A heuristic is a decision-making shortcut we use to speed up our brain processes. Think: red means stop. This is a widely recognized heuristic that everyone is familiar with. If you see a red sign on a door, you hesitate because your brain has developed the shortcut that a red sign means stop when I’m moving. Leadership heuristics are a great way to make better decisions and assumptions in the moment. Decisions that build trust between you and your employees instead of degrading it. For me, believing my employees give their best effort is a simple heuristic I follow to make better decisions and build a positive environment.

When it comes to leadership, I assume my employees want to do good work. So, I assume they’re giving their best effort with positive intent. When I find a performance issue, I stop and use this heuristic to guide my response. I could assume my employee is being lazy and avoiding the work, or I could assume my employee doesn’t care about the work and the impact it has on their peers.

Now, if I default to assuming my employees give their best effort with positive intent. My initial thoughts lead me to wonder if I properly assigned the task, whether or not I provided enough training, or if I was available to provide additional support. In short, I take more ownership when I assume my employees want to and are trying to do the right thing.

Starting a conversation with an underperforming employee is a lot easier when I start by asking them how I can help them improve instead of labeling them as lazy and telling them to do better. If you assume someone is lazy, you’re also assuming they are capable and trained but don’t want to do the work. Imagine how an undertrained employee feels when they’re told to do better?

Assuming positive intent and effort allows you to build a team environment focused on sustainable performance. Your goal is to push and challenge your employees, but you have to give them clarity, support, and resources to meet your expectations.

Next time you’re dealing with a performance issue, ask yourself: Does my employee want to fail? In almost every case, the answer is no. So, what can I do to help them succeed?

Until next time,

Rick

P.S. I’d love for you to check out The Leadership Audit, something I’m working on to help make the workplace better for all employees! Any and all feedback is welcome!