Page 144 - Hard Goals

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basic team nucleus. Now, who was the highest performer on that
team? Even non-basketball fans know the answer is Michael
Jordan. Who was the next highest performer? Scottie Pippen.
Even just taking into account those two all-time great play-
ers, there was a signifi cant difference in their respective perfor-
mance. There were certainly middle performers on those teams,
but I won’t bother to name them. (All right, the truth is I don’t
really remember all their names. And if I only name two or
three I’ll miss the rest, but that’s just further evidence that they
were, in fact, middle performers.) And there were also low per-
formers, most of whom rode the bench or got traded. So, if one
of the best professional basketball teams in history has high,
middle, and low performers, it’s a safe bet that your teams and
work associates do too.
Now that you’ve identifi ed the high, middle, and low per-
formers in the group, here’s the exercise. Jot down some of
the characteristics of the low performers. That is, if somebody
asked you to describe why you consider this person to be a low
performer, what would you say? For example, you might say
he or she is negative, or stirs up trouble, or only does the bare
minimum, and so forth. If you’re having trouble deciding who’s
a low performer, here’s a quick exercise: ask yourself who causes
you the most emotional pain. While there can be different types
of low performers, more often than not these people function
like emotional vampires. They don’t usually suck your blood,
but they will suck the life out of you. (Although I hear vampires
are cool again, so who knows what they’ll do?) These are the
folks that make you glad when there’s rush hour traffi c because
it gives you a few extra minutes by yourself in your car without
having to deal with them.