Last Saturday at the Alpental ski area, an 8-year-old girl raced down a slalom course for the first time. Wanting to create a positive initial experience, her mother, aunt and some friends in our ski group took turns racing against Zoe, who took the lead from beginning to end and whose run times were consistently between 53 and 55 seconds.
Just before my turn at the race course, I mentioned to Zoe’s mother; “Zoe is going to stretch her comfort zone a bit.” For almost the entire race, I skied in front and led by about 5 feet. Zoe stayed close and made a quick pass for the win after I took a wide turn on one of the final gates. Not surprisingly, when being pushed to go a bit faster by chasing rather than leading her opponent, Zoe finished the course in 50 seconds; or about 3 to 5 seconds faster than previous runs. Zoe doesn’t like to lose and will continually improve.
If the principle of developing higher performance through stretching comfort zone works on the ski slopes, do you think the same principle applies in your business too? You bet it does; if you attract the right employees! Just like an athlete, most employees want to stretch their comfort zone and grow…
How to develop champions in the workplace
The desire to succeed is a personality trait found in 100% of athletes that are part of a championship team. These athletes all have a competitive nature combined with an inner drive to improve and desire to be part of a winning team. Great coaching enables athletes and teams to reach their potential. Intuitively, everyone reading this knows the above to be true. Intellectually, the same principles apply when building a team of employees at your company. Here are some questions to consider…
What are the personality traits of successful employees at your company? Do they have an inner desire to improve and become part of a winning team? Do they receive great coaching and are employees reaching their potential? If not, why not?
My advice is simple: hire for fit and commit to the process of training and developing employees every day. Practice makes permanent. Have fun and commit to the process of deliberate improvement. Become less of a boss and more of a coach. Or get great coaching for you and the team!
What most companies do and why employees don’t develop into high performers
My observation that most companies hire employees to fill a slot on the organization chart and fulfill requirements listed on a job description. In return for showing up the requisite hours per week and performing the duties as assigned, a paycheck is provided twice per month. Once per year, a performance evaluation is given, which is the only formalized guidance provided; unless that is the employee was “written-up” for skiing outside the lanes of acceptable behavior.
In other words, employees are treated like cogs in a machine and are conditioned to perform at a normative level. “Do your job, don’t cause trouble and you’ll get paid.” It’s no wonder that according to Gallup, Inc. 75% of employees don’t like their jobs. If this environment sounds like your company, it’s time to make a change and commit to developing a championship level team!