Note from Art: You are to be excused if the phrase, professional performance drift invokes images of those obnoxious drug commercials that end with people in bathtubs overlooking a lake, followed by a voice-over warning on the potential side-effects that require you to see your doctor immediately. (Not sure the doctor is the first one I would want to see with THAT side-effect.)

The concept of performance drift (for professionals) is wonderfully outlined by John Hamm, writing in his recently published book, Unusually Excellent: The Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership. (I’m through the first third…great! Full review to follow in a subsequent post.)

Hamm offers:

“Even the best performers in any field, will slowly-and imperceptibly-stray away from the fundamentals of their craft. This drift is almost always invisible to them. The human nature part is that losing precision in the fundamentals is exactly the last thing most accomplished people would imagine or accept as the cause. Instead, left to their own devices, they look elsewhere… .”

John’s quote packs a lot of punch in a small space. He reminds us of the importance of the fundamentals to our success as professionals. He underscores how difficult it is for us to see ourselves as others do. And he appropriately highlights our annoying human tendency to look outside of ourselves and at other, external causes for our own failures.

The most effective leaders I’ve worked around in my corporate and consulting careers manage to have an intuitive grasp of their own performance drift. While they may struggle to self-diagnose and correct, they display a keen sense for understanding when they are off their game. They look inward…or at least they ask for help in the form of feedback before they strap on their fundamental attribution error vests and start parading around the workplace acting like the blame-stormers we know and don’t like.

There’s no substitute for help in identifying and curing our own performance drift. We all need someone who offers frank and constructive feedback on our performance-particularly when we are drifting. It might be the trusted colleague capable of telling you how your approach is impacting others, or a coach who brings an objective set of eyes to seeing and reporting on your performance.

And while perhaps Hamm is right and performance drift is inevitable, I’m a big believer in a little preventive maintenance along the way.

Three Ideas to Help Recognize and Slow Your Professional Performance Drift:

1. Learn to Read the Signs.

In what may be the squishiest piece of well-intended guidance I’ll ever offer, listen to that little voice in you mind or that twinge in your gut that tells you something’s wrong with your performance. The voice or the sharp stabbing pain are more than likely byproducts of the cues on your performance that you are picking up from people around you. Many of us ignore the cues…and ignore the signs of our own performance gaffes, but those around us see them and their responses, however subtle, are good indicators that we stepped in something and it stinks.

2. Regularly Remind Yourself of the “Bigger Purpose” of Your Role.

I crafted my Leader’s Charter to remind me of my true role as a leader and serve as my “bigger purpose.” A few moments reviewing and reflecting upon The Charter every morning, does wonders for my attitude and for providing a strong reason for being.

The Leader’s Charter:

Your primary role as a leader is to:

  • Create an environment that facilitates high individual and team performance
  • Support innovation in process, programs and approaches
  • Encourage collaboration where necessary

 and

  • Promote the development of your associates in roles that leverage their talents and that challenge them to pursue new and greater accomplishments.

Use my charter, create your own, place it somewhere visible to you and your team members, read it regularly and importantly, review and adjust your priorities to match the priorities in your Charter.

3. Talk Less, Listen Harder, Ask Questions and Finish with “How Can I Help?”

I’ve little doubt that there’s a correlation between our ratio of talking to listening and our own performance. The more we emphasize talking, the less we are tuning into what matters with our teams and employees. Deliberately focus on shutting up, letting others speak first and last and importantly, listening and observing. If you have to talk, ask questions that help teach others and move them towards discovering solutions. And make sure your last words in a fair number of conversations are, ‘How Can I help?” And then do it!

The Bottom-Line for Now:

While this quote from the world of music is attributed to a number of different people, it rings true for all of us. “If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don’t practice for three days, everyone knows it.”

There’s no pill to cure professional drift, however, recognition is as they say, the first step. Renew your efforts to tune into the impact you are having on others and deliberately focus on practicing the fundamentals. While the outcome may not look like the bathtub scene in the aforementioned commercials, the results will be great and the side-effects definitely won’t require an embarrassing call to the doctor.

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Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at https://artpetty.com

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]