In this episode we discuss how to become a high performer at work. We look at one simple question you can use to double your productivity, we talk about how to decipher scientific evidence and determine what’s really important to focus on for maximum performance, we examine how to get quality feedback on your work, share strategies for creating high performance habits and behaviors, and uncover what it takes to quickly improve your performance with our guest Marc Effron. 

Marc Effron is the founder and president of the Talent Strategy Group and publisher of the Talent Quarterly Magazine. He is a Harvard Business Press best-selling author and just released his latest book 8 Steps To High Performance. He has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Influencers in H.R. and he has worked and consulted with some of the largest companies in the country.

• We have so much science that tell us many of the right things to do - and yet its often so hard to discern signal from noise 

• People like writing about individual topics - but often don’t combine them all into one cohesive view of reality as a whole

• “The Three Tiers of Proof” 

• Bottom tier “Research" - a consulting firm does a study and comes out with a report - not peer reviewed, not validated, not controlled - but still may have some value

  1. Next step up - "Science" - someone has published an article in a peer reviewed journal 

  2. The best - "Conclusive Science" - 100 people do the experiment and all come to the exact same conclusion 

• How do we think about parsing out the signal from the noise in reviewing scientific research?

• Does this person have a financial incentive / commercial interest to present this finding?

  1. How does this fit with all the other information out there? Does it align with most of the existing information?

• What are the Levels of proof that we should look for when we evaluate scientific research?

• Meta studies are one of the most helpful tools - its the highest level of proof for scientific research 

• Start with the simplest ideas and move from there - begin with the most simple and powerful concepts and then go from there.

• The challenge is that we are attracted to novelty - and yet it’s often the simplest things that create the best results 

• Success is about the basic execution of the fundamentals at a high level - its not about secrets, its not about short cuts - there is no secret to success - it’s about doing things that are simple work and well in a consistent and disinclined way

• High performers and high performing companies execute consistently on the basics

• High performer is someone who out performers there peers on a consistent basis - performers and behaves at the 75th percentile of their peer group - over a sustained period of time 

• Peer group is a key component of this - it raises the standard substantially 

• “Whats the one thing I can get better at right now?” 

• How do we find the biggest lever that can we move / change / improve to take ourselves to the next level - what’s the simplest ONE THING that you can focus on improving first?

• If you want to get better you’re much better off asking others for feedback than just looking at yourself

• What’s your disciplined approach for gathering feedback from others about what makes you so successful?

• How do we gather quality feedback?

• Source of opinions and quality of opinion are not equal. 

  1. Find your high performing peers

  2. Find your high performing people at your bosses level that you would like feedback from

• If you’re a solo entrepreneur your customers or investors are probably the best people to ask

• If you’re at the top of your game it’s a lot more challenging to get that quality feedback because people spend their time sucking up to you

• 360 degree feedback tools are helpful for this (more anonymous the channel the better you are likely to get real feedback) 

• Goal setting is very scientifically validated tool to improve performance

• How can you maximize your performance by increasing the stretch of what you’re trying to achieve

  1. Have 2, at most 3, BIG things that will make the largest contribution to your organization

  2. Is your daily life organized around the 3 big rocks you need to move this year to create the biggest possible impact for your organization?

  3. "What would it take for me to deliver 2x next year than what I delivered this year?"

  4. Ask your boss: I want to deliver 2x next year - what’s the ONE thing I could do differently to deliver more on that goal? (Overcome the fear)

  5. It’s not like they haven’t thought of this before - they already have an answer for this - they already THINK IT, they just haven’t told you yet 

     1. If you work with them, they already have these thoughts 

• Can we set goals that are too big and too ambitious? How do we strike that balance?

• Ask yourself - is your big goal too disengaging? Could it be harmful to the organization?

• What Exercises are there for determining those 2-3 big things we should be focusing on?

• When you get feedback from people - you’re the LAST PERSON to know the information - everyone else already knows it 

• Everyone is fallible and can improve at something

• What does it mean to “behave to perform?"

• There many different ways to succeed, but a limited number of ways to fail 

• What are the similar ways in which we all tend to fail?

  1. What are the things that consistently de-rail you?

• Given where my company is - what needs to happen for me to be the most high performance I can be? What are the few behaviors that matter the most for performance right now?

• Three “buckets” of behaviors that cause us to derail:

• “Moving away” behaviors - behaviors that cause you to put distance between you and other people. Passive aggression, shyness, etc. 

  1. “Moving against” behaviors - putting you into other people’s space and make them want to spend less time with you

  2. “Moving towards” behaviors - suck up behavior, managing up and the people below you don’t like it

• The three buckets are predictable and can be determined, so that you can fix them. 

• Focus on what you can change and ignore the rest. 

• There are thousands of stories per year of people who were born with no meaningful advantage and can become high performers 

• There are many fixed traits of your life, background, abilities etc that you can’t change - focus on what you can change 

• How do we accelerate the growth of our most important factors of high performance?

• It’s the experience we have that grow us fastest - the most big, challenging, scary, risky experiences you have the faster you’re going to learn. 

• Every day you should ask yourself - am I in an experience right now that is advancing me as fast as possible?

• It’s easy to get comfortable, but comfort is the enemy of growth

• We often exaggerate the downside and underestimate the upside

• Evolutionary programming gets in the way of the most optimal strategies for high performance

• How the “Cake story” can transform your perspective on simplicity and execution 

• Homework: Action begins with an assessment of where we are today - how do you compare against the 8 step framework - then determine what your ONE key priority going forward should be 

• Homework: Ask your boss: I want to deliver 2x next year - what’s the ONE thing I could do differently to deliver more on that goal?

Thank you so much for listening!

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Show Notes, Links, & Research

• [SoS Episode] Self Help For Smart People - How You Can Spot Bad Science & Decode Scientific Studies with Dr. Brian Nosek

• [SoS Episode] The Biological Limits of the Human Mind

• [Website] The 8 Steps

• [Book] The Leadership Machine: Architecture to Develop Leaders for Any Future by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger

• [Book] What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter

Episode Transcript