Unlocking Performance Improvement

It is my belief that we get smarter as we gain experience.  Yet, in spite of that, we often make the same mistakes, over and over again.  On the flip side — and maybe even more unsettling — we often do many things right and then fail to repeat them.  In working with various sales teams and sales managers, I’ve seen this time and again and to be honest, I have been guilty of it myself.

There's a simple reason for it: people rarely take the time to pause, slow down and think about what's working and what's not.  

Recently, while conducting an initial Vision & Alignment meeting with a new client they asked, “What is one thing you could teach an organization that would have the most impact on their business?”  I think they were surprised by how simple my response was: to teach people how to learn - how to look at their past performance, figure out what worked and repeat it while understanding what didn’t work and how to change it.  

If individuals can do that consistently, everything else takes care of itself.  These questions are the keys to unlocking and improving performance.  The good news is, this simple and effective task doesn’t really take that much time to do, in fact, it can be done in only a few minutes each day as a quick start to more success.

How to make it happen

Each day, before shutting down and disengaging from work, plan a few minutes to think about what happened.  Look back at your calendar and compare what actually happened in the day to what you originally wanted to or planned to have happen.  Think about: the meetings you attended, the work you got done, the conversations you had, the people with whom you interacted.  Then ask yourself these questions:

• How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I face/overcome?
• What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do, differently or the same, tomorrow?
• Who did I interact with? Anyone I need to update? Thank? Ask a question? Share feedback?

This last bullet is essential in terms of high level follow up and maintaining & building relationships.  Take a few short minutes to shoot off an email to recognize someone’s effort or positive results, to ask someone a question, or to keep someone updated on a project.  If we don't pause to think about it, we are apt to overlook these kinds of communications – most people do. 

Start, Stop, Continue

Start this practice as a way to be more effective and improve performance.  In the opening introduction and set up of our training programs, one comment we often make to the participants is “most of the answers are already in the room – through reflecting and sharing best practices, we will bring them out.”  The same is true of our daily individual performance – the answers to improving our success are already there for us to see – we just have to look. 

Starting the year off right

This is a fantastic time of year, things are new, full of hope, promise, enthusiasm and ambition.  Every new year kicks off with a flurry of activity with the best of intentions to make changes, be more effective, purposeful and successful, personally and professionally.  However, it doesn't last - and just like every diet I ever started on a Monday, in a few weeks, we are back to doing what we did in the past and our old habits are back in control.

Why does this happen?  
My theory is that the majority of us want to make these changes but we encounter two powerful forces that keep this from happening.  The first is a little something I like to call, reality.  Yep - the reality of our day to day responsibilities get in the way of change.  In an on going effort to get things done, the struggle with our existing responsibilities overcomes our enthusiasm, we lose focus on the changes and we return to the status quo.


The second force that sabotages change is something we do to ourselves and directly impacts our success in dealing with the reality of our day to day responsibilities - and that is we attempt too many changes at once.  At a recent holiday party, I over heard someone say they were going to start a diet, hit the gym, be better organized, use more social medial tools, get more sleep, be more involved with their kids, spend more time on their favorite hobby, be more effective with their time - all starting on Monday, January 3rd!!  Unless you're a superhero, these lofty goals will never materialize.

Break the cycle!
How do we break this cycle of "resolution confusion" and achieve sustainable success with change in 2011?  First, we must pick the right date to start with, which is January 1, 2011.  I know, you're thinking that date has already passed us by.  This date is important not because it's the first day of the year, but because within this date is a built in reminder of simplicity, 1-1-11.  

Just about every program with TRAIN begins and ends on the same points, we start with the saying, "you don't get paid for what you know, you get paid for what you do" and we end with turning what was learned into activity by asking the team to name something they will start, stop and continue doing as a result of the program - and that is the connection to making change happen by using 1-1-11.

Instead of a long list of goals or resolutions, shrink the change and start with (1) one thing you want to change in your business, stop doing (1) one thing that prevents that change from happening and continue (1) one activity that supports the change.  Doing the math, you might notice I'm missing a (1) one, well that is left over to focus on your work life balance - what's (1) one activity I can do, along with this change, to keep my life in balance.  This is essential to keeping us happy, productive and from burning out.

Think about it, focusing on this simple equation for change can get us started on a dynamic year.  Start with this, track it, review it, begin every morning thinking about it and once the change in effect, apply the formula again to the next change.  You'll be amazed at the results.