The law of diminishing returns, greatest gains, and how one approach can solve your 4 biggest leadership challenges

Happy October, Deviants! It's nasty rain in the Mid-Atlantic, so snuggle up with your favorite pumpkin-chai-spiced drink of choice and dig in! This month's issue is a bit longer, but worth it!

The Law of Diminishing Returns

Last Sunday, in aptly named Suffern (suffer’n) New York, I raced Toughman’s Long Course Duathlon for a chance to defend my National Championship title. As with most races, my goals were to finish the race, finish safely, and beat last years’ time of 5:04.

This particular race consisted of a 2-mile run through the woods, followed by a hilly 56-mile bike ride (with a total of 4300 feet of climbing), ending in a 13.1-mile run (with a total of 1,000 feet of climbing). The good news is that I had raced the same course last year, so I knew what to expect. The bad news is that I raced the same course last year and knew how painful it would be. This course is hated.

I finished, and finished safely, but exhausted. In the photo above (if you look closely), you can see my face as I sprinted through the chute – it’s one of disappointment. My typical ear-to-ear grin rivaling that of the Cheshire cat is missing. I was reading the official timing clock in disbelief: 5:23!

What???? Comparing this year over last, I had a significant advantage of knowing the course, had fine-tuned my nutrition even more, and trained more intensely than for any other race, having improved my both my running pace and bike power (as measured by a legit functional threshold power test several weeks before the race). I was stronger than ever. And I was baffled.

As it turns out, because of the severe drought this summer in the northeast, and subsequent cancelling of the swim portion of Toughman’s triathlon due to unsafe algae bloom, triathletes who opted to, could race the duathlon. This led to an increased number of starting waves and an earlier race start clock. Once adjusted for my wave and my ankle timing chip, I really crossed the finish line at 5:03:33. I had met all three goals! But still….all of that work over 9 months to shave 27 seconds??

The law of diminishing returns states that there is a point on a production curve beyond which any additional unit of output will begin to result in a loss - productivity and efficiency actually begin to decrease.

Yes, I can certainly work on my transition timing. And surely, I can up the weights in the off-season and explore a tri-specific bike. A coach would probably help tremendously. But how much more investment of time, resources, money, and sweat equity are needed for an extra 1% of gain?

The Greatest Gains

In retrospect, the largest improvements I’ve noticed occurred when I was new to sport or a novice in the next phase. From running 5-6 miles to completing a marathon, from exploring sprint triathlons to competing in Half Ironmen, from competing in national duathlons to racing at Worlds, each jump was significant, required additional investment, and offered a proportionate amount of growth and satisfaction in return. These were milestones, not pebble gains.

This is why our high-performance approach to driving business results focuses on moving your middle – the shaded area below that offers the greatest productivity gains. As Tom Peters states, "High potentials will take care of themselves. The great productivity ‘secret’ is improving the performance of the 60% in the middle of the distribution.”

Our extensive experience across multiple clients in varying industries has proven that it is possible to drive value by capturing the results of your stars and moving the middle to perform more like them.

How one approach can solve your 4 biggest leadership challenges

I was recently talking with a National Sales Director, less than a year into her role, tasked with creating a high-performing team to drive sales for their flagship product which struggled to see 9% market share. Unlike most leaders in her position who may be forced to work with existing talent, she had the opportunity to recruit for her team. In doing so, she was encountering these challenges:

·      Recruiting Top Talent – The job descriptions she was required to use were created by HR, with little input from the hiring manager. They were more generic in nature, emphasized competencies and company values, listed experience requirements, and hadn't been updated in years! They failed to focus on the impact of this role on the business, how success would be evaluated, and what key accomplishments would be required in the role. A job does not have skills and experience. In essence, they were people descriptions, not job descriptions. Sound familiar? “It’s hard enough to find talent in the current environment,” she shared, “and our recruiting practices aren’t specific enough to screen for the exact talent I need.” The best people will opt out early in the process if the job expectations are unclear or if the job doesn’t offer a better career opportunity compared to their current role.

·      Conducting a Performance-based Interview – Again, when interviewing candidates, she was required to use the competency-based STAR (situation, task, action, result) model that left little room to explore a candidate’s previous accomplishments or discuss how they might approach the role. “The context of the work is what drives individual performance in my experience,” she said. “The circumstances of the job, available resources, team, and culture all matter. The interview should really be about exploring what the candidate needs to do over the next 90 days to 6 months to excel and how they have done it, or something similar, in the past. This will give me the best view of potential fit.”

·      Onboarding with Excellence – Having just completed her own onboarding six months ago, she cringed to think that new members to her team within this Fortune 100 company would repeat her experience. Training lacked role specificity and seemed misaligned with the vision of the business. Instead of pacing the material around the rhythms of the business, with time to practice new skills, she was left with having to revisit the training months later at the time of need (e.g., when submitting her first expense report). Her manager didn’t have insight into her curriculum, and everything seemed like the top priority. What’s worse, courses kept populating her queue when colleagues recommended them as “favorites,” further contributing to her feelings of overwhelm.

·      High Performance Coaching – When we talked, this National Sales Director had just had her first performance review with her manager. While they talked frequently, it was usually about aligning priorities, project updates, and meeting coverage. Nothing was mentioned about where she was opposite the desired performance for her role, or what she could improve to be an even better leader.

The quickest and most cost-effective way to address all four of these challenges is to identify your high performers, decode their mental models, and use a profile of performance as the Christmas tree from which the recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and performance management ornaments hang. Our process captures and magnifies the unconscious competence of your stars, so it is no longer hidden, but a new standard for all - one that is reflected throughout every stage of the employee lifecycle to optimize performance. See the example below for a technical case manager responsible for fixing software bugs. Note how one accomplishment - fixing bugs - is woven throughout the job description, hiring interview guide, and coaching assets.

Ready to move your middle? Reach out to me for an introductory call to explore the potential within your organization.

Up Next: Join me, Holly Benner and an all-star registration list next Wednesday as I co-host "The High-Performance Paradox: Why Suboptimal Performances Happen to Great Performers and How to Stack the Odds in Your Favor." Register here.  Doing so ensures your access to the webinar recording and Insight Guide.