End of Year Performance Reviews: Mental Health, High Performance and Building Adaptable Teams for an Uncertain Future.
(Note: This essay was first published in December 2023)
It’s the end of the year and (hooray!) we’re all doing performance reviews. This is a tough year to define what “high performing” means because of the incredible pace of change that we’re all navigating and I find myself reevaluating the types of thinking that are going to be valuable in the future. As I look ahead and try to define "high performance", these are the recurring themes I’ve been coming back to in recent conversations:
A.I. will change the face of business in 2024. Nobody can say exactly how it’s going to happen, but we all agree that it will.
Therefore we can reasonably predict that one of the most important definitions of “high performance” in 2024 will be the ability to innovate and to adapt to change.
To that end, I believe that we have an opportunity to better understand the impacts of different types of neurodiversity on cognition and performance as they relate to building adaptable teams.
Starting with neurodiversity and mental health, the more I learn, the more I realize how many of us have at least one diagnosable condition. At first, this is a sobering thought because my generation and previous ones tended to think of mental health as binaries singed in stigma – Conventional wisdom said that you are either afflicted or you are not, and if you are it is bad and there is no positive outcome in a life including such a diagnosis.
I’ve learned there is a different, more modern view of mental health that puts conditions on a spectrum rather than stuck in a binary and I’ve been thinking a lot about mental health as it correlates to modern business performance. Both in my first-person experience and in the context of the people I work to support.
This way of thinking has led me to ask myself how I can leverage my own behavioral patterns, my neurodivergence if you will, for best effect? And, as a leader in my late 40’s, how can I support younger generations who are likely to have a more open approach to mental health? Questions like those have lead me to consider the following hypothesis:
I’ve learned that recognizing the true complexity of mental health means also recognizing the unique strengths possessed by many individuals with neurodivergent traits that can lead to fresh perspectives, exceptional performance and rolling innovation. Perspectives, performance and innovation that I believe will become even more valuable in an A.I. dominated world.
I spent last weekend tinkering with my this thesis and put together five (the PSG loves to think in fives) examples of behavioral traits that we might see in ourselves and in those we manage, along with famous examples of how those specific behaviors can contribute to high performance in various business sectors. Each of these conditions is something that either I have first person experience managing or that I have worked closely with business partners who have managed them.
Habit of Jumping from One Activity to Another Without Completion:
This trait, sometimes seen as a lack of focus, often reflects a mind brimming with creativity. For instance, Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, demonstrates the success that can come from a dynamic and multifaceted approach to business. His ability to innovate across different industries highlights the power of versatile and creative thinking in entrepreneurship.
Reluctance to Deviate from Routine and Challenges in Social Settings:
Often mistaken for inflexibility, this can indicate a strong capacity for detailed and meticulous work. Dr Temple Grandin and Bill Gates, both could have been described this way and yet they both revolutionized their industry, showcasing the importance of methodical thinking in work that revolutionized entire sectors of the economy.
Difficulty Processing Detailed Written Information:
While seen as a challenge in traditional settings, this trait can coincide with remarkable intelligence, spatial reasoning and storytelling skills. Albert Einstein famously struggled in his early education and Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, despite his challenges with traditional learning methods, has revolutionized the film industry with his imaginative storytelling and visual narration, proving the value of strategic and visual thinking in creative fields.
Radical Variations in Enthusiasm and Engagement Levels:
Nobody desires unpredictability in a business setting, but we all want passionate leadership and sometimes they go hand in hand. Winston Churchill, who led Britain to victory in World War II, is to many the embodiment of passionate and dynamic leadership, especially during times of crisis, and his ability to harness his cognitive highs was a key factor in his effectiveness as a leader. And some of the best creatives we’ve ever seen have also had radical highs and lows. Nina Simone, the renowned musician and civil rights activist, exhibited intense emotional depth in her work, demonstrating how such emotional intensity can fuel creativity and impactful change.
Excessive Focus on Minor Details, Often at the Expense of the Bigger Picture:
Misconstrued as a lack of creativity, this focus on details can actually reflect strong organizational skills. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., is known for his meticulous attention to operational details, which has been crucial in scaling Apple's growth while maintaining high quality, illustrating the significant impact of detail-oriented thinking in business leadership.
Back to my hypothesis...
I deeply appreciate the more modern and nuanced understanding of mental health that is developing around us every day. For the manager, matching team members with the tasks that they are most likely to succeed in is fundamental to high quality modern leadership. Done well, this fosters a workforce that is therefore more creative and resilient, traits that are clear drivers of innovation and efficiency.
And to me, resiliency, innovation and efficiency matter more now than ever. As we move into a new year where A.I. will organize and output nearly any information we could ever need, the challenge for leaders and organizations will be to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions means having the best perspectives and in this context, organizations have a counter-productive tendency to self-select into similar ways of thinking.
And for each of us individually, our ability to understand the true source of our strengths (which sometimes comes from our neurodivergence) allows us to align more elegantly with our true selves and to communicate and implement those strengths more effectively with the teams and communities we serve.
(Special thanks to Dr. Erika Czerwinski, James Schoonmaker, and Jens Jensen for their perspectives and pushes on this line of thinking)