Actively seek and embrace moments of confusion, as they signal a mismatch between your expectations and reality, providing a crucial opportunity to learn and update your understanding of yourself and the world.
During experiences, consciously check in with your physical and emotional feelings (e.g., engaged, agitated, threatened, curious) because these feelings serve as crucial clues to decipher your unconscious mental models and intuitions.
Consciously design your workday as a series of experiments with hypotheses to learn about your strengths and unleash your potential, rather than viewing it as just tasks, transforming problems into learning opportunities.
Take deep personal responsibility for your experiences by recognizing physical signs of confusion, then reflect on what you expected versus what happened, and question your underlying mental model to update your worldview.
When aiming to help others achieve greatness, begin with the fundamental belief that people possess inherent greatness within them, as this assumption is crucial for effective support.
When giving feedback, first clarify the standard of ‘good,’ then share your experience without blame, seek to understand their experience, collectively identify the performance gap between standard and reality, and finally, collaboratively figure out why the outcome occurred.
Deliver positive feedback by first clarifying the standard, then explicitly describing how their actions exceeded that standard, and explaining why their great performance mattered, helping them understand their strengths and their impact.
When confronting someone about their behavior, own your experience by stating ‘I’m experiencing you doing this’ or ‘This is what I’m seeing/feeling,’ then ask ‘Can you help me understand?’ to seek clarity without making accusations.
Intentionally slow down in the short term to gain clarity and provide thorough feedback, as this foundational work compounds over time, enabling greater speed and progress towards long-term goals.
Maintain a constant loop of learning by actively making sense of confusion, identifying insufficiencies in your mental models, reflecting on improvements, and redesigning your approach.
When encountering recurring problems or ‘dysfunction,’ seek to identify the underlying root cause or pattern that drives these different manifestations, rather than addressing each instance individually.
In interviews, act as a detective by asking fact-based, fundamental questions about past behaviors and experiences (what, how, why) related to successes and conflicts, rather than soliciting opinions, to gather concrete evidence for assessment.
As a manager, prioritize providing clarity to your team over attempting to control their actions, as clarity empowers individuals and reduces confusion.
Managers should invest time in clarifying organizational design, how things work, what ‘good’ looks like, cultural expectations, and outcome standards for themselves, and then consistently communicate these clarifications to their team.
Managers are responsible for guiding new hires through inevitable confusion to achieve clarity, understanding that the management job begins, not ends, with hiring.
During onboarding, over-index on high-quality feedback and communication, being explicit about standards and vision, asking good questions, and dedicating extra time for thorough conversations rather than relying on quick check-ins.
Onboard new hires by explicitly teaching an authentic culture statement that reflects actual organizational behaviors, not just aspirations or marketing.
Managers should continuously connect new hires’ confusion, mistakes, and outcomes to the authentic culture statement and behavioral expectations on a weekly basis, using culture as a diagnostic lens for real-time learning.
When creating job specifications, take extra time to visualize the role’s needs 9-12+ months into the future, considering company growth and evolving circumstances, rather than just focusing on past needs.
Managers should invest significant effort in collaboratively defining future-oriented job specifications, visualizing the role’s evolution to improve hiring confidence.
Evaluate the hiring manager’s experience and track record for the specific role type; if inexperienced, seek assistance from those with proven success to avoid poor hiring outcomes.
When selecting a recruiter, ask for evidence of their success in filling similar specific roles, inquire about their timeliness and effectiveness, and seek references from hiring managers they’ve worked with to assess the quality and retention of their placements.
Approach recruiter relationships as long-term partnerships, investing time to build trust and allow the recruiter to improve their understanding of your needs over time.
Consciously identify and address the most important problem in any situation, avoiding the bias of focusing only on recent or immediately apparent issues.
Approach every situation with the fundamental assumption that you are missing some information, as the mind constantly filters reality.
Develop personal mastery by building a deep understanding of your reactions in various situations, reflecting on past missed information, and applying those insights to current contexts.
Understand that many problems originate from your internal cognitive processes and perceptual filters, rather than solely from external circumstances, as your mind constantly filters complex information.
Invest heavily in thorough learning at the outset of a project or task, as this initial investment enables faster and more effective progress later on.
Recognize that simply spending time on tasks does not equate to efficient progress towards a goal; focus on learning and effective action rather than just activity.
When confused, resist the urge to tell yourself self-serving stories (e.g., blaming luck, unfairness, or others) to feel better, as these narratives obscure reality and prevent learning.
Develop the ability to catch yourself when engaging in unproductive narratives, recognize the pattern, and then consciously move beyond it to a more productive mindset.
Avoid focusing on fault, as it is generally unproductive and hinders learning and improvement.
When accused, recognize that the accuser is likely in confusion; respond by seeking clarity and data (e.g., ‘What are you saying? Can you help me understand that? Can you give me data?’) rather than reacting defensively.
Managers must avoid disengaging after a new hire starts; instead, recognize that onboarding is just the beginning of the job, not the end of the hiring pain.
Managers should actively guide new hires by being present, explicitly stating expectations, observing mistakes, providing structured feedback, helping them understand the environment, and setting up the job to avoid overwhelming them.
Managers should actively seek to identify and acknowledge hidden strengths in employees who may underestimate their own abilities, as many people are unaware of their true talents.
As a manager, dedicate significant time to identifying what your team members excel at and proactively calling out those strengths to help them unleash their potential.
Teach children from an early age that ‘you are not your mind,’ encouraging them to objectively observe their own thoughts and feelings, make sense of their experiences, and seek help in understanding their reality.
Be highly specific about the exact skill classes, experience ranges, and particular requirements for a role when engaging a recruiter, rather than using general job titles.
When assessing leadership teams externally, look for patterns where leaders take responsibility for outcomes, clarify situations, and consistently use bad outcomes as opportunities to drive future improvements and learning.
Ensure explicit clarity on organizational goals, defining precisely where the team or company is heading.
Clearly define and communicate how progress towards goals will be measured, ensuring individuals understand if they are making headway.
Managers must establish and clearly communicate expectations regarding the quality, frequency, and delivery method of feedback, as a robust feedback loop is essential for improvement.
Be explicit and clear about the specific behaviors that are accepted, rewarded, and punished within the organization, moving beyond ambiguous statements to define the ‘culture of reality’.
Leaders should proactively explain the rationale behind their decisions, behaviors, and outcomes to prevent confusion and negative interpretations among employees.
As an individual, actively seek out and commit to an environment (job, culture) where you can unleash your greatness, taking ownership of your personal journey and experiences within it.
Managers should primarily act as designers of systems and clarifiers of expectations, rather than focusing on being doers of tasks themselves.
Engage in a moment of reflection to question if your perception of reality is accurate, valid, and obvious to others, because these beliefs are often untrue.
Understand that humans are not purely rational actors and do not always make decisions based on impartial information, as this recognition helps in understanding motivations and improving potential.
When observing failure, resist the tendency to attribute it to a lack of intelligence, character, or motivation, as this is often an inaccurate diagnosis of the underlying issues.
Recognize that much of daily life is driven by intuitive, fast processing, snap judgments, and unconscious data filtering, rather than purely logical thought.
Intentionally place yourself in diverse situations to observe and decode your genuine emotional and physical responses, fully owning these experiences before attempting to make changes or improvements.
To unleash your potential, make self-improvement a primary goal by actively placing yourself in situations that help you understand your talents and purpose.
When trying new approaches or communication styles, frame them as experiments with a clear hypothesis, observe the outcomes, and then reflect to make sense of what occurred.
Employ hypotheses and view your day as a series of experiments to maintain focus and attention on your experiences, thereby avoiding autopilot behavior and promoting conscious learning.
After a meeting, immediately reflect on your physical and emotional feelings, especially negative reactions like tension or a sense of threat, as these indicate a discrepancy between your expectations and what actually occurred.
When confused, interpret it as an indication of the inadequacy of your mental model or applied beliefs, rather than a sign of external negativity or personal failure.
Avoid making generalizations about groups (e.g., generations); instead, focus on understanding individuals and designing systems that identify and unleash their unique potential.
Be aware that job applicants often struggle to accurately identify their own strengths, making it challenging to assess them based solely on their self-descriptions.
Understand that humans are generally poor at assessing others for jobs, often performing worse than random due to numerous unconscious biases.
Be aware that human minds struggle to connect causes and effects when there is a significant time gap between them, leading to misdiagnosis or excuses.