"My company does not want to hear this."

Paul and I were interviewing one of our client's Top Performing Sales Executives last week as a key data point in our Role Excellence Profile (REP) process. To break the ice, and glean some basic demographic information about his accounts, their structure, and his assigned industry vertical, Paul asked our interviewee, "How many accounts do you manage and roughly how much revenue do they total?" Our Sales Executive didn't hesitate.

"Since last year's re-org, I went from 70 accounts to 44 and am accountable for $7.5 million in annual revenue."

That wasn't the impressive aspect. What floored me was the speed of his answer. When interviewing roughly two handfuls of his peers and asking them the same question, they pulled up various dashboards and gave estimates, after about a minute of scrolling through the data.

I pressed. "You seemed to know that almost immediately. Which of the 20 reports are you using to look up that data?"

"My company does not want to hear this," he shared, "but I created my own dashboard with hyperlinks to critical data that lies in disparate systems. It saves me time because it's all in one place and always current."

?The Power of Deviating from the Norm

• Top Performers often develop unique approaches that deviate from standard company templates and policies, the latter of which sometimes, and unintentionally, present barriers to performance.
• These deviations are not just anomalies, but critical insights that can be harnessed for broader success.
• Whether it be personal workflows, dashboards, "cheat sheets," or knowing who to go to "get things done" in a heavily matrixed organization, Top Performers' mental models can provide immense value and efficiency.

??The Importance of Anonymity and Trust

• "How is this different from the competencies and skills work we've just invested in," and "How do you ensure they (Top Performers) aren't just telling you what they think we (Leadership) want to hear?" are popular questions we receive from potential clients who are curious about our diagnostic.
• In our extensive work with Top Performers, we've found that they are often humbled and honored to be chosen for our interviews. It's sometimes the only time they hear that they are doing a great job! Our proprietary behavioral interview and case-based analysis approach put them at ease and truly uncover their mental model and approach to their work that makes a difference - and makes them great.
• Our assurance of anonymity and confidentiality, coupled with the fact that we are a third-party, also encourages employees to share their true, unfiltered practices. In fact, we often receive a wealth of artifacts from these Top Performers - tools and methods they personally developed that often surpass company-issued resources. These prove invaluable and reflect their genuine strategies for success, not just what they think leadership wants to hear.
• This unique combination of respect, confidentiality, and our proprietary behavioral interview and case-based approach practiced for over 40 years, allows us to capture authentic and actionable insights that can truly elevate organizational performance.

??????Extracting and Replicating Success

• Once Top Performer's insights have been identified, extracted, analyzed, and validated by both Top Performers and Leadership, they are cascaded throughout the organization to elevate overall performance. Given the importance of aligning hiring, onboarding, training, and performance managing to the new standard of excellence, typical derivative assets of the Role Excellence Profile include an enhanced job description, interview guide, coaching guide and action plan.
• Progressive companies go beyond creating static learning and development assets based upon our findings. Instead, they use our insights to create real-time nudges—systematic prompts and sales templates integrated directly into the CRM and other work tools. These nudges are designed based on the practices of Top Performers, enabling continuous learning and improvement without taking people away from their jobs to learn. By embedding these insights into the flow of work, organizations can elevate performance seamlessly and effectively.

??The Role of Leadership in Embracing Change

• Progressive leaders should not only want to hear these insights but also actively seek them out! Being OPEN to learning from your own "Positive Deviants" and considering how to integrate their successful practices into "official" templates, job aids, workflows, and performance support can lead to increased revenue, enhanced efficiency, and better decision-making.
• While our Top Performer interviewee thought his company didn't want to learn how he circumvented systems, our very partnership and their faith in our approach proved that they did. This requires leaders to abandon their ego and assumptions that they know what is responsible for their best's success and genuinely explore it.

??Call to Action:

• Leaders: Consider fostering a culture of openness and continuous improvement by actively learning from your top performers. What would be the impact?
• All readers: What is one "hidden" thing that you do that contributes to your sustained success? And what are your thoughts on this bulleted version vs. my lengthier narratives???