Focus on the Wins

Posted on February 28, 2023 in Consulting

The Harvard Business Review picked its twelve favorite articles to republish and highlight through 2022 to celebrate its 100-year anniversary. The December reprint of “The Feedback Fallacy” by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall captured my attention.  It challenges conventional thought on how employers should review and assess their workforce and helped me think about my own management strategies for 2023. One theme of the article particularly resonated with me: focus on the wins.

In their article, Buckingham and Goodall tell the story of how legendary Cowboys Coach Tom Landry critiqued game film with his players of only the outstanding plays. Coach Landry recognized that teaching by reviewing solid performances was more likely to repeat the desired result. Apparently, it worked.

On a quite different athletic level, my son and I made a deal some years ago that we would no longer watch clips of his strikeouts… except when he’s pitching but you get the idea.   Watching videos of solid hits reminds us of the success that comes with dedication and practice. Focusing on poor performance might lead to repeating what we want to avoid.

Translate this to the workplace. Managers should focus employee reviews on the wins of the past year. Build from the positive to develop a strategy with the employee on how to create more wins. Consider how to help an employee convert less successful past events to the future plus column. Approach employee errors and mistakes thinking how it deviated from how the employee’s other success stories.

Why wait for the formal annual review? Celebrate the wins when they occur. Waiting for an annual review to talk through the positive experiences misses the opportunity to reproduce the steps that lead to success.

For example, I was so proud of Hamed Moradi this past year. He hit 1,000 going 3-0 defeating attempts to certify collective actions on overtime claims. The first win came in a substantial case that put Hamed and I up against very big-name lawyers in the FLSA plaintiff-world.  When we got that first win, I congratulated him with a high five or fist bump and (most likely) some exuberant language.  We talked through the steps that helped deliver the win. He needed only a little guidance from me to get the next two wins on his own.

I hope you enjoyed this newsletter and encourage you to read “The Feedback Fallacy” by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall.