Guaranteeing Performance Improvement: A Purely Practical Positive Approach

Models for Success 129

Positive CORE: A New Approach

to Performance Improvement

Another model that is very useful is called Positive CORE.

3

Here is an analogy: Anyone who exercises regularly or works

out with a personal trainer knows that a major focus of high-

level fitness is to have a strong core. Your core is defined as

your abdominal, hip, and back muscles, which basically support

your entire body. That’s why there is such an intense focus on

strengthening the core for people who want to attain overall fit-

ness.

The focus on building a strong CORE began over 20 years

ago, except that it was to develop more “fit” business profes-

sionals. The objective then, as it still is now, was to link per-

formance interventions and performance improvement to an

enhancement process. I started focusing on strengths back

then and I continue to focus on them throughout this book.

While I called the programs Performance Enhancement Pro-

grams at that time, instead of Positive CORE, they were defi-

nitely the precursor to this new approach to performance

enhancement.

Positive CORE is an approach to performance improve-

ment/enhancement that was designed based on sport psychol-

ogy, positive psychology, and appreciative inquiry. With this

approach, performance consultants can identify the CORE

elements of an individual performer that make him successful.

While you can get a great deal of information from observing

one single performer and interviewing him about his perform-

ances, you can also involve all the stakeholders of an organi-

zation in an effort to determine, define, and describe how the

performance contributions of each individual have led the

organization to where it is, why, and how it functions as it does,

and how it accomplishes what it does. Positive CORE then

seeks to take the organization to another level of performance

by making it more effective, productive, and successful in all

areas by upgrading the current mental make-up, strengths, and

motivational involvement of its individual performers.

130 Guaranteeing Performance Improvement

The primary focus of Positive CORE is to identify suc-

cesses and strengths rather than weaknesses and areas for

improvements. Now this may seem a little counter-intuitive

considering the book is titled Guaranteeing Performance

Improvement; however, there is no discrepancy here. The

emphasis is placed on strengths to create a “multiplier effect”

so that they are increased and leveraged. A focus on strengths

will always motivate a performer to do better, which results in a

measurable and sustainable performance improvement (in

whatever manner you choose to define the term). The focus on

the positive puts people in a better frame of mind, motivates

them more to continue to achieve, and creates a virtuous cycle

of success seeking success.

The elements of the Positive CORE program for individual

performers are Confidence, Outcomes, Relationships, and

Engagement. Each of these elements has sub-categories that

make it up and are identified in the Positive CORE Elements

chart.

Positive CORE Elements

Confidence Outcomes Relationships Engagement

Self-esteem Objectives, ex-

pectations, and

reinforcements

based on adding

value to external

clients

Managers Commitment

Strengths and

talents

Measurement

and evaluation

and continual

improvement

Friends and

family

Emotions

Reinforcements

and conse-

quences

Results and

returns: finan-

cial, personal,

and society

Social, profes-

sional, and

community

Motivation and

optimism