“Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right.”
- Ken Blanchard
When I was managing a large investment portfolio for a bank, I had groups of people reviewing pretty much every move I made. There were internal auditors, external examiners, and regulators of several varieties because of my securities licensing, the fact we were exchange-traded, etc., etc., etc.
There were literally billions of reasons why they needed to be watching so closely. I get it, but we always hoped for more of a collaborative working relationship with all of them. None of them seemed to be motivated by our improvement, desire to get better, or our commitment to doing things right.
They only seemed motivated by the “gotcha”; catching us doing something wrong. Ironically, to call us rule-followers would have been a bit of an understatement. We vigorously worked to stay within the lines. I am sure there were other targets that they needed to work over with a fine-toothed comb, but it wasn’t us.
So what do you think happened after all those years of diametric engagement? We learned to play the game they appeared to be playing. Instead of finding value in the relationship and growing through all that interaction and oversight, we learned to leave them some simple bait to take. A trade that didn’t have a secondary sign-off. A transaction that we forgot to timestamp at the time of the trade, but completed later on in the day.
They seemed to just want to catch us doing something wrong, so we complied with their wishes. We gave them an easy “gotcha” which seemed to make them happy and had them moving on to the next opportunity to catch someone else as quickly as possible. I know now that this all stemmed from a lack of trust and a general assumption that everyone is intending to do wrong and working hard to cover things up.
How sad. Oversight and providing checks and balances was an essential thing, but the attitude and lack of collaboration was a huge missed opportunity for them and us.
But I can’t say that was the last time I saw that attitude play out in a company. I have seen many small business owners operate with a similar mindset. And just like them, most of us have come by our lack of trust honestly. We’ve all been burned and taken advantage of at one time or another. But living with a sense that we can’t trust anyone and that everyone is out to get us leads to another inevitable conclusion:
Others will not meet our expectations. Even our lowest ones.
Blanchard was on to something beautiful that many modern thought leaders like Brené Brown have confirmed; if you expect the best out of people, they will likely meet your expectations. On any given day, there is a list of things you could make of wrongs in anyone’s performance. There is also a list (albeit, maybe a short one) of things they are doing right. Perspective defines which list you make. The long-term benefit of catching people doing things right is too great to not focus in that direction.
As a football coach friend of mine used to say, “You could call a holding penalty on every play, but the game would never really go anywhere.”
Consider
How good are you at finding things those you lead are doing wrong?
How good are you at catching them doing something right?
How much productivity, employee growth, or cultivation of a powerful culture of trust are you missing out on as a result?