How are you Unlocking Performance?

Reject Conventional Wisdom
Conventional wisdom says “Treat others as you would like to be treated” and yet this is the root cause of most performance problems and communication challenges in the workplace (not to mention personal relationships!).  In a massive study of managers who were leading high performance teams, researchers Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman discovered that great managers have very little in common.  However, they all reject conventional wisdom. 

Why some people can’t take a hint

The most frustrating thing about communication is that it is never good enough. There is always someone who will get the wrong end of the stick; they will choose to interpret what you're saying in a completely different way than what you intend, or they simply won’t take a hint.  It’s all about below conscious motivation and once you know what to look for you can become even more effective.

Selecting for Talent

Imagine everyone on the planet simultaneously getting in contact with 150,000 other people.  This is what is actually happening with each of the neurons in the brain of a young child.  Scientists now know that by the age of three there are up to fifteen thousand connections for each of the one hundred billion neurons in our brain.  Not surprisingly this is far too much information to cope with, so we have developed a way of making sense of it all.  Our own unique sense of it!  During the following ten years our brain refines what it believes is important and begins focusing on particular connections more than others.

What is the Key to better understanding?

Relationships can be the most exciting part of business especially when you meet a new client who not only really needs your product, service or expertise but wants it because they feel you understand them and the issues they face. But relationships can also be the most challenging part of our lives. The more you look at all the claims going through Employment Tribunals, the more you find that about 95% of them have the breakdown of a relationship as the initial cause of the problem.

Are you interviewing or being interviewed?

Recruiting good people is not easy, they are usually gainfully employed.  However, when they are available many businesses squander the opportunity to get them on board due to lack of structure and organisation. Applying a few simple techniques can make you highly attractive to the best candidates.