Excuse: I shouldn't have to suck up to my manager.
Reality: But you do have to report up. If they need to ask you about your work, you're already behind.
Excuse: My achievements should be recognized on merit alone.
Reality: They cannot be everywhere. So how exactly will they notice unless you tell them?
Excuse: They don't help when I bring them my problems.
Reality: They don't pay you to bring problems. They pay you to solve them.
Excuse: They're never available.
Reality: There is always time for people who are doing vital work excellently. Is that you?
Excuse: It's a waste of time. They're not technical.
Reality: But they have different perspectives and connections in the org. Leverage them.
High-performers know that managing up matters.
Keep it simple. Once a week:
- Reaffirm your goals
- Share the progress metrics
- Highlight problems & your solution
- Solicit specific feedback from them
The key: Answer the questions they didn't ask.
Want to learn the system I used to get my team to operate in this way?
Mistake: Hiring for skills, compromising on character.
Fix: Hire for values and compromise on skills, especially those you're good at developing.
Tip: Find the one behavior your company can't tolerate—screen for that first in the interview process.
Mistake: Confusing feedback for coaching
Fix: Follow a basic coaching process.
- Employee self-assesses
- Agree on the gap to close
- Build a plan of training & action
- Provide balanced feedback on the work
Tip: They'll follow a plan they write. Give them the pen.
In my decade working at Bridgewater, I constantly found myself giving the same advice.
"If you want to succeed, stop trying so hard."
Most were blind to a counterintuitive truth,
They had the right effort but the wrong elevation.
Here's how to adjust:
Like top athletes who enter slumps, the challenge occurs when they tense up and lose the fluidity that makes them succeed. They "squeeze the bat" too tightly, altering their swing. With every miss, the tension grows.
These executives were in a similar situation. They were making an outsized effort, but effort wasn't the problem. And so they spiraled.
To help them regain their mojo, we focused on one question: