Like millions of others, Kate and I were shocked at the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Even though we were on vacation, we were riveted to the web and television to see and read about the news.

When all the dust settles, two facts will be apparent about his death. First, he was an amazing talent for singing, showmanship, and music. One can argue the best of all time or not, but one cannot argue with the record sales, concert sales and and the building of a true brand.

Second, it is entirely clear that Michael Jackson’s personal life was a disaster. The causes for it are open to question and I don’t have the answers as to why his personal life ended up the way it did. I can speculate that he never had the ability to grow up and learn about how to evaluate and trust advisors and their advice. I can speculate that he never had the ability to manage his own affairs. One can argue he was a good father, but the truth is he died early, most likely from drugs. Drugs and fatherhood are a poor combination.

Clearly, a career — even a wildly successful career — is not enough. We need to be successful people or nothing is worth the career in the end.

That’s the career lesson from Michael Jackson: we need to build skills and competencies to be successful people. Michael didn’t have the ability to do that and it cost him his life.

What are the skills and competencies we need to build? I’ll offer a few:

• Build strong networks. This includes fabulous relationships with our spouse or partner, our children and our friends. Strong networks provide strong support for who you are as a person. Michael Jackson was friends with a diverse group of people, from Dianna Ross to Brooke Shields. Clearly they cared for him. Either they did not offer good advice (and the people who worked for Michael were not willing to offer “truth to power”) or he was not willing to accept the advice. People need both the advice and the judgment to act on the advice from their networks.
• Skill in managing money. The number of celebrities who have gone bankrupt after making millions is legend. If we can’t manage our money, there is no security in our work.
• Skill in developing trusted advisers. You can’t run a fortune without help. Nor is any person an island unto themselves. We need advisers to help us in our career, our relationships and sometimes our finances. This means we need to have advisers we can trust to offer advice where we need it and when we don’t have the skill set. If you can’t figure out if an adviser is giving good advice or not, you’ll end up taken advantage of in your life.
• Skill in understanding the actions of people. We need the ability to clearly evaluate whether the child is manipulating us for candy or the executive across the table really has the best interests of our career in mind. We need to understand how people can help us and how we can help them.
• We need the passion for who we are, not just our career. Self-love is the most important love, without the narcissism. We need to have our own love of ourselves overflowing our cup so we can have the energy and skills to help others. Helping others without that strong foundation simply builds our own insecurity.

In this ugly recession, it is understandable that people are concerned, or frightened, over their career, their work and their jobs. We get overly focused on the next position, whether or not we will get a raise or even if the company will survive.

But without building the other skills outside of our career to become a successful person, all that worry will be for naught.

Last night, after getting home from our vacation, Kate and I watched a lot of YouTube to see Michael Jackson perform. We easily forget the talent that he had until it was all brought back to us. And when Michael sang Billie Jean and did his patented moonwalk dance for the first time, Kate and I did the moonwalk as well,  celebrating the career he had.

The moonwalk was joyful — and incredibly saddening. A great talent truly wasted.

What skills do you need to learn to become a successful person?

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’m having some of my favorite business bloggers provide their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This article goes to the heart of the foolish traditional career advice to “play nice” with everyone at work. Kristi nails it.

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There are a lot of people running scared.  With the layoff reaper swinging his scythe up and down the office halls, the natural instinct is to keep your head down.  But it’s possible to go too far in your efforts to avoid undue notice.  Please, avoid the temptation to play nice.

There’s a difference between playing nice and actually being nice.  Being nice is always a professional asset.  Despite the corporate leaders that somehow succeed in spite of their abuse, positive relationships with your colleagues will always work in your favor.

Playing nice, on the other hand, is about acquiescing for the sake of harmony.  And here’s where the problem comes in.

Every employment agreement operates on an understanding of value.  Your employer pays your salary.  In return, they expect a certain volume and quality of deliverables, whatever they might be.  The more you deliver, the higher your worth.  The higher your worth, the more likely you are to retain your job, especially when the person sitting next to you is worth less.

Playing nice undermines your value.  For instance, if you get sidled with all of the grunt work on a project, you have less time to spend on the strategic work.  Your team members will produce more value just by virtue of working on more valuable tasks.  Or, maybe you are an equal contributor in the strategic department, but when a colleague takes the credit for the work, you let your boss believe it.  This erodes your perceived value.

Then there’s the question of your long-term worth.  Are you promotion-ready?  If you are, your long-term value for the company is much higher.  Corporate leadership requires effectively brokering agreements, delegating tasks, making tough decisions and engaging the workforce.  It requires taking a position, taking risks, and developing accountability in yourself and others.  Keeping yourself behind the scenes and avoiding conflict will not get you there.

So by all means, be nice.  Be nice, and respected.  Be nice, and successful.  Be nice, and deliver results.  But always be mindful of your value: don’t play nice.

About the author: Kristi Daeda is a success coach for professionals in all phases of career transition, including career planning, clarifying goals, adopting and communicating a personal brand, developing a job search strategy, and effective job search tactics. She blogs on career development, leadership, and job search at Career Adventure.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’m having some of my favorite business bloggers share their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This article — ouch! — helps us reason through the “what is the salary worth?” in the pay we take a for a job. Kristi is good and well worth the read!

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I spend a lot of time helping people find their perfect job — their inspiring work.  And when we discuss the many facets of a potential job offer, inevitably salary ranks pretty high on the priority list.  Many people feel their salary is directly related to their worth in their organization, and by proxy their self-worth.  Taking a pay cut for a new role can be financially challenging as well as personally demoralizing.  Still, there are some reasons to seriously consider a salary reduction:

• There are financial tradeoffs. This is the most clear-cut reason.  Maybe your salary takes a cut, but the benefits package is much richer.  This makes it not a true pay cut — more of a restructuring.  If the new structure meets your needs, consider it a win.
• For your sanity. Some people just don’t do well not working.  If being out of work has led you to a daytime television addiction or you need something to motivate you to get out of your pajamas, it may be worth taking a step backwards in position and/or pay.  The positive effect of being a productive contributor to society can not only lift your overall spirits, it can create a more positive attitude with which to start looking for that next position — the one that makes your financial picture whole.
• It represents a growth opportunity. Sometimes your career is a one step forward, two steps back proposition.  But if that step back puts you in a better overall position, it can be worthwhile.  Think about what opportunities may become available by taking this new position.  Maybe it opens you to a new job function, a new industry, or even puts you to work under a fantastic mentor.  All of these can be great long-term strategic plays.
• A great corporate culture. Here’s my dream office: I can wear bunny slippers at my desk.  There are free lattes in the break room.  I get six weeks paid vacation.  The corporate retreat is at a posh spa in Hawaii.  The product is cutting edge and I feel like I’m bragging when I tell people what I do for a living.  Since more money doesn’t mean more happiness, but bunny slippers do, this could be a very fair trade.
• You’re burned out. You’ve been playing the high-stress corporate game for a while now, and the idea of being a corporate leader has lost its luster.  Taking a step back in responsibility could bring you a proportional step back in frustration.
• As part of a strategy for world domination. That may be a stretch, but often if you’re going to be doing a new function, agreeing to a short-term concession in salary gives the organization enough time to see you prove your worth.  Often, there’s an agreement to review compensation in six months, for instance.  All you have to do is dazzle in the meantime.
• For the fun of it. If you know in your core that this job will keep you excitedly jumping out of bed in the morning, the numbers on the paycheck become less significant.  What better pay than passion?

The lesson: don’t get caught up thinking that your pay equals your importance, and look for jobs that enrich your life in other ways.  Closing yourself off to opportunity will likely cost you more in the long run.

About the author: Kristi Daeda is a success coach for professionals in all phases of career transition, including career planning, clarifying goals, adopting and communicating a personal brand, developing a job search strategy, and effective job search tactics. She blogs on career development, leadership, and job search at Career Adventure.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’m having some of my favorite business bloggers share their knowledge on Cube Rules. This article is by Ashley Acker, whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with on the Flexible Work Summit. This article is about accountability, something all Cubicle Warriors crave so they can show their great performance.

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Accountability in any workplace is important, but it becomes absolutely critical in flexible work environments. Whether it’s a results-only work environment, a virtual team, or a telecommuting relationship, when you can’t count on a colleague, direct report, or manager to be at work in the same location or at the same time as you, accountability plays an essential role in your ability to accomplish your work. Here are three things you can do to establish accountability in your flexible work environment.

1.     Create a Solid Foundation

You cannot have accountability without clearly defined goals. So if results are fuzzy in your organization, begin here. Accountability starts at the individual level, so break down your department level and team level goals into individual goals. Every goal should be a SMART goal that is both measurable and time-bound. This makes establishing accountability much easier by giving you specific outcomes, numbers, and deadlines.

Managers and employees should work together to establish accountability as well. How do your employees think they should be held accountable? How should your manager be held accountable? What about team members? How will progress be assessed? How often will you receive updates? If a problem arises, who will be notified? What’s the standard process for review and feedback? These are all important questions to address to create a solid foundation for accountability.

2.    Define the Leader’s Role

Accountability is a two-way street between leaders and direct reports. Ultimately, a leader’s job is to make sure all of his or her team members succeed. As a leader, you must keep your team focused on producing results, rather than being busy (e.g., doing a lot of activity). Leaders in results-driven organizations care more about what people accomplish than how hard, when, or where they’re working. Which is more important to you?

If you are in a leadership position, as you meet with your team during the goal setting process, ask each person what they need to succeed. Do you need to remove roadblocks? Provide resources? Clarify goals more thoroughly so accountability can be established? If you’re an employee who needs something specific to meet your goals speak up! Hold you manager accountable to support you and help you succeed.

3.    Reward Results. Punish Non-Performance

This is simple. The only thing that matters in a flexible work environment is results. Putting in late nights doesn’t matter, office politics don’t count, and face time is irrelevant. If you’re producing results and meeting expectations, things are great. If you’re not producing or you’re falling below expectations, there’s a problem. In a results-driven environment, there’s no place to hide. Non-performance is quickly noticed because you are only evaluated by results.

Follow this simple rule: Those that achieve the most get rewarded the most and those that fail to produce, face some type of consequence. Be firm and make deadlines mean something. You can’t be a pushover. If someone misses a deadline, falls below expectations, or turns out a poor outcome, there must be consequences. What are they in your organization?

People who aren’t good at their jobs run from accountability—they don’t want to be found out! But great employees love being held accountable. It sets clear expectations and helps everyone focus on results rather than face time, office politics, or long hours. Accountability creates individual responsibility and the process of making and keeping commitments builds trust (which is absolutely vital in virtual teams). Accountability is important in any workplace, but it’s absolutely vital in a flexible work environment.

Are people held accountable in your flexible work environment?

About the author: Ashley Acker, Ph.D. is a workplace renegade, ROWE enthusiast, and coach who helps small business owners boost team performance and productivity, increase flexibility, cut costs, and maximize profits by redesigning work. You can learn more about Ashley and start pushing the boundaries of how, when, and where you work by visiting the WorkStyle Design site.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’m having some of my favorite bloggers share their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This article is from Phil Gerbyshak who not only understands Cubicle Warriors, but how to manage and collaborate with them.

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For my day job, I’m a vice president of information technology, and I’m responsible for managing 10 people who answer questions about software, hardware and every thing else that sits on associate’s desks.

Even though I’m a VP, I don’t get a corner office…I get the corner cubicle. And I’d encourage YOU to think about taking the corner cubicle too!

4 reasons why the corner cubicle is better than the corner office

Visibility – It’s normal for me to be at my desk and there is no door, so I have perfect visibility into my team’s functions…and they have visibility into mine. They can quickly see if I’m available or not, and they can ask questions. And I can see what’s going on and offer assistance right away.

Accessibility – Similar to visibility is accessibility. Folks are much more apt to ask me questions when they can see me than if I were hidden away in an office behind a closed door. I want to help, and sitting in a cubicle means few barriers to talking to me.

Knowledge gathering – I can hear what’s going on with my team right away. If I hear a few people buzzing about the same thing, in real-time, I can know what’s going on and if we need to escalate something. It also helps me explain the situation to my manager and our CTO because invariably if something breaks, they want to know about it.

Dive in when needed – With all this visibility and accessibility, I know when it’s time to help out and when it’s time to step back. If things are going crazy, it only takes a second for me to dive in and help out, then I can quickly back away when things normalize.

About the author: By day, Phil Gerbyshak is a vice president of information technology at a regional financial services company headquartered in Milwaukee, WI. By night, Phil is a social media maximizer who helps people learn the tips and tricks they need to take their business and their brand to the next level. You can find more of Phil’s management insights at http://slackermanager.com or by following him on Twitter @philgerb.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’ve asked some of my favorite business bloggers to share their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This post from Laurie Berenson, a Certified Professional Resume Writer and owner of Sterling Career Concepts, is a great review of the dreaded “What’s your greatest weakness” interview question.

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“Name one of your weaknesses” or “What’s your greatest weakness?” is a common interview question that doesn’t need to trip you up. While some recruiters have stopped using it after receiving too many canned answers, many others still include it in their repertoire. So what’s a candidate to do?  Plan for it. Prepare a thoughtful answer since, chances are, someone somewhere will pose the question.

None of us are perfect, and interviewers know that. We each have our strengths and our weaknesses. Job interviews focus primarily on identifying whether your strengths and abilities are a good match for the position at hand, but touching on your weaknesses, or allowing the interview to see how you view your weaknesses, is a valid part of the process.

The good news is that this question lends itself very well to preparation. There are several strategies to help formulate your answer. What you should not do is shrug your shoulders and respond, “I don’t know. I can’t think of anything.” This only comes across as smug and that you’re unable to identify your own faults or areas for improvement, neither of which is flattering in a potential new employee.

Turn one of your strengths into a weakness. I’m a perfectionist. I expect too much of my colleagues. I take on too much by myself. I work too hard. In terms of possible answers, this is my least favorite as it comes across as phony. Even the most novice interviewer will want to roll his eyes and realize you’re reframing one of your strengths.

Using personal weaknesses rather than a professional. Bringing information about your personal life into the interview is a distraction that only murks up the waters. Saying “I’m not a morning person” or “I’ve never been very athletic” sidelines the conversation and detracts from selling yourself as the best candidate for the job.

Sharing a real weakness that’s not relevant to the job. This carries with it some risk. You may feel the trait is not at all related to your job performance, but the interviewer may feel differently or may think through repercussions of how it might affect your job performance. A staff accountant who shares he is not a good writer. An attorney who says she’s not the best with numbers. At first blush, it may seem like a safe answer, but admitting to a current weakness could come back to haunt you. It’s never smart to provide information that might hurt your candidacy.

Walk the interviewer through how you improved a past weakness. My all-time favorite approach is to think back to a past weakness of yours that you have corrected. Tell it in the form of a story – that it had been a problem for you at work, that you identified the problem, and that you took steps to improve the situation, and that it is no longer a problem for you. Finish your answer with words to the extent of “…and in fact, I am always looking for different ways to improve upon myself.” Answering the question this way not only demonstrates a willingness to think critically of your own skills, but also conveys that you welcome constructive criticism and are open to self improvement.

Often times, answering the weakness question is not so much about confessing to a negative personality flaw as it is giving the interviewer a glimpse of how you view yourself and how well you make efforts to improve yourself.

About the author: Laurie Berenson, a Certified Professional Resume Writer and owner of Sterling Career Concepts, LLC, works with her clients one-on-one to highlight their professional strengths and accomplishments through highly customized career documents. More information including Laurie’s blog on all things career can be found at www.SterlingCareerConcepts.com.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’ve asked some of my favorite business bloggers to share their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This post is from Rick Saia, a Certified Professional Resume Writer and a frequent commenter here on the site.

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Resumes are essential, but by themselves, they can be somewhat cold and impersonal. Despite its detractors, the cover letter can remove a bit of that impersonal edge and, if done right, give the employer a good reason to spend more time reading your resume, and – just maybe – call you for an interview.

Especially today, with thousands out of work and more people competing for jobs, a cover letter that’s executed with great care and detail can deliver you from the ranks of the unemployed.

How can you accomplish that? Follow these three guidelines:

1. Don’t use needless phrases.

A cover letter should excite and intrigue a hiring manager to get him to want to know more. But many a cover letter has contained a phrase or two that doesn’t add anything, and can even be seen as insulting the hiring manager’s intelligence. For instance:

• I’m responding to your job posting for a (title of job here) that I saw in the June 10 edition of The Boston Bugle.
• As you can see from my resume …
• My resume is enclosed.

In each case, you’re not telling the hiring manager anything he or she would already know or assume correctly. (If you forget to include your resume with the cover letter, then you can kiss your chances goodbye anyway.)

2. Show that you’ve done your homework.

If you know the company well, then great, you should have a good idea how your skills and background would fit into the job and the company culture. If not, look at the company’s web site, especially recent news releases, to see what it has been doing lately. Is the company’s stock publicly traded? Look up its quarterly (10-Q) and annual (10-K) statements in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR database.

Your aim here is to uncover a few data points about the company that allow you to address your skills and how they can help the company improve its performance. For instance: I read recently that you lag your two chief competitors in market share in the Asia-Pacific rim. My business development experience in that region can help your company become more competitive there.

3. Be professional.

A few years ago, a former colleague was fielding resumes for an open position. She read one applicant’s cover letter, which included the following lame attempt at levity: “Now go have a nice weekend! I command it!” The applicant wasn’t called for an interview.

The lesson here is that you need to keep the cover letter professional, focused on the job posting, the employer’s needs, and how your skills and background can fill those needs. As for levity? Leave it for the interview, but only if the opportunity presents itself.

Ideally, the cover letter serves as an “opening act” for the main attraction: your resume. Use your cover letter to add a personal touch to an otherwise impersonal resume that merely lists your skills, accomplishments, and background. Give the hiring manager an early glimpse into the person he or she would interview, and want to hire.

About the author: Rick Saia, a Certified Professional Resume Writer, is a Web Content Writer for PongoResume.com. His work experience has included roles as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and high-tech media, and as a research analyst.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’m having some of my favorite business bloggers share their knowledge here on Cube Rules. This post is from Anita Bruzzese, a terrific writer and speaker.

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While many employees are losing sleep these days worrying about their jobs, it’s a bit doubtful that they also are losing z’s fretting over how the boss is faring in these tough times.

Still, it may be time workers started giving some consideration to what a manager is going through.  Because as everyone knows, when a manager is stressed, that stress can often roll downhill and land directly on employees.

I recently interviewed Wayne Hochwarter, a Florida State University professor who spends a lot of time studying the workplace, and he said a recent study found that 55 percent of bosses have become more demanding of current workers and more than 70 percent of employees say the recession has increased stress levels at work.

“I’ve never been a big believer that we’ve got good managers, and now with this economy, they’ve lost whatever humanity they had,” Hochwarter says. “They know that they’ve got to meet goals or they start chopping heads. Managers really don’t know what to do during a time like this. We haven’t prepared them for anything like it.”

That’s why it’s important – for everyone’s sanity – that employees think about ways to help a manager get through these tough times. As most people have learned, when a manager is happy, it follows that employees will fare better as well.

Some suggestions for workers wanting to help a stressed boss:

Work smarter. I know, I know, you think you already have the workload of 12 people, but I’ll bet if you took a hard look at what you do you could come up with some better ways to get things done. Just because you took over someone else’s tasks doesn’t mean they make sense now, or can’t be streamlined in some way. Becoming efficient and more productive – and letting the boss know – will help reduce his worry about remaining competitive.

Understand his bottom line. Ask the boss about his key objectives and then figure out how to help him meet those objectives. Nothing is more frustrating for a manager than to feel people aren’t on the same page, and don’t care to be.

Realize that no offer is too small. Even taking a minor task off the boss’s plate gives a real lift to the spirits. Can you do some initial research? Make some phone calls? When managers feel isolated, it can hamper communication with workers. If you want to stay in the loop, help a manager feel you are on his team.

Ask how he’s doing. During these tough times, many managers are feeling a lot of personal anguish about what’s happening, and they need an encouraging word as well. Going out to lunch, sharing a funny story or just taking a minute to really listen can go a long way in reducing tension for the boss.

About the author: Anita Bruzzese is author of “45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy…and How to Avoid Them,” named a top 10 notable business book by the New York Post. She is an award-winning journalist and a syndicated columnist for Gannett/USAToday.com. Her website and blog can be found at: www.45things.com.

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Note from Scot: While on vacation, I’ve asked some of my favorite business bloggers to share their knowledge with you here on Cube Rules. To start us off is Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, of Cali and Jody and the creators of the Results Only Work Environment. And while Kate and I are on vacation, Cali and Jodi give you an interesting task for next week…

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Hello, all of you Cubicle Warriors!  We’re honored to have been asked by Scot to write for you.  We hemmed and hawed about what to write about, and finally landed on something that will hopefully shed some light on your life in the cube.

We’re all familiar with the term “absenteeism”, and some of you may have heard of the term “presenteeism”.  Essentially, it’s the physical presence of your body in the office, but the absence of your mind.  Presenteeism at work can take the form of online shopping, online games, daydreaming during an unproductice meeting, or striking up a conversation with a cube neighbor because you’re bored.  When people enter the office environment (become “present”), they begin counting their time for the day.

For example, if someone arrives in the office at 8:00 a.m. and leave at 6:00 p.m., they’ll say they worked 10 hours.  If this goes on for 5 days in a row, you’ll hear that same person in the elevator on Friday bemoaning their 50 hours they put in that week.  When we conduct sessions to move people from a traditional work environment to a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), we hear this all the time.  But let’s examine it more closely…

We’d like you to try something: For the next week, see if you can keep track of the number of hours you work.  You’re only allowed to count the time when you’re actually being productive.  You can’t count time on your personal e-mail, going to the restroom, talking about things that aren’t work-related, etc.  You must also subtract the time spent in any meeting that you feel is unproductive or a waste of your time.

When you have your number of hours at the end of the week, submit it as a Comment and tell us how you felt about doing this exercise.

In the end, doing this exercise bolsters the argument for focusing on results vs. time in the work environment.  At the end of a week, wouldn’t it be nice to rattle off the list of results we achieved and get praise for that instead of having to put a number of hours out there when someone says “How many hours did you work this week?”

With the work culture the way it is, you could have worked 20 hours and achieved greatness in terms of your results, but the “20 hours” elicits judgment.  And so the cycle continues and we carry on with counting the number of hours we’re in the work environment as the number of hours we’re actually working.

If nothing else, we hope this exercise helps you see how ludicrous it is to focus on time…and prompts you to join the fight for a work environment focused solely on RESULTS!

Get your paper and pencil ready…and start counting…

About the authors: Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson are the creators of the Results-Only Work Environment, or ROWE™.  A Results-Only Work Environment is one where employees show up energized, disciplined, fluid, flexible, and focused – always ready to deliver the results necessary to drive the business. It is a bold, cultural transformation that permeates the attitudes and operating style of an entire workplace, leveling the playing field and giving people the ability to do whatever they want whenever they want as long as the work gets done.

They are also the founders of CultureRx, which offers customized consulting services and products tailored to the needs of their clients – companies and organizations committed to challenging the status quo for the benefit of a healthy workforce and ultimately, a healthy bottom line.

Their book, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It, was published by Portfolio, a Penguin Imprint, in June 2008.

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When it comes to performance reviews, results matter. Successful results. You don’t get rated higher on your performance review for your failures or for your mistakes.

Yet, when you look at what it takes to grow, you must get out of your comfort zone at work (and in life) and embrace that which is given to you — greater responsibilities, different work, new teams to perform the work.

Stretching your comfort zone means mistakes

As a child, we are constantly told that “practice makes perfect” and that we need to make mistakes in what we do because that is how we learn. Making mistakes becomes a liability only when we don’t learn from our mistakes.

Innovation, for example, requires many, many mistakes and false steps to get to the point of getting to success. Thomas Edison was famously quoted about how many times he failed to create a light bulb, but in today’s business, I don’t think he would have been around to brag about it. Nor would a light bulb been invented.

Companies don’t care about your growth and penalize you for mistakes

Companies don’t tolerate mistakes. When your performance review time comes around, what does your manager focus on? How great you kicked the goal out of the park or the three mistakes you made getting there? Indeed, company management wants you to consistently perform at a high level with associated high levels of perfection.

The paradox of growth and mistakes

In a sobering paradox on leadership in Fortune, Geoff Colvin notes:

Research has established that what turns average performers into great performers is a process of being continually pushed just beyond their current abilities, and then responding to the new challenges with focused efforts to overcome them, accompanied by abundant feedback about the results.

But constantly attempting what you can’t quite do, which is the essence of the process, is a recipe for trouble in most jobs. It means that you will inevitably make mistakes and have failures. Now if you ask accomplished businesspeople, as I have often done, whether they learned more from their successes or their failures, 100% of them will say the latter. But most employers don’t want to hear that your mistakes have been an absolutely necessary part of your growth. They just want you to perform.

So that’s what most people do in their jobs, operating entirely within their comfort zones and as a result not getting any better. We know this not just from observing it in our own workplaces but also from considerable research showing that most people improve rapidly in the early days of a given job, then plateau, and may continue for years thereafter without progressing.

This, then, is the challenge: how can management embrace the mistakes from pushing the envelope of our job performance in the performance review when nothing in the culture supports it?

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