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Virtually feedback accentuates the negative. During formal employee evaluations, discussions invariably focus on "opportunities for improvement," even if the overall evaluation is laudatory. Informally, the sting of criticism lasts longer than the balm of praise. Multiple studies take shown that people pay smashing attention to negative information. For case, when asked to recall important emotional events, people call up iv negative memories for every positive one. No wonder virtually executives requite and receive performance reviews with all the enthusiasm of a child on the way to the dentist.

Traditional, corrective feedback has its place, of form; every organization must filter out failing employees and ensure that anybody performs at an expected level of competence. Unfortunately, feedback that ferrets out flaws tin can lead otherwise talented managers to overinvest in shoring up or papering over their perceived weaknesses, or forcing themselves onto an ill-plumbing equipment template. Ironically, such a focus on problem areas prevents companies from reaping the best performance from its people. After all, it's a rare baseball histrion who is equally good at every position. Why should a natural third baseman labor to develop his skills as a right fielder?

Why should a natural 3rd baseman labor to develop his skills every bit a right fielder?

The alternative, as the Gallup Organization researchers Marcus Buckingham, Donald Clifton, and others accept suggested, is to foster excellence in the third baseman by identifying and harnessing his unique strengths. It is a paradox of human psychology that while people call up criticism, they respond to praise. The former makes them defensive and therefore unlikely to change, while the latter produces confidence and the desire to perform ameliorate. Managers who build upwardly their strengths can reach their highest potential. This positive approach does non pretend to ignore or deny the problems that traditional feedback mechanisms identify. Rather, it offers a separate and unique feedback feel that counterbalances negative input. Information technology allows managers to tap into strengths they may or may not be enlightened of and then contribute more to their organizations.

During the past few years, nosotros have developed a powerful tool to assistance people understand and leverage their individual talents. Called the Reflected Best Self (RBS) practise, our method allows managers to develop a sense of their "personal best" in order to increase their future potential. The RBS practise is but ane case of new approaches springing from an area of research chosen positive organizational scholarship (POS). Just as psychologists know that people respond better to praise than to criticism, organizational behavior scholars are finding that when companies focus on positive attributes such as resilience and trust, they can reap impressive bottom-line returns. (For more on this research, run across the sidebar "The Positive System.") Thousands of executives, every bit well as tomorrow's leaders enrolled in business schools around the world, accept completed the RBS do.

Positive organizational scholarship (POS) is an area of organizational behavior research that focuses on the positive dynamics (such as strength, resilience, vitality, trust, and then on) that lead to positive effects (like improved productivity and performance) in individuals and organizations. The discussion "positive" refers to the discipline'south affirmative bias, "organizational" focuses on the processes and conditions that occur in group contexts, and "scholarship" reflects the rigor, theory, scientific procedures, and precise definition in which the arroyo is grounded.

The premise of POS research is that past understanding the drivers of positive beliefs in the workplace, organizations tin can rise to new levels of achievement. For example, research by Marcial Losada and Emily Heaphy at the Academy of Michigan suggests that when individuals or teams hear five positive comments to every negative one, they unleash a level of positive energy that fuels higher levels of individual and group functioning. Kim Cameron, a POS researcher, has demonstrated how this positive approach has helped the workers at Rocky Flats, a nuclear site in Colorado, tackle difficult and dangerous work in record time. Begun in 1995 and estimated to accept 70 years and $36 billion, the Rocky Flats cleanup project is at present slated for completion in x years, with a toll tag of less than $7 billion. Kaiser-Hill, the company in accuse of the cleanup, replaced a culture of deprival with one that fostered employee flexibility and historic achievements. The result was that employees developed new procedures that were fast, smart, and safe.

POS does not adopt one particular theory or framework but draws from the total spectrum of organizational theories to explain and predict loftier functioning. To that finish, a cadre part of the POS mission is to create cases, tools, and assessments that can help organizations improve their practices. The Reflected Best Self practice is just one case of the kinds of practice tools bachelor from POS. (For more data about POS, see the University of Michigan'south Web site at www.bus.umich.edu/positive/.)

In this article, we will walk yous through the RBS exercise pace-by-step and describe the insights and results it can yield. Earlier nosotros proceed, however, a few caveats are in society. First, empathise that the tool is not designed to stroke your ego; its purpose is to assistance you in developing a plan for more effective activeness. (Without such a program, you'll keep running in identify.) Second, the lessons generated from the RBS exercise can elude y'all if yous don't pay sincere attention to them. If you are too burdened by time pressures and chore demands, you lot may just file the information away and forget about it. To be effective, the exercise requires commitment, diligence, and follow-through. It may even be helpful to have a passenger vehicle proceed y'all on task. Third, it's of import to acquit the RBS practice at a unlike fourth dimension of year than the traditional performance review so that negative feedback from traditional mechanisms doesn't interfere with the results of the exercise.

Used correctly, the RBS exercise can help you tap into unrecognized and unexplored areas of potential. Armed with a constructive, systematic process for gathering and analyzing data about your all-time self, you tin burnish your performance at piece of work.

Step 1

Identify Respondents and Ask for Feedback

The kickoff job in the practice is to collect feedback from a variety of people within and outside work. By gathering input from a variety of sources—family unit members, past and present colleagues, friends, teachers, and then on—you lot can develop a much broader and richer agreement of yourself than y'all can from a standard performance evaluation.

Every bit we describe the process of the Reflected Best Self practice, nosotros will highlight the experience of Robert Duggan (non his real name), whose self-discovery process is typical of the managers we've observed. Having retired from a successful career in the armed services at a fairly young age and earned an MBA from a elevation business schoolhouse, Robert accepted a midlevel direction position at an IT services firm. Despite strong credentials and leadership experience, Robert remained stuck in the same position year after year. His performance evaluations were by and large proficient simply non strong plenty to put him on the high-potential track. Disengaged, frustrated, and disheartened, Robert grew increasingly stressed and disillusioned with his visitor. His workday felt more than and more like an episode of Survivor.

Seeking to improve his performance, Robert enrolled in an executive education program and took the RBS exercise. Equally part of the exercise, Robert gathered feedback from 11 individuals from his past and present who knew him well. He selected a diverse but counterbalanced group—his married woman and two other family members, two friends from his MBA programme, ii colleagues from his fourth dimension in the army, and 4 current colleagues.

A critical step in the Reflected Best Self exercise involves soliciting feedback from family, friends, teachers, and colleagues. E-mail is an effective way of doing this, non only because it's comfy and fast only also because it's easy to cut and paste responses into an assay table such as the one in the primary body of this article.

Below is the feedback Robert, a manager nosotros observed, received from a current colleague and from a former coworker in the regular army.

From: Amy Chen

To: Robert Duggan

Field of study: Re: Asking for feedback

Honey Robert,

One of the greatest ways that yous add together value is that yous stand for doing the right affair. For example, I think of the time that nosotros were behind on a project for a major client and quality began to slip. You called a coming together and suggested that nosotros had a choice: We could either pull a C past satisfying the bones requirements, or we could pull an A by doing first-class work. You lot reminded usa that we could contribute to a better outcome. In the end, we met our deadline, and the customer was very happy with the consequence.

From: Mike Bruno

To: Robert Duggan

Subject: Re: Request for feedback

I of the greatest ways you add value is that you persist in the confront of adversity. I remember the fourth dimension that we were both leading troops nether tight security. Nosotros were getting conflicting information from the ground and from headquarters. You pushed to get the basis and HQ folks to talk to each other despite the tight fourth dimension pressure. That information saved all of our lives. You lot never lost your at-home, and you never stopped expecting or enervating the best from everyone involved.

Robert and so asked these individuals to provide information nearly his strengths, accompanied by specific examples of moments when Robert used those strengths in ways that were meaningful to them, to their families or teams, or to their organizations. Many people—Robert among them—feel uncomfortable asking for exclusively positive feedback, particularly from colleagues. Accustomed to hearing about their strengths and weaknesses simultaneously, many executives imagine any positive feedback volition be unrealistic, even false. Some as well worry that respondents might construe the asking as presumptuous or egotistical. But once managers accept that the exercise will assist them amend their performance, they tend to swoop in.

Within 10 days, Robert received email responses from all 11 people describing specific instances when he had made important contributions—including pushing for high quality under a tight deadline, beingness inclusive in communicating with a diverse grouping, and digging for disquisitional information. The answers he received surprised him. As a war machine veteran and a technical person holding an MBA, Robert rarely yielded to his emotions. But in reading story after story from his respondents, Robert institute himself deeply moved—every bit if he were listening to beholden speeches at a party thrown in his honor. The stories were also surprisingly disarming. He had more strengths than he knew. (For more on Step 1, refer to the exhibit "Gathering Feedback.")

Step 2

Recognize Patterns

In this pace, Robert searched for mutual themes among the feedback, adding to the examples with observations of his ain, then organizing all the input into a table. (To view parts of Robert's table, run into the exhibit "Finding Mutual Themes.") Like many who participate in the RBS practice, Robert expected that, given the diversity of respondents, the comments he received would exist inconsistent or even competing. Instead, he was struck past their uniformity. The comments from his wife and family unit members were similar to those from his army buddies and piece of work colleagues. Everyone took notation of Robert's backbone nether pressure level, loftier upstanding standards, perseverance, marvel, adaptability, respect for variety, and team-edifice skills. Robert suddenly realized that even his small, unconscious behaviors had made a huge impression on others. In many cases, he had forgotten nearly the specific examples cited until he read the feedback, because his behavior in those situations had felt like second nature to him.

The RBS exercise confirmed Robert'south sense of himself, only for those who are unaware of their strengths, the exercise can exist truly illuminating. Edward, for example, was a recently minted MBA executive in an automotive firm. His colleagues and subordinates were older and more experienced than he, and he felt uncomfortable disagreeing with them. Just he learned through the RBS exercise that his peers appreciated his candid alternative views and respected the diplomatic and respectful manner with which he fabricated his assertions. As a event, Edward grew bolder in making the case for his ideas, knowing that his boss and colleagues listened to him, learned from him, and appreciated what he had to say.

Other times, the RBS exercise sheds a more nuanced light on the skills i takes for granted. Beth, for case, was a lawyer who negotiated on behalf of nonprofit organizations. Throughout her life, Beth had been told she was a good listener, merely her exercise respondents noted that the interactive, empathetic, and insightful manner in which she listened made her specially effective. The specificity of the feedback encouraged Beth to take the atomic number 82 in future negotiations that required frail and diplomatic communications.

For naturally analytical people, the analysis portion of the do serves both to integrate the feedback and develop a larger motion picture of their capabilities. Janet, an engineer, thought she could study her feedback every bit she would a technical drawing of a break bridge. She saw her "reflected best cocky" as something to interrogate and ameliorate. Just every bit she read the remarks from family unit, friends, and colleagues, she saw herself in a broader and more man context. Over time, the stories she read about her enthusiasm and beloved of design helped her rethink her career path toward more managerial roles in which she might lead and motivate others.

Step three

Etch Your Self-Portrait

The next step is to write a description of yourself that summarizes and distills the accumulated information. The description should weave themes from the feedback together with your self-observations into a composite of who yous are at your best. The self-portrait is not designed to be a complete psychological and cognitive profile. Rather, it should be an insightful image that you lot can use as a reminder of your previous contributions and equally a guide for future activeness. The portrait itself should non be a set of bullet points only rather a prose composition beginning with the phrase, "When I am at my best, I…" The procedure of writing out a two- to four-paragraph narrative cements the image of your best self in your consciousness. The narrative form also helps you draw connections between the themes in your life that may previously take seemed disjointed or unrelated. Composing the portrait takes time and demands conscientious consideration, but at the cease of this process, you should come away with a rejuvenated image of who you are.

In developing his self-portrait, Robert drew on the actual words that others used to describe him, rounding out the picture with his own sense of himself at his best. He excised competencies that felt off the marker. This didn't hateful he discounted them, only he wanted to assure that the overall portrait felt authentic and powerful. "When I am at my best," Robert wrote,

I stand by my values and can become others to sympathize why doing so is important. I cull the harder right over the easier wrong. I enjoy setting an example. When I am in learning mode and am curious and passionate most a project, I tin work intensely and untiringly. I bask taking things on that others might exist afraid of or run into as too difficult. I'm able to set limits and notice alternatives when a current approach is not working. I don't always assume that I am right or know best, which engenders respect from others. I try to empower and requite credit to others. I am tolerant and open to differences.

Equally Robert adult his portrait, he began to understand why he hadn't performed his best at work: He lacked a sense of mission. In the army, he drew satisfaction from the knowledge that the safe of the men and women he led, besides as the nation he served, depended on the quality of his work. He enjoyed the sense of teamwork and variety of problems to be solved. But as an IT managing director in accuse of routine maintenance on new hardware products, he felt bored and isolated from other people.

The portrait-writing procedure also helped Robert create a more vivid and elaborate sense of what psychologists would telephone call his "possible cocky"—not just the person he is in his day-to-twenty-four hours task but the person he might be in completely different contexts. Organizational researchers have shown that when we develop a sense of our best possible self, nosotros are better able make positive changes in our lives.

Stride 4

Redesign Your Job

Having pinpointed his strengths, Robert'southward next pace was to redesign his personal job description to build on what he was adept at. Given the fact that routine maintenance work left him cold, Robert'south challenge was to create a better fit between his work and his best self. Like virtually RBS participants, Robert found that the strengths the exercise identified could exist put into play in his current position. This involved making pocket-sized changes in the way he worked, in the composition of his team, and in the manner he spent his time. (Most jobs have degrees of liberty in all iii of these areas; the fob is operating inside the stock-still constraints of your chore to redesign work at the margins, allowing you to meliorate play to your strengths.)

Robert began by scheduling meetings with systems designers and engineers who told him they were having trouble getting timely information flowing between their groups and Robert's maintenance team. If communication improved, Robert believed, new products would not proceed to be saddled with the serious and costly maintenance issues seen in the by. Armed with a advisedly documented history of those maintenance bug equally well as a new agreement of his naturally analytical and creative team-building skills, Robert began meeting regularly with the designers and engineers to brainstorm better ways to foreclose problems with new products. The meetings satisfied two of Robert'southward deepest best-self needs: He was interacting with more people at work, and he was actively learning almost systems design and applied science.

Robert'southward efforts did not become unnoticed. Key executives remarked on his initiative and his power to collaborate across functions, as well as on the critical role he played in making new products more reliable. They also saw how he gave credit to others. In less than nine months, Robert's hard work paid off, and he was promoted to plan manager. In addition to receiving more pay and higher visibility, Robert enjoyed his work more. His passion was reignited; he felt intensely live and authentic. Whenever he felt down or lacking in energy, he reread the original e-mail feedback he had received. In difficult situations, the electronic mail messages helped him feel more resilient.

Robert was able to leverage his strengths to perform meliorate, simply there are cases in which RBS findings disharmonize with the realities of a person'southward job. This was true for James, a sales executive who told us he was "in a world of injure" over his piece of work situation. Unable to meet his ambitious sales goals, tired of flying around the globe to fight fires, his family unit life on the verge of collapse, James had suffered enough. The RBS do revealed that James was at his all-time when managing people and leading change, simply these natural skills did not and could not come into play in his electric current task. Non long after he did the exercise, he quit his loftier-stress position and started his own successful company.

Other times, the findings help managers aim for undreamed-of positions in their own organizations. Sarah, a high-level administrator at a university, shared her best-self portrait with key colleagues, asking them to help her place ways to better exploit her strengths and talents. They suggested that she would be an ideal candidate for a new executive position. Previously, she would never have considered applying for the job, believing herself unqualified. To her surprise, she handily beat out the other candidates.

Beyond Adept Enough

We have noted that while people remember criticism, awareness of faults doesn't necessarily interpret into improve performance. Based on that agreement, the RBS exercise helps yous call back your strengths—and construct a plan to build on them. Knowing your strengths as well offers you a better agreement of how to deal with your weaknesses—and helps yous gain the confidence you lot need to address them. It allows you lot to say, "I'm peachy at leading but lousy at numbers. And so rather than teach me remedial math, become me a good finance partner." It also allows you to exist clearer in addressing your areas of weakness as a manager. When Tim, a fiscal services executive, received feedback that he was a great listener and coach, he too became more than aware that he had a tendency to spend as well much time being a cheerleader and too little time keeping his employees to task. Susan, a senior advertising executive, had the opposite problem: While her feedback lauded her results-oriented direction arroyo, she wanted to exist sure that she hadn't missed opportunities to requite her employees the infinite to acquire and brand mistakes.

In the end, the strength-based orientation of the RBS exercise helps yous get past the "good enough" bar. Once you observe who you are at the top of your game, you lot tin use your strengths to better shape the positions you choose to play—both now and in the next phase of your career.

A version of this article appeared in the January 2005 upshot of Harvard Business Review.