Peak performers defy old style psychometric tests in the activities where they excel. Why? They often demonstrate what appear to be paradoxes when they perform superb work.
When being interviewed by a psychologist, they may be asked if they are a visionary or have attention to detail. The peak performer may answer that they do both. This may not fit the psychometric system.
Great workers may demonstrate a variety of paradoxes. They may be intellectual and intuitive, serious and playful, confident and humble. They may be introvert but go into extrovert mode when leading other people.
Such people often believe in following certain principles. They are sometimes prepared to apply these in a pragmatic way, however, in order to get the desired positive results.
They are able to be both helicoptering and hands on in the areas where they excel. They are completely involved in the task, yet also hover above it to get perspective to see what is happening.
They sometimes have lopsided personalities. They are often see things clearly and are brilliant in the areas where they excel. They may be also not see things or be poor in other areas.
Such people are often positive realists. They have a positive attitude but are also good at reading reality. They are good at pattern recognition and quickly able to see both successful and unsuccessful patterns.
They may demonstrate a relaxed relentlessness. They are able to be relaxed but also relentless when doing superb work on the ways towards achieving their goals.
Al Siebert describes some of these qualities when studying life’s survivors. He recorded the characteristics of such people in his books The Survivor Personality and The Resiliency Advantage.
A paratrooper in the 1950s, Al met the few remaining survivors from a unit that had served in WWII and Korea. They weren’t the gung-ho types and had unusual qualities. He described these in the following way.
During our training I noticed that combat survivors have a type of personal radar always on scan. Anything that happens, or any noise draws a quick, brief look.
They have a relaxed awareness. I began to realize it wasn’t just luck or fate that these were the few who came back alive. Something about them as people had tipped the scales in their favour.
Al found that such people had good radar in certain situations. They seemed to know what would happen before it happened. They then applied their repertoire of skills to get the desired results.
Great workers are often extremely focused. When appropriate, however, they also choose to be flexible within a certain framework in order to achieve their goals.
Such people make complicated things look simple when doing certain activities. They may appear to do things slowly but they accomplish these more swiftly than other people. One person described this in the following way.
“Everything seems to slow down when I am doing certain activities. Others say that the situation seems chaotic. But I am able to get the heart of the matter quickly and get the desired results.”
Let’s return to your own work. What may be the specific situations where you embody what may appear to be paradoxes? How can you continue to put yourself into these situations and do superb work?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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