How to Improve Performance

A list of 20 under-appreciated tactics that always seem to work

1. 95%+ of business problems have been solved before. The hard part isn’t figuring out what to do. The hard part is making it actually happen.

2. If you can find non-annoying ways to keep reminding people (over and over) of something you want them to do, they’ll either (a) eventually start doing it or (b) make it very obvious that they will never ever do the thing no matter how much you reinforce it. (Both (a) and (b) are useful outcomes, for very different reasons.)

3. Praise is a highly-underrated business tactic. Finding ways to recognize people when they do something the right way is the secret to making a new behavior stick. (Note: This works even better when you praise them in public.)

4. When your data is easy to look at and easy to understand, it becomes pretty obvious what needs fixing. And when it becomes really obvious what needs fixing, people will start fixing it on their own. (This is kind of magic when you see it happen for the first time.)

5. Sales is nothing more than understanding a problem that someone has, proving that what you sell can solve their problem, and making the case that your way of solving the problem is better than the other options this person is considering (Note: Those options always include doing nothing and just continuing on like they were before).

6. An underrated way to build trust with people is to use the exact words that they would use to talk about the problem they have, the workarounds they’re using to deal with the problem, and what they still can’t quite do despite all those workarounds. You can’t guess at what these words are. You have to learn what they are. And you learn what they are by being curious, asking questions, and listening to both what they say and how they use those words. Context is everything. It’s how you become a customer-mind reader.

7. People can tell almost immediately when you’re trying to sound smart vs. when you actually know what you’re talking about. You should strive to be someone who sounds like they know what you’re talking about. (Especially when creating marketing content that gets you leads/customers.)

8. People can also tell if you’re having fun while you’re writing/talking. People instinctually want to do business with people that they can tell are having fun. So have fun with whatever you’re saying/writing/making. The person consuming it will be able to tell.

9. Most of the value in reporting is the clarity of thought that the report creates for the person producing the report. The other half of the value is the conversation you can have about the report with other people, and the clean decisions that arise from that conversation. See #4 above - when you articulate the problem extra-clearly (i.e., using a well-designed report) the solutions magically appear.

10. At least half of what it means to be a good leader is (a) getting people excited about what you’re trying to accomplish and then (b) helping them see how their work contributes to that accomplishment. This is the difference between management and leadership. Management + (a) + (b) = Leadership.

11. #10 is very important for the team you already have but also very important for the people you’re trying to hire. Recruiting is sales. And sales is storytelling. If the person you’re recruiting can tell you’re trying to accomplish something exciting, and they can see how they can contribute to that story, it’s much easier to convince them to come along for the ride.

12. If you’re talking about the data without looking at the data, you should stop what you’re doing and put the data on a screen that everyone can see and then talk about the data. You’ll immediately start having a better, more useful conversation. This is television, not radio. Show us the numbers you’re talking about. Put them in the room with you.

13. Production quality is good manners. If you’re recording audio, joining a Zoom call, or producing a product video, you should try to make things look and sound as good as you possibly can. People notice when things don’t look and sound right, and they subconsciously think about you differently as a result. Low-quality production distracts from your message and intent. Strive for fewer distractions. Strive to make the thing look and sound good.

14. People have to weigh in before they buy in. Working in little moments of co-creation (where people can provide input and shape the answer/plan with that input before the answer becomes final) is a leadership cheat code.

15. Email open rates (depending on who you are and what you’re sending) range from <5% to ~40-50% at best. (This newsletter averages ~40%ish.) The lesson? Half the people you’re emailing won’t even see the thing you’re sending them. It’s totally ok to repeat yourself. It’s totally ok to send the exact same thing again a little later on. Just cause you said it doesn’t mean they heard you. (In fact, they probably didn’t.)

16. People are reading less and less stuff. The quickest way to improve your content is to turn something that people read into something that people watch. Video is the way. It’s a little harder, yes. But that also means your competition probably won’t do it. Instant competitive advantage.

17. When deciding between two candidates, hire the person who (a) answered your questions more directly and (b) spent more time preparing for the interview. You want people on your team who get to the point and who don’t mind working hard for something they want. You can teach people lots of stuff. But you can’t teach them that.

18. If you go talk to 10 happy customers about what they were doing before working with you, why they chose you, and the #1 thing they can do today they couldn’t do before, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get more customers like that.

19. If you’ve ever been told you need to “be more strategic” what you’re really being told is to be more clear about (a) what’s going on and what the problem is, (b) what the options are for dealing with that problem, and (c) what the best option for dealing with the problem is. That’s what being strategic is. And anyone can do it.

20. You can’t fix a secret. Great leaders create an environment where it’s easy to talk about problems and bring up what isn’t working. In fact, they demand you talk about problems. Bad leaders are ok being told “everything is fine,” even when they know they’re not.