Use one simple chart to perform better

“As a performance coach,” says Jay Forte, president of The Greatness Zone LLC, “I tend to avoid the concepts of right or wrong, good or bad; I talk about what’s productive or unproductive, or what’s working and what’s not working.

“So, I have my clients draw a line down the middle of a page. On the left hand side is written what’s working; on the right hand side is what’s not working, just to get in the habit of stopping and noticing things from, say, the employee’s last feedback session, or the last customer contact, programming event, presentation, etc.

“With that information, now I have them consider what they could do more of that’s working. Let’s lead with our strengths; let’s go and figure out if it’s working here.

“And then we look at the things that are not working and we say, ‘So, what are the fixes?’ And now we’ve given ourselves lots of options.

“It doesn’t mean you have to pick one from both of these lists. Both lists will create options; then, once you choose the best one, you build a plan and you take action.

“Now stop and notice your attitude. What’s working in your attitude? What’s not working? What do you do on purpose to stay upbeat and optimistic, to be supportive, to be collaborative, to be grateful? And when your attitude isn’t working in a positive way, what are the events that are taking you down?

“Just see it—don’t make any judgment about it, just see it.

“Now you have information to determine what you’re doing that makes your attitude positive, what you can do to keep it powerful and keep it going. And where you see the places where you’re not managing your attitude well … what are some of your ideas on how you could fix that?”