Be a Student of Your Own Performance

For fifteen years I coached high school wrestling while working as a Senior Business Analyst for three different management consulting firms, analyzing more than 700 small businesses in that time.  The combination of working with moldable, eager and energetic high school kids and then analyzing adult performance in the workplace was an incredible learning experience.  Last night I went to a high school football game.  By the end of the night it was 38 degrees with winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour.  Just two weeks ago, we were sitting at a football game in shorts and fighting off the mosquitos.  That is Minnesota. The football game featured two teams with identical 1-4 records.  As the line-ups were announced, my wife noticed that the opposing team had virtually all juniors and seniors playing, while our hometown team had a great deal of sophomores starting.  As the night went on, and the elements became more of a factor, you could see the urgency and immediacy of the game coming through in the team made up of juniors and seniors.  Psychologically sophomores tend to believe that there is a lot of time left in their career and this is just one game.  Seniors hear the clock ticking and feel the need to make the most of the opportunity that is in front of them.  The game was a virtual tie until the end of the third quarter, with each team having scored two touchdowns at that point.  The opposing team, the one with mostly juniors and seniors, pulled away at the end as our hometown team faded.  Coincidence?

The dynamic of urgency is one that is incorporated into every aspect of the Legacy Alpha program, including our unique employee incentive programs.  Becoming a student of your own performance is half of the battle.  Having the ability to be honest with yourself as to what you learn when you take a discerning look at your business is the other half.  Having a 27 year perspective on the sports teams of our hometown, I have noticed that there is always talk of the class or the group that is coming up.  "Look how good we are going to be" is the mantra.  Those teams never seem to achieve the success when they get their shot, but there is always a class coming behind them that will be "the class".  Lesson: if you can't perform with the team you have, it is unlikely that you will achieve success with the team you wish you had, or may have in the future.

In business, it very easy to wish for the past or look to the future, but the bottom line of today will be enhanced by leveraging the tools and people you have to work with today.  Are you energizing every member of your team to do the best job possible today?  If they are failing, is it their failure or the failure of management? Being a student of your business's performance starts by establishing benchmarks or a series of "should be's".  Performance is relative and very specific to your situation.  If you want the most out of your employees, they need to know what is expected of them, where they are in relation to those expectations and what's in it for them when they exceed those expectations.  Notice I did not say "if they exceed those expectations".  They always do when expected to and incented properly.  When you put an ordinary employee into a structured, goal oriented environment, you will get extraordinary employees.  If you are waiting for that "better employee" to come along, chances are they will never arrive.  If you treat your current employees like they are the ones you have always waited for, chances are they won't disappoint you.