How Amos Tversky and Thomas Gilovich Can Help You Cope With a Bad Performance Streak

2 famous psychologists Amos Tversky and Thomas Gilovich were giving a motivational psychology class to teachers and instructors from various walks of life.

The class was about how to inspire better performance from the people they were training and instructing.

Tversky and Giloch asked the class - should they praise someone’s performance to get them to perform better.

Or should they criticize someone’s performance to get them to perform better.
There were 2 Israeli aviation instructors among the students in the class.

They were quick to answer “criticize”.

Tversky and Gilovich told them they were wrong.

Praise was more effective.

The Israeli instructors said, “Sirs, we respectfully disagree. Back at the academy where we teach pilots to fly, we have found criticism to be more effective.”

They said, in their experience, whenever a student pilot performed an excellent flight, and they praised the student for their excellent performance after that flight, the student’s performance on the next flight dropped.

The praise seemed to cause the student to relax and slack off, rather than to be motivated to do even better.

And whenever they criticized a student pilot for a poorly performed flight, the student would almost always perform better on the next flight.

What else could this mean, but that the criticized students were stung by the criticism, and immediately improved their performance so they wouldn’t be criticized again?

The psychologists told the aviation instructors their facts were right.
But their interpretation of those facts was wrong.

The psychologists agreed that a student who had performed excellently on a flight was likely to perform less well on the next flight, and the student who had performed poorly on a flight was likely to perform better on the next flight.

However, they said the reason for the change in performance had nothing to do with criticism or praise.

It was related to statistical regression.

The students were just reverting to their natural level of performance.

Everyone has a natural level of performance.

We may perform above our natural level of performance at times, or below our natural level of performance at times, but we will return to our natural level of performance, which is the norm for us.

Thus a drop after an excellent performance, and an improvement after a mediocre one, is to be expected.

I find the concept of “a natural level of performance” very reassuring.

Because, whatever the current state of affairs - for instance, nothing I do is right, I know I have a natural level of performance I will return to.

If my performance is below par for a while, because I am going through a particularly tough time, or I am in the wrong environment, or I am still learning the ropes of a new skill-set, I know it’s just a question of time before my performance will return to my long term norm.

Likewise, when I suddenly blow it out of the water, and do exceptionally well, I don’t have to fret about not being able to repeat it, because even if I can’t do that, I can depend on my long term natural level of performance to see me through.

Common Ground Challenge

Your challenge this week is to find common ground between you and someone unexpected.

If it's someone who people might think (or even you might think) is poles apart from you, even better.

Just find 3 things that are common to both of you.

The more the better.

But even 3 things are enough.

This is my Common Ground Challenge.

I will kick it off...

Common Ground between me and Donald Trump:

Here are 5 things we have in common...

• We both love our daughters madly.

• We both don't drink.

• We both have birthdays in June.

• We both believe in the value of apprenticeship.

• We both believe in the prudent use of the tax code to manage money. 

Your turn to list 3 or more things you have in common with someone else.

Think. Think.  Who can you choose?

Start with someone who has the same birthday as you, or lives in the same city as you, or went to the same school as you, or lives in the same country as you, or likes the same books or music as you,or has the same hobbies as you. Anything at all.  Also you don't have to choose someone who is completely different from you. Feel free to choose anyone you can find 3-5 things in common with.

Send me your example of the Common Ground Challenge, so I can add it to this post.

Feel free to respond via Facebook, or by commenting on this post.

Can't wait. This will be fun. Who will pick up the gauntlet first? Will it be Rads, will it be Indu-bee, will it be Nina, or Ananda, or Brenda...or someone entirely new?

Ananda answers "What did I think I was going to do for a living?"

A guest post from Ananda Puranik

What did I think I was going to do for a living?

I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do.

One thing I was sure of, was what I didn't want to do.

I wanted to stay away from Government service.

I toyed with banking.

But instead, I joined advertising as an Account Executive.

My first client was Canara Bank.

It had been at the top of my wish list, when I considered going into banking.

An interesting coincidence.

By the way, "wish list" is a phrase I had never heard of, till on-line shopping ads made it so popular.

Back to my advertising story...

I soon started handling more accounts.

Including retail accounts such as GE (Gokaldas Exports). Gokaldas Exports would grow to become the largest manufacturer and exporter of apparel in India. Today, GE's clients are spread across the world, and include Nike, The North Face, Hollister, Forever 21, DKNY, Esprit, Abercrombie and Fitch, H&M, Reebok.

It feels good to know that I was a part of its early story.

My advertising job, which was new to me at first, became something I grew into, and got used to.

Soon, the sheer number of client verticals I was exposed to, straddling quite a few different categories, got me hooked.

So I just stayed on.

Back then, agencies were a one-stop shop, providing the complete umbrella of services.

Specialization wasn't the order of the day.

As an Account Executive, I was expected to know my clients inside out, and be able to get the best out of internal resources to meet my client's needs.

We were required to know the complete advertising process - from pre-press to production to print to media to billings to collections.

End to end.

Today advertising is far far different.

Now new entrants to the business hardly know the first 3.

And media is usually handled by a completely different entity, often an outside entity, with no connection to the agency.

The goals are different, the strategies are different, even the language is different.

As to whether I would have liked that, or coped with that, would be in the realm of conjecture, if not speculation.

Minoo's comments: Thanks, Ananda.  Readers, if you read Indu Balachandran's The Oops and Downs of Advertising, you will get a picture of what Ananda had to handle being an Account Executive. Lots of psychology and patience and heroic face-saves involved.

What did you think you were going to do for a living when you were young? And what happened to make you do something different? - Part 2

Quick - What do Ronald Reagan and I have in common?

We both have had second careers.

Being a Hollywood actor, and serving as president of the United States – those were Ronald Reagan’s 2 careers.

Being an advertising copywriter, and then a commissions analyst – these were my 2 careers.

I am not sure what inspired Ronald Reagan’s career change.

I know what inspired mine.

It was moving to America.

I moved to America in an existential crisis.

There was no planning involved.

Further, I came to America with a toddler in tow, and money to last me 3 months.

By hook or by crook, I had to find a job before the money ran out.

I spotted just one or two openings for copywriting jobs.

I applied.

I got a response to one of my applications.

Off to San Francisco, I went for the interview.

But I did not get the job.

Maybe looking in AdWeek would have been better.

But I did not know how to drive.

And I had an 11 month old to contend with.

So I decided to bite the bullet and get an Admin Assistant job.

First, I went to Goodwill Institute of Career Development.

There I learned the rudiments of the Microsoft Office suite of applications – Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint.

Just before my 3 months of money ran out, I got my first admin assistant temp job. Phew!

2 more admin assistant temp jobs followed, before I was to get my first permanent admin assistant job.

I became an Admin Assistant to a Sales Manager at Palm Inc, the company that made the Palm Pilot.

Palm was where my Commission Analyst career was born.

Here's how it happened...

After a few months of working at Palm, my boss wondered aloud at one of our one on ones, whether I might be better suited to a more challenging job.

I asked him, “Like what?”

He said Palm had tons of openings.

I should look at them.

Maybe there was something that would catch my eye.

I asked him, “Can you think of what might be suitable for me?”

“Yes,” he said, “Laura, over there is looking for a Commissions Analyst to join her Commission Accounting team. Go talk to her.”

Commissions Accounting - what’s that? I wondered.

Like in the story of my first career, where my boyfriend knew what copywriters did, but I didn’t, my boss knew what Commission Analysts did, but I didn’t.

Anyway, I went to Laura.

I didn’t even know if I was saying it right.

“I have come to see you about the Commission Analyst job. Andy told me you had an opening,” I said.

“What’s your background,” she asked me?

“I used to be an Advertising Copywriter in India, and I’ve been working for Andy as his Admin Assistant these past few months.”

She was incredulous.

“You don’t have the skills,” she said.

I was incredulous too, when I found out what the job involved.

It was all numbers.

I would have to calculate sales commissions, which was a numbers job, the whole day.

I had no experience with numbers.

I didn’t believe I had a talent for numbers.

And to tell you the truth, I wasn’t interested in numbers.

How could I, a words person, obsessed, besotted, in love with words, do an “all numbers” job like Commissions Accounting?

The suggestion from my boss I go to Laura, appeared kind, but misplaced.

But my boss didn’t let go of the idea.

I think he was keen to get me off his back.

Either that, or possibly, he just wanted me to be fruitfully occupied at work.

I had a lot of idle time on my hands, and he could see it was wearying me.

“Minoo, go back to Laura. Tell her you have free time. Tell her you will help her out, until she hires someone.”

So I went back to Laura.

She felt bad to turn me away.

After all, what harm was there in letting me help her till she hired somebody?

“Ok,” she said, “maybe you can help me with a few things. Let’s get started tomorrow.”

And that’s how it began.

My foray into Commissions Accounting.

Laura started giving me work to do.

And teaching me at the same time.

The work involved a lot of Excel.

Actually, advanced Excel.

I only knew the rudiments of Excel.

I just followed her instructions.

Frankly, I was scared to death.

But the fact I was just “helping till she found someone” took the pressure off.

I must have done alright.

Because after a short while, she said, “Minoo, I need to convert you from Andy’s assistant to a Commissions Analyst under me.”

The paperwork was processed.

Soon my business card read Minoo Jha, Commissions Analyst, Palm Inc.

Laura informed me she would be going out on maternity leave soon after.

When I heard her say that, I started panicking.

“Laura, how am I going to manage? I don’t understand any of the formulas.”

“Laura, if any of the formulas break, I won’t know how to fix them.”

“Laura, if a new hire comes on board, what will I do – I don’t know how to set up their statement?”

She put all these fears to rest.

“Don’t worry, Minoo, trust me you can do this.”

“Just copy the formulas from the existing sheets on to new sheets for new hires.”

“And if you break a formula, just look at one of the other spreadsheets and copy the formula over from there.”

“Trust me - you can do this.”

Those were the magic words.

Laura went out on maternity leave.

I found myself in the position of having to handle the commissions function at Palm entirely on my own.

The challenge both terrified and inspired me.

I knew the answer was to become really good at Excel.

So I did a Google search for ‘best books to learn Excel” and read reviews.

I decided there were 5 good books, each of which had different things to offer.

I got my boss to let me expense them.

The books arrived.

Every night after Tanita went to sleep, I would crack them open.

Soon, with the help of my 5 books, I mastered Excel.

And this once “words only” person stopped being terrified of doing a numbers job.

Laura never returned from maternity leave.

I handled the commissions function at Palm on my own for the next 5 years.

All the way until I moved to greener pastures.

I am still doing Commissions Accounting today.

Except I now do it as a Freelance Consultant.

So now you know the story behind my second career as well.

Not as exciting as Ronald Reagan’s second career.

But you can see there were many cliff-hanging moments for me, along the way.

P.S. Aren’t managers amazing? Laura took me on just because I had fire in my belly. She saw I just needed a little confidence and a little grooming and I would be on my way. She set me up for success. I am so grateful to her till today.

P.S. In response to my request on Facebook for the story of how you got into your career, Ananda came back with his story. Watch out for that in the next post.