The biggest negative impact on performance is an attitude of pessimism. And not many things make a bigger impact on our attitude than the language that we use. When we treat adversity as PERMANENT (�this always happens to me�), PERVASIVE (�this is going to ruin my whole day�) and PERSONAL (�this happened because I�m no good�), then we set ourselves up for pessimism and poor performance. When we use language that is Temporary, Specific and External, we start to make a difference.

This is based on the groundbreaking work of Martin Seligman who continues to get amazing outcomes using his methods.

Let�s break this down for a second and look at the alternatives:

PERMANENT vs TEMPORARY

�This always happens to me.� This essentially says that there is no use in trying to change it because it will always happen.

�This doesn�t usually happen. I wonder if there�s a way I can change it next time.� This actually puts some optimism in the conversation and forces us to look for ways to change the future outcome.

PERVASIVE vs SPECIFIC

�This is going to ruin my whole day� This puts you in a terrible mood and often makes associations based on flawed logic. Just because you got a bad phonecall in the morning, doesn�t mean that the whole day is going to be ruined.

�Oh, well, this will create some other opportunities� This language puts us on the lookout for a positive event and stops us using the negative perception as an anchor for future events

PERSONAL vs EXTERNAL:

�This happened because I�m no good� This deals, like the other language, in absolutes. If you are no good, then what�s the point in trying? This will keep happening regardless of what you do, so you don�t bother doing anything different.

�I wasn�t able to do that because I didn�t have the skills for that situation�. Now, this is something changeable. If you don�t have the skills then you can acquire them. It can be different in the future.

Only 5% of People can actually recite vision:

While speaking at a lunch the other day, I asked the same questions I ask every audience:

1) Who has a company Vision?

At this point the entire audience raises their hands. The other day, there were two hundred people in total, and I couldn�t see one person without their hand up in the air.

Then comes the follow up question:

2) Who can clearly articulate that Vision? And I mean, come up on the stage, take the microphone for 60 seconds and let everyone know what the Vision is and what it means.

Now at this point, without fail, only about 5% of the room puts their hands in the air.

This is disturbing.

The $5m Question:

After all, almost every organisation has a Vision, but why do we create these? Is it just something to put on the wall and walk past every now and then? Clearly not. We build a Vision in order to guide people�s actions and inspire them to turn up to work everyday.

There is something I like to call the �5 Million Dollar Question�. Put simply, it�s this: if one of your employees won $5 million today, would they still turn up to work tomorrow. The answer for most organisations is �no way�. But a clear vision that inspires people and causes them to come to work everyday with a sense of purpose has the potential to supersede financial motivation.

So where do we go so wrong?

A compelling vision needs three main attributes if we really want it to do it�s job:

1) It needs to be EMOTIONAL
It has to appeal to people�s emotions in order to incite the kind of motivation and purpose that people really want. Without an emotional response, the next two factors are hard to execute.

2) It needs to be MEMORABLE
The Vision needs to be constructed so that people can recall it easily. One of the key roles of Vision is to shape people�s actions. And since we make choices on an hourly basis about the behaviours we undertake, the guiding Vision needs to be front of mind so that people make the right choice more often than not

3) It needs to be CREDIBLE
Without credibility, people won�t believe. If it�s too far fetched, has no evidence or is something that didn�t work in the past, then be prepared for people to actually disengage.

So these are the three main criteria that a Vision needs to fulfil. If yours doesn�t match up, then scrap it and start again. Don�t keep the Vision alive just because it�s always been there.

In the next few posts, I am going to elaborate on each of the three factors and talk about the usual stumbling blocks that people face.

We are six days into the new financial year in Australia, and some teams will still be waiting on their objectives for the year. If this applies to your team, expect them to be unproductive – it’s more harmful than you think.

The research: Two research groups. One is set a specific performance target, the other is merely told to �do your best�. The specific group outperforms the �do your best� group almost every time. Even when the goal is set low. (you can read one of the papers here)

Despite this, there are many teams around the world who will not get their formal targets until about three months or so into this new financial year. It amazes me that this is allowed to happen.

If you are responsible for setting targets for your people and are thinking that it won�t make much of a difference if you hang off for a while, consider there consequences:

1. You will see decreased productivity for the next few months, but that�s just the start
2. There will be more focus on the fact that they haven�t got targets than there will be on trying to do their best work
3. Activity won�t be as targeted and by the time you get the targets to your people it will take them at least another three to four weeks to get their plans formulated and gather some momentum
4. While they are less productive for the next couple of months, this will put enormous pressure on them for the remainder of the year, as they play catch up with their targets

If you think it doesn�t matter that your teams don�t get their objectives for another month or so, think again.