxation portion of visualization has been shown to reduce blood pressure, reduce or eliminate stress, and give people more energy.8 The positive effects of mental rehearsal and all the components can be realized long after the specific performance has been completed.

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One of the ways performers use mental rehearsal is to motivate themselves or pump themselves up for a performance. I have created an acronym for my coaching clients (athletes, executives, and salespeople) that they have found very helpful in this area. It has been described previously in the book and deserves another look at this point. It is called FIRE, and it helps performers FIRE up for the performance. Here are the four components: Focus. Every performer must focus on the task at hand plus the results and payoffs for doing the task perfectly. They must pay attention to what they are doing at the start of the performance. During the performance, the performer can let things happen as if they occur automatically, but at the start of the performance, the performer must be focused on the objective because that is the launching point for the action to occur. If the performance objective does not have personal value and usefulness for the performer, then motivation to perform will be lacking or non-existent. So focus on the task at hand, the results, and the payoffs, and make sure the objective is personally relevant. Imagine. Here is where mental rehearsal comes in. Performers must imagine the activity exactly as they want it to occur. One thing that works very well is to mentally rehearse the activity from the end (results have already been successfully accomplished) back to the beginning. This ensures that you see the positive result in your mind immediately. Relax. The key to any high performance is to be in a state of relaxed alertness. Your mind and body should be well tuned for the task. You should not be so relaxed that you are like a bowl of gelatin, nor should you be so tense that you are wound up tighter than a coil. You should be properly relaxed and ready to perform. Execute. Evaluate and continually improve. Here is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. You must perform and then evaluate that performance. If you’ve done everything right according to this acronym, you will have executed the performance exactly as you have imagined it. During the performance, everything will look, feel, and seem similar, and nothing will be new. You will have already done this many times before. Once you physically complete the performance, you will evaluate how

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So when you are ready to perform, remember to FIRE up to achieve high performance.

Perform the Task in the Appropriate Environment There is a great deal to be said about matching the person to the task to make sure you get the desired result. This concept was mentioned earlier in this chapter about matching the task to the performer’s strengths. In addition, you must also perform the task in the appropriate environment. What is the appropriate environment? It is one where all the tools and resources to successfully complete the task are available, either within the performer or within the environment. It is one where there is an excellent chance of a successful or desired result. You wouldn’t ask someone to run a 100-yard dash and expect them to achieve a good time if the track was muddy or if they were running on loose stones. Similarly, you would not ask someone to provide superior customer service to a client if the performer could not answer the client’s questions, have access to the client’s records, or be available when the client required the service. This person might be the greatest customer service representative in the world, but that will not help if the performance environment is not appropriate. This is also an indication of what happens if you put a good performer in a poor system. The system wins virtually every time.9 One other thing should be considered about the performance environment if you want to guarantee high performance. When the task is being practiced, the practice should occur in situations that are very similar to the real performance. Football teams turn up the noise when they practice before they play an away game. Professional speakers do their presentations in real time when they practice to ensure that they make all their points at the correct time during the speech. And there are many other situations where the performer practices under conditions that are similar to those he or she will face during the actual performance. In all these situations, an attempt is being made to stimulate the appropriate environment for the performance.

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Provide Clear and Consistent Feedback We all want to know how we are doing when we perform. We will always get some internal feedback during our performance, and we also want to provide us with additional feedback. Those “others” can be co-workers, a boss, a family member, or even the performance environment itself. The important thing is that we know how we are doing, how well we are doing, and what we have to do to improve. The feedback must be accurate and timely, must be given in measurable and objective terms, and must relate specifically to the current performance. Proper feedback will also include reinforcements and consequences. Every performer wants to be rewarded for successful performance and must also be made aware of what might happen if the performance is unsuccessful. In sports, successful performances are greeted with wins, and unsuccessful ones are considered losses. The performance feedback is instantaneous at the end of the event. In sales, there is a similar situation. A salesperson knows if he or she made the sale or did not make the sale. Reviewing the performance that led up to the result will also provide information for any changes or improvements that must be made next time. (This will be discussed in the next section.) If you are the person providing the feedback, you must make certain that it matches the performance and all the related performance parameters. You must take into account the performance objectives, the performance expectations, the measurement criteria, the desired result, the performer’s self-image, and the effect the result has on current and future situations. Your feedback must be concise, accurate, and timely. It must be provided in a manner the performer can easily understand and use. And it must be available for comparison for future performances. Sometimes a performer does not want feedback. They already know and feel how they have done—whether it is good or bad, successful or unsuccessful. In this case, you simply acknowledge that fact and keep the feedback information to yourself. When the performer is ready for it or asks for it, you can make it available. Forcing feedback (knowledge of results, reinforcements, or consequences) on a performer who is either not ready to receive it or does not want it will actually hurt performance more than help it. You have to remember that the performer’s mindset has a great deal to do with the results that are achieved. So only give feedback when it is wanted and welcomed.

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Make Results Visible (Scoreboarding) When you give people feedback on their performance, create some sort of visual aid or scoreboard. Athletes know how well they are doing because every performance has some sort of visible scoreboard associated with it. Baseball players have balls and strikes and runs; football players have yards gained, first downs, and points; basketball players either make the shot or don’t and either win the game or lose; golfers score par or not; tennis players can win the point, game, set, and match; and the list goes on. In business, executives know their company’s performances based on revenue, customers, stock prices, productivity, turnover/retention, and a whole host of measures. Today’s technology gives them a daily scoreboard that they call a dashboard. The same is true for everyone in every area. They all have some sort of scoreboard or barometer to let them know how well they are doing. Scoreboarding motivates people to perform better simply because others now know how well they are doing. Automobile dealers, as well as other kinds of companies, have performance charts for their sales staffs. Parents use scoreboarding when they are attempting behavioral changes or performance improvements with their children. School teachers use it, too (remember gold stars?). Visual presentations of performance are an excellent motivator for future high performance. Of course, you can also use scoreboarding in a negative manner. When performers are either punished or embarrassed by putting their results on a scoreboard, you are going to get decreased performance instead of high performance. If someone is against having their results made public, then you should consider their wishes and find out what they prefer. They might accept some sort of scoreboard, but they want it kept private. This is fine since the results are still being made visible, but only to them. This is a lesson for all of us. There are very few people in the world who you can berate, embarrass, or harass into high performance.

Make Necessary Changes/Continual Improvement Once you have completed the previous nine steps, you must include the concept of continual improvement into every performer’s mindset. All performers must be willing to make whatever changes

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are necessary to guarantee high performance in the future. If performance is below desired levels, a performer can’t keep doing what he’s always done and expect to get better results. Changes must be made. There are several ways for you to help a person make those changes. Continual improvement can happen by taking small incremental steps. This works, and it has support from reinforcement theory where successive approximations of a behavior are positively reinforced in order to get someone to achieve the ultimate desired behavior.10 But you can also have continual improvement by making incremental leaps in performance. Maybe the resources were not available before and they are available now, so high performance can be achieved. Maybe the performer did not have the requisite skill set, but now he or she does have it; or maybe the objectives were set too low—anything is possible. If you or a performer you are working with has the opportunity to make a quantum leap in performance, then you must allow that to happen. You must encourage the vast improvement over the small, incremental improvement. Help yourself and other performers “leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

Guaranteeing High Performance Since repetition is the mother of learning, here again are the ten things you must do to guarantee high performance: 1.

Conduct a proper needs assessment.

2.

Identify the problem to be solved—the gap to be closed— and link this to the performer’s Mega.

3.

Match the task to the performer’s strengths.

4.

Personalize reinforcements and incentives.

5.

Agree on performance expectations, consequences, and measurements.

6.

Mentally rehearse the performance.

7.

Perform the task in the appropriate environment.

8.

Provide clear and consistent feedback.

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Make results visible. Make necessary changes in performance through continual improvement as you move ever closer to Mega.

Doing these ten things will put you well on your way to guaranteeing high performance for yourself and the people who work with and for you. Will high performance be achieved at every turn? Reality says no, not always. There are a multitude of factors that will be involved, not the least of which is the performer. Their attitude, motivation, skill set, etc., will all impact the performance level and result. Yet, if you work through these ten steps, you will find that the performance results you achieve more often than not meet and exceed your expectations. This way, everyone can be a high performer.

Endnotes 1.

Gerson, R. F., (2006). The missing link in HPT. Performance Improvement, 45(1), 10–17.

2.

See Kaufman, book 1 of this series, as well as Kaufman, R., (2000). Megaplanning. CA: Sage Publications; and Kaufman, R., OakleyBrown, H., & Watkins, R., (2003). Strategic planning for success: Aligning people, performance and payoffs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

3.

Gerson, R. F., (2000). The emotional side of performance improvement. Performance Improvement, 39(8), 18–23, and the book by Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G. (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

4.

See the Gallup references in endnote #2 in Chapter 6.

5.

Gerson, R. F., (2004). HEADcoaching: Mental training for peak performance. Indiana: Authorhouse.

6.

For a more detailed explanation, go to Gerson, R. F., & Gerson, R. G., (2006). Positive performance improvement: A new paradigm for optimizing your workforce. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

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7.

Gerson, R. F., (2004). HEADcoaching: Mental training for peak performance. Indiana: Authorhouse.

8.

Herbert Benson has been a pioneer in this field for many years. His first book on the subject, The Relaxation Response (New York: Harper Torch, 1976—reissue) was followed by Beyond the Relaxation Response (CA: Berkeley, 1985). More recently, he applied these principles to high performance in Benson, H., & Proctor, W., (2004). The breakout principle. New York: Simon & Schuster.

9.

Geary Rummler has expressed this point many times in many ways, and he always comes out being correct about it. The poor system is way too powerful even for a top performer. You can read more about this in Rummler, G., & Bache, A., (1995). Improving performance: How to manage the white space in the organization chart. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, and Rummler, G., (2004). Serious performance consulting according to Rummler. MD: International Society for Performance Improvement.

10. See Skinner, B. F., (1965). Science and human behavior. New York: Free Press.

Glossary of Terms

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This glossary includes definitions already provided. This is a complete summary of important terms and concepts. System, systems, systematic, and systemic: related but not the same system approach: Begins with the sum total of parts working independently and together to achieve a useful set of results at the societal level, adding value for all internal and external partners. We best think of it as the large whole and we can show it thus:

systems approach: Begins with the parts of a system—subsystems—that make up the “system.” We can show it thus:

It should be noted here that the “system” is made up of smaller elements, or subsystems, shown as bubbles embedded in the larger system. If we start at this smaller level, we will start with a part and not the whole. So, when someone says they are using a “systems approach” they are really focusing on one or more subsystems, but they are unfortunately focusing on the parts and not the whole. When planning and doing at this level, they can only assume that the payoffs and consequences will add up to something useful to society and external clients, and this is usually a very big assumption.

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systematic approach: An approach that does things in an orderly, predictable, and controlled manner. It is a reproducible process. Doing things, however, in a systematic manner does not ensure the achievement of useful results. systemic approach: An approach that affects everything in the system. The definition of the system is usually left up to the practitioner and may or may not include external clients and society. It does not necessarily mean that when something is systemic it is also useful. Now, let’s turn to other strategic thinking and planning terms. AADDIE model: The ADDIE model with the vital function of Assessment added to the front of it. ADDIE model: A contraction of the conventional instructional systems steps of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. It ignores or assumes a front determination through assessment of what to analyze, and it also assumes that the evaluation data will be used for continuous improvement. change creation: The definition and justification, proactively, of new and justified as well as justifiable destinations. If this is done before change management, acceptance is more likely. This is a proactive orientation for change and differs from the more usual change management in that it identifies in advance where individuals and organizations are headed rather than waiting for change to occur and be managed. change management: Ensuring that whatever change is selected will be accepted and implemented successfully by people in the organization. Change management is reactive in that it waits until change requirements are either defined or imposed and then moves to have the change accepted and used. comfort zones: The psychological areas, in business or in life, where one feels secure and safe (regardless of the reality of that feeling). Change is usually painful for most people. When faced with change, many people will find reasons (usually not rational) for why not to make and modifications. This gives rise to Tom Peter’s (1997) observation that “it is easier to kill an organization than it is to change it.”

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constraints: Anything that will not allow one to meet the results specifications. These might arise from many sources, including not enough resources, insufficient time, political pressures, and the like. costs-consequences analysis: The process of estimating a returnon-investment analysis before an intervention is implemented. It asks two basic questions simultaneously: what do you expect to give and what do you expect to get back in terms of results? Most formulations do not compute costs and consequences for society and external client (Mega) return on investment. Thus, even the calculations for standard approaches steer away from the vital consideration of self-sufficiency, health, and well-being (Kaufman & Keller [1994]; Kaufman, Keller, & Watkins [1998]; Kaufman [1998, 2000]). criteria: Precise and rigorous specifications that allow one to prove what has been or has to be accomplished. Many processes in place today do not use rigorous indicators for expected performance. If criteria are “loose” or unclear, there is no realistic basis for evaluation and continuous improvement. Loose criteria often meet the comfort test, but don’t allow for the humanistic approach to care enough about others to define, with stakeholders, where you are headed and how to tell when you have or have not arrived. deep change: Change that extends from Mega—societal value added—downward into the organization to define and shape Macro, Micro, Processes, and Inputs. It is termed deep change to note that it is not superficial or just cosmetic, or even a splintered quick fix. Most planning models do not include Mega results in the change process, and thus miss the opportunity to find out what impact their contributions and results have on external clients and society. The other approaches might be termed superficial change or limited change in that they only focus on an organization or a small part of an organization. desired results: Ends (or results) identified through needs assessments that are derived from soft data relating to “perceived needs.” Desired indicates these are perceptual and personal in nature.

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ends: Results, achievements, consequences, payoffs, and/or impacts. The more precise the results, the more likely that reasonable methods and means can be considered, implemented, and evaluated. Without rigor for results statements, confusion can take the place of successful performance. evaluation: Compares current status (what is) with intended status (what was intended) and is most commonly done only after an intervention is implemented. Unfortunately, evaluation is used for blaming and not fixing or improving. When blame follows evaluation, people tend to avoid the means and criteria for evaluation or leave them so loose that any result can be explained away. external needs assessment: Determining and prioritizing gaps, then selecting problems to be resolved at the Mega level. This level of needs assessment is most often missing from conventional approaches. Without the data from it, one cannot be assured that there will be strategic alignment from internal results to external value added. hard data: Performance data that are based on objectives and independently verifiable. This type of data is critical. It should be used along with “soft” or perception data. Ideal Vision: The measurable definition of the kind of world we, together with others, commit to help deliver for tomorrow’s child. An Ideal Vision defines the Mega level of planning. It allows an organization and all of its partners to define where they are headed and how to tell when they are getting there or getting closer. It provides the rationality and reasons for an organizational mission objective. Inputs: The ingredients, raw materials, and physical and human resources that an organization can use in its processes in order to deliver useful ends. These ingredients and resources are often the only considerations made during planning without determining the value they add internally and externally to the organization. internal needs assessment: Determining and prioritizing gaps, then selecting problems to be resolved at the Micro and Macro levels. Most needs assessment processes are of this variety (Watkins, Leigh, Platt, & Kaufman [1998]).

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learning: The demonstrated acquisition of a skill, knowledge, attitude, and/or ability. learning organization: An organization that sets measurable performance standards and constantly compares its results and their consequences with what is required. Learning organizations use performance data, related to an Ideal Vision and the primary mission objective, to decide what to change and what to continue—it learns from its performance and contributions. Learning organizations may obtain the highest level of success by strategic thinking: focusing everything that is used, done, produced, and delivered on Mega results—societal value added. Many conventional definitions do not link the “learning” to societal value added. If there is no external societal linking, then it could well guide one away from the new requirements. Macro level of planning: Planning focused on the organization itself as the primary client and beneficiary of what is planned and delivered. This is the conventional starting and stopping place for existing planning approaches. means: Processes, activities, resources, methods, or techniques used to deliver a result. Means are only useful to the extent that they deliver useful results at all three levels of planned results: Mega, Macro, and Micro. Mega level of planning: Planning focused on external clients, including customers/citizens and the community and society that the organization serves. This is the usual missing planning level in most formulations. It is the only one that will focus on societal value added: survival, self-sufficiency, and quality of life of all partners. It is suggested that this type of planning is imperative for getting and proving useful results. It is this level that Rummler refers to as primary processes and Brethower calls the receiving system. Mega thinking: Thinking about every situation, problem, or opportunity in terms of what you use, do, produce, and deliver as having to add value to external clients and society. Same as strategic thinking.

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methods-means analysis: Identifies possible tactics and tools for meeting the needs identified in a system analysis. The methods-means analysis identifies the possible ways and means to meet the needs and achieve the detailed objectives that are identified in this Mega plan, but does not select them. Interestingly, this is a comfortable place where some operational planning starts. Thus, it either assumes or ignores the requirement to measurably add value within and outside the organization. Micro-level planning: Planning focused on individuals or small groups (such as desired and required competencies of associates or supplier competencies). Planning for building-block results. This also is a comfortable place where some operational planning starts. Starting here usually assumes or ignores the requirement to measurably add value to the entire organization as well as to outside the organization. mission analysis: Analysis step that identified: (1) what results and consequences are to be achieved; (2) what criteria (in interval and/or ratio scale terms) will be used to determine success; and (3) what are the building-block results and the order of their completion (functions) required to move from the current results to the desired state of affairs. Most mission objectives have not been formally linked to Mega results and consequences, and thus strategic alignment with “where the clients are” are usually missing (Kaufman, Stith, Triner, & Watkins [1998]). mission objective: An exact, performance-based statement of an organization’s overall intended results that it can and should deliver to external clients and society. A mission objective is measurable on an interval or ratio scale, so it states not only “where we are headed” but also adds “how we will know when we have arrived.” A mission objective is best linked to Mega levels of planning and the Ideal Vision to ensure societal value added. mission statement: An organization’s Macro-level “general purpose.” A mission statement is only measurable on a nominal or ordinal scale of measurement and only states “where we are headed” and leaves rigorous criteria for determining how one measures successful accomplishment.

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need: The gap between current results and desired or required results. This is where a lot of planning goes “off the rails.” By defining any gap as a need, one fails to distinguish between means and ends and thus confuses what and how. If need is defined as a gap in results, then there is a triple bonus: (1) it states the objectives (What Should Be), (2) it contains the evaluation and continuous improvement criteria (What Should Be), and (3) it provides the basis for justifying any proposal by using both ends of a need—What Is and What Should Be in terms of results. Proof can be given for the costs to meet the need as well as the costs to ignore the need. needs analysis: Taking the determined gaps between adjacent organizational elements, and finding the causes of the inability for delivering required results. A needs analysis also identifies possible ways and means to close the gaps in results— needs—but does not select them. Unfortunately, needs analysis is usually interchangeable with needs assessment. They are not the same. How does one “analyze” something (such as a need) before they know what should be analyzed? First assess the needs, then analyze them. needs assessment: A formal process that identifies and documents gaps between current and desired and/or required results, arranges them in order of priority on basis of the cost to meet the need as compared to the cost of ignoring it, and selects problems to be resolved. By starting with a needs assessment, justifiable performance data and the gaps between What Is and What Should Be will provide the realistic and rational reason for both what to change as well as what to continue. objectives: Precise statement of purpose, or destination of where we are headed and how we will be able to tell when we have arrived. The four parts to an objective are (1) what result is to be demonstrated, (2) who or what will demonstrate the results, (3) where will the result be observed, (4) what interval or ratio scale criteria will be used? Loose or process-oriented objectives will confuse everyone (c.f. Mager [1997]). A Mega-level result is best stated as an objective.

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outcomes: Results and payoffs at the external client and societal level. Outcomes are results that add value to society, community, and external clients of the organization. These are results at the Mega level of planning. outputs: The results and payoffs that an organization can or does deliver outside of itself to external clients and society. These are results at the Macro level of planning where the primary client and beneficiary is the organization itself. It does not formally link to outcomes and societal well-being unless it is derived from outcomes and the Ideal (Mega) Vision. paradigm: The framework and ground rules individuals use to filter reality and understand the world around them (Barker [1992]). It is vital that people have common paradigms that guide them. That is one of the functions of the Mega level of planning and outcomes so that everyone is headed to a common destination and may uniquely contribute to that journey. performance: A result or consequence of any intervention or activity, including individual, team, or organization: an end. performance accomplishment system (PAS): Any of a variety of interventions (such as “instructional systems design and development,” quality management/continuous improvement, benchmarking, reengineering, and the like) that are results oriented and are intended to get positive results. These are usually focused at the Micro/Products level. This is my preferred alternative to the rather sterile term performance technology that often steers people toward hardware and premature solutions (Kaufman [1999, 2000]). Processes: The means, processes, activities, procedures, interventions, programs, and initiatives an organization can or does use in order to deliver useful ends. While most planners start here, it is dangerous not to derive the Processes and Inputs from what an organization must deliver and the payoffs for external clients. products: The building-block results and payoffs of individuals and small groups that form the basis of what an organization produces and delivers, inside as well as outside of itself, and the payoffs for external clients and society. Products are results at the Micro level of planning.

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quasi-need: A gap in a method, resource, or process. Many socalled “need assessments” are really quasi-needs assessments since they tend to pay immediate attention to means (such as training) before defining and justifying the ends and consequences (Watkins, Leigh, Platt, & Kaufman [1998]). required results: Ends identified through needs assessment, which are derived from hard data relating to objective performance measures. restraints: Possible limitations on what one might use, do, and deliver. Restraints serve as a type of performance specification. results: Ends, products, outputs, outcomes—accomplishments and consequences. Usually misses the outputs and outcomes. soft data: Personal perceptions of results. Soft data is not independently verifiable. While people’s perceptions are reality for them, they are not to be relied on without relating to “hard”— independently verifiable—data as well. strategic alignment: The linking of Mega-, Macro-, and Micro-level planning and results with each other and with Processes and Inputs. By formally deriving what the organization uses, does, produces, and delivers to Mega/external payoffs, strategic alignment is complete. strategic thinking: Approaching any problem, program, project, activity, or effort by noting that everything that is used, done, produced, and delivered must add value for external clients and society. Strategic thinking starts with Mega. tactical planning: Finding out what is available to get from What Is to What Should Be at the organizational/Macro level. Tactics are best identified after the overall mission has been selected based on its linkages and contributions to external client and societal (Ideal Vision) results and consequences. wants: Preferred methods and means assumed to be capable of meeting needs. What Is: Current operational results and consequences. These could be for an individual, an organization, and/or for society.

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What Should Be: Desired or required operational results and consequences. These could be for an individual, an organization, and/or society. wishes: Desires concerning means and ends. It is important not to confuse wishes with needs.

Making Sense of Definitions and Their Contribution to a Mega Perspective Here are some ground rules for strategic thinking and planning: 1. System Approach ≠ Systems Approach ≠ Systematic Approach ≠ Systemic Approach 2. Mega-level Planning ≠ Macro-Level Planning ≠ Micro-Level Planning 3. System Analysis ≠ Systems Analysis 4. Means ≠ Ends 5. Hope ≠ Reality 6. Outcome ≠ Output ≠ Product ≠ Process ≠ Input 7. There are three levels of planning: Mega, Macro, and Micro, and three related types of results: Outcomes, Outputs, Products. 8. Need is a gap in results, not a gap in Process or Input. 9. Needs Assessment ≠ Needs Analysis (nor front-end analysis or problem analysis) 10. Strategic Planning ≠ Tactical Planning ≠ Operational Planning 11. Change Creation ≠ Change Management

Endnote 1

Based on Kaufman, R., & Watkins, R. (2000, April). Getting serious about results and payoffs: We are what we say, do, and deliver. Performance Improvement, 39 (4), 23–31.

References Barker, J. A. (1992). Future edge: Discovering the new paradigms of success. New York: William Morrow & Co., Inc. Barker, J. A. (2001). The new business of paradigms (Classic Ed.). St. Paul, MN: Star Thrower Distribution. Videocassette. Brethower, D. M. (2006). Defining what to do and why. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Brethower, D. M. (2005, February). Yes we can: A rejoinder to Don Winiecki’s rejoinder about saving the world with HPT. Performance Improvement, 44(2), 19–24. Carlton, R. (2006). Implementation and management of solutions. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Clark, R. E., & Estes, F. (2002). Turning research into results: A guide to selecting the right performance solutions. Atlanta, GA: CEP Press. Davis, I. (2005, May 26). The biggest contract. The Economist, London, 375(8428), 87. Drucker, P. F. (1973). Management: Tasks, responsibilities, practices. New York: Harper & Row. Gerson, R. (2006). Achieving high performance. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Guerra, I. (2006). Evaluation and continual improvement of results. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Kaufman, R. A. (1972). Educational system planning. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. (Also Planificacion de systemas educativos [translation of Educational system planning]. Mexico City: Editorial Trillas, S.A., 1973.) Kaufman, R. (1998). Strategic thinking: A guide to identifying and solving problems, Revised Ed. Washington, D.C. & Arlington, VA: The International Society for Performance Improvement and the American Society for Training and Development. (Recipient of the 2001 International Society for Performance Improvement “Outstanding Instructional Communication Award.”) Also, Spanish edition, El pensamiento estrategico. Centro de Estudios: Roman Areces, S.A., Madrid, Spain.

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Kaufman, R. (1999). From how to what to why: The handbook of performance technology as the gateway to the future. In Stolovitch, H., & Keeps, E. The Handbook of Performance Technology 2nd Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kaufman, R. (2000). Mega planning: Practical tools for organizational success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publictions. Kaufman, R. (2002, May/June). What trainers and performance improvement specialists can learn from tragedy: Lessons from September 11, 2001. Educational Technology. Kaufman, R. (2004, October). Mega as the basis for useful planning and thinking. Performance Improvement. 43(9), 35–39. Kaufman, R. (2005, May/June). Choosing success: The rationale for thinking, planning, and doing Mega. Educational Technology, 45(2), 59–61. Kaufman, R. (2006). 30 seconds that can change your life: A decision-making guide for those who refuse to be mediocre. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Kaufman, R., & Bernardez, M. (Eds.) (2005). Performance Improvement Quarterly, 18(3). Kaufman, R., & English, F. W. (1979). Needs assessment: Concept and application. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Kaufman, R., & Forbes, R. (2002). Does your organization contribute to society? In the 2002 Team and Organization Development Sourcebook, pp. 213–224. New York: McGrawHill. Kaufman, R., Guerra, I., & Platt, W. A. (2006). Practical evaluation for educators: Finding what works and what doesn’t. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press/Sage. Kaufman, R., & Keller, J. (1994, Winter) Levels of evaluation: Beyond Kirkpatrick. Human Resources Quarterly. 5(4), 371– 380. Kaufman, R., Keller, J., & Watkins, R. (1995). What works and what doesn’t: Evaluation beyond Kirkpatrick. Performance and Instruction. 35(2), 8–12.

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Kaufman, R., & Lick, D. (2000). Mega-level strategic planning: Beyond conventional wisdom. In Boettcher, J., Doyle, M., & Jensen, R. (Eds.). Technology-driven planning: Principles to practice. Ann Arbor, MI: Society for College and University Planning. Kaufman, R., & Lick, D. (2000, November). Change creation and change management: Partners in organizational success. Washington, D.C.: ISPI Culture and Change Conference. Kaufman, R., & Lick, D. (2000–2001, Winter). Change creation and change management: Partners in human performance improvement. Performance in practice, 8–9. Kaufman, R., & Lick, D. (2004). How to get your organization balanced through change creation (Chapter 30). In Silberman, M., & Phillips, P. (Eds.) The 2004 Team and Organizational Development Sourcebook, pp. 255–267. Poughkeepsie, NY: Inkwell Publishing. Kaufman, R., Oakley-Browne, H., Watkins, R., & Leigh, D. (2003). Practical strategic planning: Aligning people, performance, and payoffs. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. Kaufman, R., & Unger, Z. (2003, August). Evaluation plus: Beyond conventional evaluation. Performance Improvement, 42(7), 5– 8. Kaufman, R., Watkins, R., & Leigh, D. (2001). Useful educational results: Defining, prioritizing, and accomplishing. Lancaster, PA: Proactive Publishers. Kaufman, R., Watkins, R., Sims, L., Crispo, N., & Sprague, D. (1997). Costs-consequences analysis. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 10(3), 7–21. Kaufman, R., Watkins, R., Triner, D., & Stith, M. (1998). The changing corporate mind: Organizations, visions, mission, purposes, and indicators on the move toward societal payoffs. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 11(3), 32–44. Lagace, M. (2005, January). How to put meaning back into leading. Working Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard School of Business.

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Langdon, D., Whiteside, K., McKenna, M. (1999). Intervention resource guide: 50 performance improvement tools. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Leigh, D., Watkins, R., Platt, W., & Kaufman, R. (2000). Alternate models of needs assessment: Selecting the right one for your organization. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 11(1), 87–93. Lick, D., & Kaufman, R. (2000). Change creation: The rest of the planning story. In Technology-Driven Planning: Principles to Practice. J. Boettcher, Doyle, M., & Jensen, R., (Eds.). Ann Arbor, MI: Society for College and University Planning. Mager, R. F. (1997). Preparing instructional objectives: A critical tool in the development of effective instruction (3rd Ed.). Atlanta, GA: Center for Effective Performance. Maslow, A. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper & Row. Muir, M., Watkins, R., Kaufman, R., & Leigh, D. (1998, April). Costsconsequences analysis: A primer. Performance Improvement, 37(4), 8–17, 48. Peters, T. (1997). The circle of innovation: You can’t shrink your way to greatness. New York: Knopf. Peters, T. J., & Waterman, R. H., Jr. (1982). In search of excellence: Lessons learned from America’s best run companies. New York: Harper & Row. Popcorn, F. (1991). The Popcorn report. New York: Doubleday. Prahalad, C. K. (2005). The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid: Eradicating poverty through profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing/Pearson Education, Inc. Roberts, W. (1993). Victory secrets of Attila the Hun. New York: Doubleday. Rummler, G. A. (2004). Serious performance consulting: According to Rummler. Silver Spring, MD: International Society for Performance Improvement and the American Society for Training and Development.

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Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday-Currency. Schneider, E. W. (2003, April). Applying human performance technology while staying out of trouble. Performance Improvement Review, ISPI. Stevens, S. S. (1951). Mathematics, measurement, and psychophysics. In Stevens, S. S. Handbook of Experimental Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Watkins, R. (2006). Performance by design. Amherst, MA: HRD Press. Watkins, R., Leigh, D., Foshay, R., & Kaufman, R. (1998). Kirkpatrick plus: Evaluation and continuous improvement with a community focus. Educational Technology Research and Development Journal, 46(4). Watkins, R., Leigh, D., Kaufman, R. (1999). Choosing a needs assessment model. In Silberman, M. Team and Organizational Development Sourcebook. New York: McGraw-Hill. Watkins, R., Leigh, D., Platt, W., & Kaufman, R. (1998). Needs assessment: A digest, review, and comparison of needs assessment literature. Performance Improvement, 37(7), 40– 53.

About this Series Defining and Delivering Successful Professional Practice—HPT in Action This is the first of Six Books to define and deliver measurable performance improvement. Each volume defines a unique part of a fabric; a fabric to define, develop, implement, and continually improve human and organization performance success. In addition, the series relate to the professional standards in the field.1

Why This Series? Human and Organizational Performance Accomplishment—some call the field HPT (human performance Improvement)—is of great interest to practitioners and clients alike who intend to deliver successful results and payoffs that are based on research, ethics, and solid concepts and tools. Each author provides a practical focus on a unique area, and each book is based on ten principles of professional contribution. Each book “stands alone” as well as knits with all of the others; together they: 1.

Define the field of HPT and Performance Improvement based on the principles of ethical and competent practice,

2.

Provide specific guidance on six major areas of professional practice,

3.

Are based on a common framework for individual and organizational performance accomplishment, and

4.

Reinforce the principles that drive competent and ethical performance improvement.

There is a demand for an integrated approach to Human and Organizational Performance Accomplishment/Human Performance technology. Many excellent books and articles are available (some by the proposed authors) but none cover the entire spectrum of the basic concepts and tools nor do they give the integrated alignment or guidance that each of these six linked books provide. This series is edited by Roger Kaufman (Ph.D., CPT), Dale Brethower (Ph.D.) and Richard Gerson (Ph.D., CPT).

138

Change, Choices, and Consequences The six books and the authors are: Book One: Change, Choices, and Consequences: A Guide to Mega Thinking and Planning. Roger Kaufman, Professor Emeritus, Florida State University, Roger Kaufman & Associates, and Distinguished Research Professor, Sonora Institute of Technology Book 2: Defining What to Do and Why. Dale Brethower, Professor Emeritus, Western Michigan University and Research Professor, Sonora Institute of Technology Book 3: Performance by Design. Ryan Watkins, Associate Professor, George Washington University, Senior Research Associate, Roger Kaufman & Associates, and former NSF Fellow Book 4: Achieving High Performance. Richard Gerson, CPT, Ph.D., Gerson Goodson, Inc. Book 5: Implementation and Management of Solutions. Robert Carlton, Senior Partner, Vector Group Book 6: Evaluation and Continual Improvement of the Results. Ingrid Guerra, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Wayne State University and Associate Research Professor, Sonora Institute of Technology as well as Research Associate, Roger Kaufman & Associates

How This Series Relates to the Professional Performance Improvement Standards The following table identifies how each book relates to the 10 standards of Performance Technology2 (identified by numbers in parentheses ( ) pioneered by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)3. In the table on the following page, an “X” identifies coverage and linking and “” indicates major focus. This series, by design, goes beyond these standards by linking everything any organization uses, does, produces, and delivers to adding measurable value to external clients and society. This Six Pack, then, builds on and then goes beyond the current useful criteria and standards in the profession and adds the next dimensions of

About this Series

139

Add Value

Partner

Needs Assessment

Performance Analysis

Design to Specification

Selection, Design, & Development

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

Book 1











X

X

X

Book 2

X





X





Book 3

X

X

X







Book 4

X

X

X

X



X



Book 5

X











Book 6







X



(9)

Evaluation & Continuous Improvement

Take a System Approach

(1)

Implementation

Focus on Results

practical, appropriate, as well as ethical tools, methods, and guidance of what is really required to add value to all of our clients as well as to our shared society.

(10)

 X X 

X





X



It all will only be useful to the extent to which this innovative practice becomes standard practice. We invite you to the adventure.

Roger Kaufman, Ph.D., CPT Dale Brethower, Ph.D. Richard Gerson, Ph.D., CPT.

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Endnotes 1.

The Standards of Performance Technology developed by the International Society for Performance Improvement, Silver Spring, Maryland.

2.

Slightly modified.

3.

Another approach to standardization of performance are a set of competencies developed by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) which are more related to on-the-job performance.

About the Author Richard F. Gerson, Ph.D., CPT, CMC, is president of Gerson Goodson, Inc., a training and consulting firm specializing in elevating the performances of people, teams and organizations by helping them identify and manage their thoughts, feelings, emotions, attitudes and behaviors. He is also the owner of the HEADcoaching Institute, which helps clients train their brains to become extraordinary performers. Richard was one of the pioneers in the performance psychology field, having developed training programs and consulting services in this area since 1979. He is an expert in identifying behavioral and mental strategies that people use to perform at a high level and then developing training programs to both improve the performance of the exemplars and transfer those strategies to other performers. Richard’s strength in helping others achieve high levels of performance and success lies in his abilities to coach and mentor people in such a way that they expand their comfort zones, stretch their limits, and turn the stresses of their lives into the successes of their lives. He uses a variety of techniques from sports and performance psychology, cognitive-behavioral psychology, and neurolinguistic psychology to accomplish these goals. He also helps salespeople, athletes, executives, and students train their brains to perform more effectively and successfully. Richard has a Ph.D. in Sports Psychology from Florida State University. He has published 21 books and over 400 articles in journals, magazines, newspapers and newsletters. He is a Certified Performance Technologist (the first in the Tampa Bay area), a Certified Management Consultant, a Certified Professional Marketing Consultant, and the holder of several other professional certifications. He was selected as the top marketing professional in Tampa Bay by the Sales and Marketing Executives association and given a lifetime achievement award by the Tampa Bay chapter of the International Society for Performance Improvement, where he is also a Past President and current board member. He has also just presented a workshop and a concurrent session at the upcoming ISPI conference. Two of his most recent books, Winning the Inner Game of Selling, and HEADcoaching: Mental Training for Peak Performance, help salespeople and other professionals train their brains to achieve peak performance on demand. Several of his sales training

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programs, such as PsychoBehavioral Selling, S.P.O.R.T. SELLING, and Extraordinary Selling Power, have achieved sales increases for clients ranging from 10 to 500 percent. Two of his most recent programs, Positive C.O.R.E, and The Talent Optimization Performance System (TOPS) have helped individuals and organizations identify and remove roadblocks to performance improvement as well as enhance current performance strengths. These two approaches help clients virtually guarantee performance improvement in a variety of settings, including business, sports, academia and life, in general. They also formed the basis for his newest book, Positive Performance Improvement: A New Paradigm for Optimizing Your Workforce, which he coauthored with his wife, Robbie Goodson Gerson. He is a much sought-after speaker in the areas of sales success, performance psychology, performance improvement, motivation, marketing and customer service. His use of sports and performance psychology applied to the business world, sports world and academic environment helps people achieve their goals, motivate themselves to become peak performers, and continually increase their levels of skill to achieve measurable performance improvements.