How to get the best performance from yourself and others.

How to get the best performance from yourself and others.

We would all like to know how to get the best performance from other people, from colleagues, from bosses, from suppliers and from customers.

If we could get the best performance from everyone around us, then our lives would be a lot easier.

In our personal lives, we want to get the best from our friends and family, especially the kids. If we could make our home life work better, then our lives would be a lot easier.

But before we can get the best performance from other people, we must first know how to get the best performance from ourselves.

If we were to enter a situation in a bad mood - late, ill prepared and misinformed - then we would be incapable of getting the best from that situation.

So, learning the skills relating to "getting the best from people" is one of the most important things to learn.

What are the particular skill sets that will empower us to get the best performance from ourselves and others?

We would like to draw your attention to three major skills sets: Clarity, Rationality, and Positivity.

1. Clarity.

Clarity of purpose and communication. We need to make our goals and our communication as clear, precise and well understood as possible.

In relation to our goals and language we must avoid fuzziness, ambiguity, vagueness.

Vague, ambiguous words, elastic definitions and poorly-worded instructions, cause confusion, conflict and error.

On the other hand, clear, accurate and precise language causes greater transparency, better understanding and a higher degree of cooperation.

From the above we conclude that we should:

• Set clear and specific goals that act as a guide to all our actions.
• Communicate using precise language, which is unlikely to be misunderstood.

2. Rationality.

It is not enough to be clear, because it is possible to be clearly wrong.

In order to minimise the chances of being clearly wrong, we must test every thought, every statement and every policy against the standard of reason and logic.

Logic is the science of correct inference. We ensure that conclusions are based upon a logical evaluation of all the available evidence. If we fail to provide a logical rationale for our ideas, then people will have no reason to believe them.

If we don't treat people reasonably, or we treat them unreasonably, nobody will stand being treated unreasonably for very long.

On the other hand, if we always provide good reasons and a good logic to support our ideas, then people will be more inclined to act on them.

So, we can conclude the following:

• We should treat all people and all problems according to the principles of reason.
• We should never guess. Our decisions and policies should always be based upon a rational, logical evaluation, of all the available evidence.

3. Positivity.

We try to imbue our communications with a sense of optimism, friendliness and positive intentions.

This means being as optimistic as the facts will reasonably allow.

We need to have a "can-do" attitude, which means we do not spend much time talking about what cannot be done and why. Instead we focus on what can be done and how.

Optimistic means: we believe that the future will be better than the past.

Friendly means: we assume a likeable tone, with signs of warmth, good humour and respect.

Summary: How to get the best from other people.

Develop the skills of clarity, rationality and positivity.

"The Six Major Keys of Rational Optimism"

1. Clear purpose: Decide upon the goal to be achieved.
2. Clear communication: Clearly communicate the goal to everyone who needs to know.
3. Rational planner: Build logical plans and priority decisions that will lead to the achievement of the goal.
4. Rational conflict: Resolve conflict rationally, not emotionally.
5. Inspire self: Create self-confidence, self-motivation and self-awareness.
6. Inspire others: Think, talk and act in ways that inspire positive emotions in others.