In your job, and on a scale from 1 to 10, how would rate your performance? When I ask people this question, most reply with an 7 – some with a 8 or a 9, but mostly in the upper range of the scale. It seems that most people are above-average performers.
It reminds me of something that I noticed this past year. I went around the country and conducted training programs for similar groups – about 15 of them. They each had their own training programs prior to me getting involved. Each ran their programs differently. And each told me that their program, and their personnel where better than anyone else’s throughout the country. They were all above-average.
It’s the Lake Wobegon effect, right? The tendency for people to rate themselves higher than average.
Getting back to you, what would it take for you to perform even better? What would it look like if you were to perform at an all-new level, a level of performance you’ve never seen before? Not just a point or two up the scale, but a giant step up. Can you imagine that?
Can you imagine if we took that same 1 to 10 scale, but extended the end of it to 15? Now, what would you need to do to perform at a 13 or 14?
Or look at it another way: Recalibrate your performance rating so that now you’re a 5 on the 1 to 10 scale. How would you need to perform to move back up to an 8 or 9 again?
Now more than ever, with the economy the way it is, people being laid off and businesses struggling to stay alive, it’s time to perform better than ever. If you want to “recession-proof” your job, the best way is to perform better than ever before.
The problem with my thinking here is that most people can’t even imagine what that much of an improvement would look like. Sure, you may be able to see yourself performing a little better – maybe a point higher – but to see yourself at an all-new level is a challenge, right?
I suggest you to take time over the next week, as you move into the new year, and imagine what you’d need to do to perform at an all-new level. Develop a mental model of what performing at an all-new level would be like:
- Would you think more strategically? Or, more tactically?
- Communicate better?
- Be more of a team-player?
- Make better decisions?
- Take more time to make decisions? Or trust your gut more and make quicker decisions?
- Delegate more?
- Take on more responsibilities?
- Be more open-minded and accepting of others and their ideas?
- Be more trusting of others? Or less trusting?
- Work to build trust with others?
- Commit to delivering on time?
- Do a better job of keeping track of tasks?
- Have a better, more positive attitude or mindset?
- Find ways to work more efficiently?
- Be more fun to work with?
Now’s the perfect time to think about what you could do to really step-up your performance. Write down some general bullet points, like the examples above, of what you can do to improve your performance. Then, next to each bullet point, write down what exactly you’d need to do that; how you would accomplish each specific point (training, an attitude change, coaching, a system or process, etc.). Then, dig one level deeper, and define how you would do each of those things. Finally, each night before you go to bed, read these points over, and then read them again first thing in the morning.
The objective is to develop a mental model of what a new level of performance would look and feel like for you. I bet if you do that for the next month, you – and perhaps even more importantly, your superiors – will notice a change. A change for the better – a step up towards an all-new level of performance.
By the way, you might find it interesting to know that when I’ve ask what I’d call super-high-performers – the superstars – to rate their performance on a 1 to 10 scale, I usually get a 6 at best. It seems the superstar performers, in any activity, rate themselves lower than average performers. Hmmm… Does that tell you something?
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