DANIEL GRISSOM

Over the last 15 years as I’ve been teaching people how to make

sound evaluations, I’ve noticed a consistency. It deals with where people

begin their evaluations. Top Performers begin with themselves and

Average Performers begin with the organization.

For example, starting at the bottom, top performers ask, “How can I

make a difference for my team and organization?” Starting at the top, with

the organization Average Performers ask, “How can my organization make

a difference to me?” The most effective evaluation is to begin with yourself,

then examine your team and organization.

Evaluating yourself or your organization means realistically looking

within and identifying not only strengths, but also weaknesses. Most

individuals and organizations are good at identifying strengths, but not

always so good at identifying weaknesses. Remember Garrison Keeler’s

Lake Wobegon community, “where the women are strong, the men are

good-looking, and all the children are above average.” It seems we all

tend to suffer from the Lake Wobegon effect where we see ourselves better

than we really are.

[pyramid visual]

The Lake Wobegon effect, also called better-than-average effect,

is a term used by psychologists to refer to the human tendency to

report flattering beliefs about oneself and believe that one is above

average. Many experiments have shown that most people believe

that they possess more desirable attributes than other people.

(From Wikipedia)

Countless studies looking at everything from driving to getting along

with other people show that most people rank themselves better than average,

even though statistically this is impossible.

In a study by Ola Svenson, 80% of students believed they were in the

top 30% of safe drivers. The reality suggested a quite different picture.

In 1987, John Cannell did a study that reported the statistically impossible

finding that all states claimed average student test scores above the

national norm.

One College Board survey asked 829,000 high school seniors to rate

themselves in a number of ways. When asked to rate their own ability to

“get along with others,” a statistically insignificant number – less than 1%

– rated themselves as below average. Further, 60% rated themselves in the

top 10% and 25% rated themselves in the top 1%.

How about you?

How accurate are self-evaluations?

Which will yours be?

DANIEL GRISSOM

[visual]

See the visual above. It illustrates that some sellers are quick to take

action, but they “Gamble” on their results because of their lack of preparation.

Some sellers prepare well and “Talk” a good game, but fail to act.

And of course, there are those sellers that do neither and are mere

“Spectators.”

However, “Achiever” performers are different. They slow down to plan,

then take strategic action. This is the combination of behaviors that produces

the best results.

Where would you plot yourself?

Are your results a warning or an example?

You should plan your Day the Night before.

THE POWER OF PLANNING

He who does not look ahead will remain behind.

CHINESE PROVERB

What’s the #1 factor that separates top performers from average performers?

According to research, by Dr. Peter Gollwitzer, Professor of

Psychology at New York University, the answer is Superior Preparation!

Dr. Gollwitzer conducted several studies that demonstrate the benefits

of making specific plans that outline when, where, and how to perform

an action. Dr. Gollwitzer argues that plans allow people to more easily

remember specifically what to do.

Here are the payoffs:

First, they don’t waste time trying to recall what it is they are going

to do. They’ve already made the commitment and decided what to do,

and in what situation, beforehand. When put to the test, they have little

trouble following that plan.

Second, people act more quickly when they have a plan to follow.

Third, when people have a plan, they can more easily ignore interruptions

and distractions. They are able to more easily focus on the task

at hand. In short, proper preparation empowers you to control your destiny

and improve results.16

Think about golf as an analogy. Every hole in golf is assigned a minimum

standard called “par.” That stands for the “average performance

results.” So shooting par is being average. Not bad, but of course you

can’t become a successful golfer (or anything) by merely shooting par.

How do the best golfers ensure they consistently perform above par?

They prepare!

How do they prepare?

They practice!

Anyone who is a Master at any endeavor understands that practice

improves performance. Master golfers have learned to expect a significant

return on their investment – the investment of their preparation time.

They know the difference between winning and losing is often only one

or two strokes. And the lack of practice can easily cost you one or two

strokes. This is true in sales and leadesrhip as well.

You don’t need to beat your competition by 10 strokes. You just need

to win by one or two strokes. Small improvements can produce big results.

You don’t win in the game. You win in the preparation.

___________________________

16. Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behavior by Gollwitzer, Peter M.

That’s a formula for disaster.

JIM ROHN

You could take action. You should take action. But you don’t take

action. Why is that?

One of the things individuals and organizations do which severely hampers

our results is to delay doing something. Procrastination is the “death

rattle” to results. We delay taking action, or we never quite finish what we

start. We get distracted and caught up in other things. We might even make

excuses for why we can’t or don’t take action or complete what we start.

There are two types of procrastination.

The first type of procrastination is behavioral. This is

characterized by distraction and avoidance. According to Joseph Ferrari,

author of Procrastination and Task Avoidance, procrastinators often delay

projects so they’ll have an excuse if they don’t do well. Ferrari says,

“Procrastinators view their self-worth as based solely on ability at a task. So

their logic says, “If I never finish the task, you can never judge my ability.”

Delaying projects also offers procrastinators a handy excuse if they

don’t do well. “They’d rather create the impression that they lacked effort

than ability,” says Ferrari. “They can blame it on the lack of time.”20

In fact, they will often handicap themselves to guarantee an excuse if

they perform poorly.

The second type of procrastination is decisional. This is the pattern

of postponing a decision when dealing with conflicts and choices. People

with high decisional procrastination are considered perfectionists. That’s

a smoke screen. They often seek perfection because it gives them an

excuse to take longer to make decisions.

A fascinating explanation of procrastination comes from Clarry Lay,

PhD, a professor of psychology at York University in Toronto and creator

of the General Procrastination Scale. Lay believes that procrastinators

simply have a different level of conscientiousness than most people.

Put simply: They think and act in terms of “wishes and dreams” while

non-procrastinators focus on “oughts and obligations,” he says. They are

also neurotically disorganized in their thinking, he says, making them

forgetful and less likely to plan well.20

Regardless of the cause, the results are the same – weak! You simply

can’t procrastinate and expect superior results.

Furthermore, a person who procrastinates eventually is overcome by

stress and guilt. The longer you put off doing something, the bigger that

thing becomes in your mind. And it doesn’t go away; it keeps coming

back. As soon as the first deadline is missed, the project or goal no longer

has integrity. It’s a lesser goal with diminished expectations. On the other

hand, since mastery is the steady improvement over time, your performance

and results can only get better by making the best decision possible

for right now. Procrastination says, “I’ll do tomorrow.” Mastery says, “I’ll

do it right now to the best of my ability.”

You have two choices:

1. Procrastination and Excuses, which lead to Mediocrity

2. Discipline and Execution, which lead to Mastery

YOU COULD. YOU SHOULD. AND YOU DID!

You’ve got to bring it to get it!

MAMA

What can you do to move from Procrastination to Implementation?

1. Break up the chunks.

Oftentimes procrastination results from trying to work

with too big a chunk. Your goal is too big, maybe even overwhelming.

If you want to lose 50 pounds for example, start by

focusing on losing 10 pounds. Once you’ve achieved that goal,

then set your sights on the next 10 pounds. If you’re aiming to

work on the treadmill for an hour each day, start by doing it for

10 minutes. Action is simply part of a process.

2. Take action now.

Imperfect action today is better than perfect tomorrow. Once

you take the first step, you’ll find the second and third step will

come more easily. You’ll begin developing a pattern, a habit, a

discipline that will help you achieve successively larger goals.

3. Leverage the power of NOW.

Now. Own. Won! The message of these interchangeable words

is take action now, take ownership for results now and you can

expect to win more and lose less.

Champions do daily what amateurs do occasionally.

___________________________

20. The Danger in Delay, David Jacobson, WebMD, November 27, 2000

TONY ROBBINS

Do you remember the story of Roger Bannister, the first person to break the

four-minute mile back in 1954?

If you’ll recall, the belief system at that time in track and field was

that it was humanly impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes.

No one had ever done it and the belief was that no one could ever do it. In

fact, medical journals and documented science said that the human heart

would literally explode inside the chest cavity if exerted to that rate.

But in 1954, amazingly, Roger Bannister defied the odds and broke

through these limiting beliefs and ran a four-minute mile. He is a prime

example of a STEP UP individual who embodies all six of the components.

Think about it. Bannister had won the race in his mind before the race had

even started in that:

1. He had an unwavering commitment to breaking the record

(High Standards).

2. He had the DNA or talent to do it and he knew how to leverage

his talent.

3. He was an expert evaluator – he figured out where the gap was

and how to close it.

4. He prepared, practiced, and broke the record several times in his

mind (he visualized the end result).

5. He took action – he ran the race and broke the record.

6. He hired a coach to help him unleash his potential.

After Bannister broke the record in 1954, guess what happened just one

short year later?

Thirty-seven other runners broke it. And the year after that over 200

people broke it. And today we see youths in high school and college

breaking it all the time.

So what really changed back in 1954?

It was his self-belief about what was possible that led to the breakthrough

results. Bannister had the hunger and a remarkable psychology

that helped him achieve a remarkable result. It was his mindset, not his

mechanics, that was the difference.

What’s your four-minute mile for you this year?

What’s the one belief that if you shifted could unleash your potential and

explode your sales results?

Your results should either applaud you or prod you.

JIM ROHN

How often should you evaluate your results?

Well, that depends. It depends on how often you want to achieve superior

results. If you want to consistently achieve the best results, then you

must consistently evaluate and measure your performance. Why? Because

too much time elapsed between measurements often translates into lost

opportunities and inferior results. The longer you wait the greater your risk.

There are three key questions you should ask yourself at the end of each

day, or at least once a week, to improve your performance and results.

[key questions visual]

Think about the investors on Wall Street. They must make effective

evaluations and keep score every moment of every day. They are disciplined

in asking themselves, “How’s my investment doing today? Should I

buy, hold or sell to improve results? What actions should I take to close the gap

between my actual and potential results?”

[results gap visual]

These daily questions help them to keep score, make mid-course

corrections and take the right actions to close the results gap. Consider

modeling this behavior to improve your performance and results. After

all, you are human capital. You are the ultimate asset in business. Are you

measuring the performance of your portfolio (stocks, bonds and 401k) more

frequently than your personal performance?

mental toughness will make him crack.

VINCE LOMBARDI

NFL Hall of Fame Coach

Top performers visualize their desired outcomes! Their success is never

a surprise to them because they experienced it first in their mind. They see

their success before they ever start a project. If you don’t see it, I promise

you no one else will either.

Put it this way, you’ll never achieve a result you haven’t already pre-

determined in your mind. If you are thinking, “this will never work,” it

won’t. You must see success. Envision yourself succeeding today, in your

next meeting, and over the next year.

Will it always happen?

No, but you’ll be stepping up for something more, and you’ll find

yourself succeeding more than ever before. After all, if you don’t have a

vision for yourself than you will fall victim to the vision that someone

else has for you.

Top performers have the psychology for results. When conditions

are against them, they succeed. Their psychology is geared solely for success.

When two similarly talented individuals compete, psychology wins.

Mental attitude will propel one of them to success. The question is: do you

have this successful psychology?

Top performers believe they’ll come out on top. Nothing is going to

stop them. Their psychology is always focused on nothing less than the

best. The market is bad? I increase my sales. My boss sabotages my efforts?

I succeed. The competition is too strong? Never. I win. Why? Quite simply,

because it all starts with me and a successful psychology.

Take a look at the following graphic. It illustrates that superior results

begin with a superior psychology or belief system. A superior belief system

leads to superior action and results.

[visual]

Think about it.

Can a salesperson earn $250,000 with a $75,000 belief system?

Of course not! A seller can never outperform or out earn the beliefs that

are inside his head. A belief is a feeling of internal certainty about the possibility

of achieving a result. The bottom line is self-limiting beliefs produce

limited results while unlimited beliefs produce unlimited results.

Let me share a true story with you about an athlete, which is a parallel

for the corporate athlete, who had an unlimited belief system and

achieved unbelievable results.

unwilling to raise their standards. Therefore, they remain bound.

JAMES ALLEN

As a Man Thinketh

Top performing athletes, like corporate athletes and entrepreneurial

tri-atheletes, set high standards for themselves and it shows in their

results. Consider Tiger Woods. He became a professional golfer at age

20. He won four of the first 15 tournaments he entered, which earned

him over $60,000,000 in prize money and endorsements that first

year. In 1997, he won his first Masters – the PGA’s most prestigious

tournament. Thereafter, Woods examined the videotape of his performance

and decided that his swing was not as good as it could be.

He decided to raise his standards on his personal performance.

Woods committed to perfecting his swing. This required him to first

re-engineer it. In doing so, his results initially took a dip for the worse.

He won only one tournament over the next 19 months.

Then what happened? In early 1999, Woods mastered his new swing.

He won 10 out of 14 tournaments and won six consecutively, which is

unheard of in golf. Later, Woods became only the fourth player in the

history of golf to win the Grand Slam, achieving these results before his

25th birthday!

What’s the moral of this story?

The moral of the story is that “good” is often the enemy of “great.”

Think about it. Tiger was already on top of his game, but he decided to

“step up” and raise his standards from “good to great!” As the graphic

illustrates, you must step up to the next level in order to achieve the next

level of results. Superior results aren’t reserved for the super-talented.

They’re available to anyone who is willing to step up and get on the path

to proficiency, then stay on it!

[chart]

So, what’s your golf swing?

In other words, what’s the one area of your behavior that, if mastered,

could explode your results in the next 12 months?

Do you have what it takes to Step Up to the next level of success?

If you’re a sales or marketing professional, then this Blog is the competetive edge you’ve been looking for.

I’ve helped top Fortune 500 companies like Google, IBM, Eli Lilly and more Step Up and achieve real results, and I can help you too.

I’ll be posting all kinds of tips and strategies to this Blog, where you can learn the “insider secrets” used by the most successful companies in the world to almost guarantee their success.

If you’re ready to begin your own road to success, visit http://www.stepupresults.com/ now and Step Up…before your competition does!