If one does enough of the right stuff, you won’t have time to do the wrong stuff.
Improving performance may just be a matter of focusing more on what’s working, and less on what’s not working.
“Bright spots.” That’s what Chip and Dan Heath call them in their book, Switch. They write about the approach Save The Children used to help mothers in Vietnam provide better nutrition to their children by learning from the few that were doing it best, about a solutions-focused therapist helping “problem” kids in schools by helping them focus on what they did well, and about a company that focused on what was working in drug sales to help market their products.
Psychologist Martin Seligman calls the approach of focusing on what’s working with peak performers, rather than on what’s not working with people with problems, “Positive Psychology.” He’s written extensively about the topic in Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness, and other books.
Shawn Achor talks about focusing on what makes people successful in his brief book, Bringing the Science of Positive Psychology to Life. Watch and listen to Achor talk about this in this fantastic video.
Marcus Buckingham recommends focusing on what’s working in his book, Now Discover Your Strengths when he says mangers should focus more on employees’ strengths than on fixing their weaknesses. And so should you, he says.
So, what do most business leaders, team leaders and coaches focus on? What’s not working. They focus on fixing the problems. They spend most of their time and effort working on the problems.
Would a person, a team, or a business be further ahead if they focused on replicating what was working, rather than on fixing the things that were not working? It seems obvious that if you or I simply did a lot more of what’s working, we may not even have time to do what needs fixing. We’ll be so busy doing all the right things that we won’t have time to do the wrong things.
If you want to help someone else, tell them what they’re doing right. Give them confirming feedback. People tend to do more of what they are rewarded for, so reward someone with feedback about what they’re doing well. They will do more of that.
Take a few minutes right now and make a list of all the things you’re doing right. Come on, do it. If you don’t write them down, this won’t really work, so go ahead and start making a list. And don’t be too modest, but be honest. Pretend you’re someone else, like your manager, your coach, or a friend, and ask yourself what you’re doing right. What would they say? Write it down.
Now, just do more of those things. This may be the simplest way to enhance your performance.
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