Succeeding Using the “Performance Effectiveness Principle”
Boost your performance using this secret principle!
Want to know a secret?
There is a simple method or rule of thumb out there that can massively increase your productivity and happiness both in your life and in your workplace.
The Secret to Performance Effectiveness
I’m going to tell you how to be more effective in the things you choose to do – letting you experience more success, rather than wasting time and needlessly struggling.
Nope, the answer isn’t “eat more kale,” or “exercise for 2 hours a day,” or “get plenty of sleep,” or “take this miracle pill”.
Healthy eating and exercise and sleep are all great things to do, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about.
I’m here to talk about something called the “Performance Effectiveness Principle”.
Understanding this concept will make you more effective in what you choose to do, and help you concentrate your efforts toward areas that will get you more and better results.
The Performance Effectiveness Secret Revealed
The performance effectiveness principle deals with your abilities and weaknesses.
The basic idea is this: when it comes to your strengths and abilities, you are able to put forth less effort, while getting greater and more plentiful results. Conversely, when it comes to your weaknesses, you can put forth great effort, and still produce a lower quality product and poorer results.
Performance Effectiveness and the 80/20 Rule
Some refer to this principle as the “80/20 Rule”.
When you have a natural ability or aptitude, you are able to put forth a only 20% concentrated effort and yet still get a product or service that reaches the 80th percentile in quality.
When dealing with areas in which you are not naturally gifted or able, you need to put forth a minimum of 80% of your full possible effort, but still only get to a 20% level of quality in the outcome, despite your trying efforts.
These weaknesses are skills that you have learned, but that is not really associated with any of your natural abilities. You can expend much higher physical and mental effort, yet not get anywhere close to the results that you feel your effort merits.
The 80/20 Rule Revealed in Handwriting
How can you best understand the impact of the 80/20 Performance Principle Rule on your work?
Well, think of it this way:
Working in an area or in a position that utilizes your natural abilities and aptitudes is like writing your name. You are able to simply pick up the metaphorical pencil and fluidly write out your name on the paper.
But when you work in a position which does not use skills that come naturally to you, it’s like picking up that same pencil and writing your name, only this time you’re forced to use your left hand.
Try it!
Stop reading this post, grab a pencil and some scrap paper.
This blog will still be here when you’re done – we won’t go anywhere.
Okay, did you do it?
Hard, huh?
And look at what you wrote – it’s pretty easy to see which hand you used for each version of your name, right?
You hardly even think about it when you write your name with your dominant hand, it comes so naturally. You expend almost no effort, and yet it looks exactly as you want it to. It has character written all over it… It’s like your unique stamp of personality.
It is clear how much less effective I am at writing my name with my left hand…
Then, when you switch hands, you spend ten times as long trying to get the letters shaped and written in a legible manner and have to concentrate with everything you have just to get it on the paper. And then it looks like a preschooler, or a hundred-year-old person wrote your name for you.
Does that help to illustrate the 80/20 Rule, and the performance effectiveness principle? I think it is a very powerful representation of how true this concept is.
Stress and the Performance Principle
The results are even more dramatic, more clear cut were you to write your name under stressful circumstances. I use stopwatch to incur stress. When using your weak hand, the writing quality deteriorates, even though you didn’t think it can get worse. And, most people can’t even finish their signature.
I use a stopwatch to add the element of stress to show my clients just how much stress affects the performance effectiveness principle
The exact opposite is true when using your strong hand. Signatures are typically finished well before “time is up”, and displays an added flair of character (better quality).
The same can be said when you work from your weaknesses or strengths under stress. When working in something that demands your weak abilities while under stress, you need 3 – 4 X the amount of time and effort to pull off a product that still can’t match that of someone using their strengths.
How The Performance Effectiveness Principle Rule applies to You
It is clear, then, how important it is to be very familiar with your personal strengths and weaknesses. If you have only a vague idea of your natural abilities and aptitudes, how can you expect to be effective in the work you choose to do?
The Highlands Ability Battery is the perfect answer. It is an ability test that will pinpoint your abilities and weaknesses with extreme accuracy. It is the best career test of its kind. It will clearly expose your personal strengths and weaknesses, and equip you to dramatically increase your effectiveness.
A clear knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to take full advantage of the 80/20 Rule so that you can get maximum quality and quantity outcomes of whatever work it is you are doing, while expending the least amount of unnatural effort.
Think about how much happier you will be when you don’t have to work so hard just to get mediocre results at best! The performance effectiveness principle unlocks nearly unlimited potential for anyone who wants to boost his or her results, morale, and efficiency. It is the number one way to be more effective, bottom line.
Spend time doing what you’re good at, and you will get good results.