Before you can release the handbrakes, you need to know what they are.

These four simple questions are the key to identifying handbrakes and unlocking Fulfilling Performance.

Image credit: Gerd Altmann

Hello fellow Enablers,

Last week I introduced the four fundamentals of Fulfilling Performance.

I shared the labels we use to name the fundamentals: Clarity, Capability, Culture and Purpose and I acknowledged how hard those single words were working to contain everyone’s different interpretations of them.

Is it just me or is this an exquisite irony?

I promised that this week I would give you the keys to the Fulfilling Performance kingdom in the form of four diagnostic questions.

I could have given you these questions on day one and, if you’d felt sufficiently inspired, you could have derived benefit right away.

But there were a few points I hoped we could be aligned on before I did that:

1. Many people are feeling pressure to deliver more from less.

2. People are most likely not using as much of their available talent, intelligence, creativity, capability and resourcefulness as they could be.

3. It’s ironic that the second “problem” in this list is the solution to the first.

4. This situation represents a terrible waste both financially and of human capability.

I wanted you to acknowledge the potential benefits if we could help people bring more of what they already have in them to their roles.

I wanted you to be excited by the prospect of how much more fulfilling and energising they might find their roles if they could bring more of themselves to tackling them.

I wanted you to consider how that type of experience from their work would translate into their behaviour with family and friends.

And I wanted you to wonder, like me, what was preventing them from doing so…

Four Diagnostic Questions

Whatever ideas you have had about what might prevent people from bringing more of what they’ve already got to their work, I’m confident they will fall into one or more of the four fundamentals of Clarity, Capability, Culture and Purpose. We will go into this in more detail in future.

For now though, without further delay, let me give you the four questions which will help you to assess the extent to which you are experiencing Fulfilling Performance now and help you to identify potential handbrakes that are holding you back.

You can use these questions to help you reflect on your own situation or that of someone you lead and care about.

It’s always helpful to start with ourselves so I’ll word them as if you are considering your own situation first.

1. Clarity question: How clear are you about what you are supposed to be doing and how you are doing against those expectations?

2. Capability question: How well equipped are you, in terms of knowledge, skills, experience, mindset and resources, to perform at a high level?

3. Culture question: How is the behaviour of the people around you (at home as well as work) helping you to perform at a high level?

4. Purpose question: How much does it mean to you what you are doing?

Each of these questions helps to define what we mean by our labels of Clarity, Capability, Culture and Purpose and helps us to explore what is happening for us right now with regard to each of those fundamental contributing factors to our performance.

A final fifth question

Having reflected on those questions, ask yourself:

How fulfilling is my role right now?

What’s next?

By going through this process I hope you will have identified how you can enable even more performance and fulfilment from what you are doing.

You may have come up with more questions than answers. If so, let me know!

How can I use these questions to enable Fulfilling Performance for my team?

Once you have used these questions to guide reflection on your own situation, you can also consider the situations of people in your team.

Before you even talk to them you can ask yourself the questions from their perspective. Be mindful that, when it comes to anyone else, you don’t have all the facts. There may be some glaringly obvious handbrakes but beware of making assumptions. You can explore their perspective with them through the lens of the Fulfilling Performance framework by discussing these questions in a one to one meeting.

There is more to a person’s performance than how good they are at something and how hard they try.

At school we would be graded for each subject on the teacher’s perception of our ability in that subject and the level of effort we were putting in. The paradigm that those are the two factors that determine performance has stuck with us.

When you explore another’s results and outcomes through the lens of the Fulfilling Performance framework you are better placed to take into account the additional external factors that contribute to their performance.

When we come up against external factors that are acting as handbrakes to Fulfilling Performance, we need to ask ourselves whether they are within our circle of influence i.e. I can do something about this or our circle of concern i.e. this concerns me but I am not in a position to influence it.

Some of those factors will be within their circle of influence and some will be within their circle of concern. Some of the ones within their circle of concern may be within your circle of influence as their manager or leader.

You may be able to find ways to enable Fulfilling Performance for them almost immediately, without needing any higher authority or budget.

I’m curious.

As I mentioned, I could have given you these questions in my first post and you’d have been able to work with them without needing to know any of the context.

I chose not to do that. Not because I knew it would be better this way but because I had a hunch that it would be more effective if you had some background.

This is an experiment I am doing in public, to share content via Substack that I’d typically do in a live environment with a team.

I’d love to know how this is landing with you and look forward to your comments and questions below.

Thank you,

Andy