8 Steps to High Performance: Focus on What You Can Change

by Marc Effron

The steps you need, for the results you want.

There's no shortage of advice out there on how to perform better, and better than others, at work. The problem is knowing which methods are actually proven to work-and how you should act on them to get the best results.

In 8 Steps to High Performance, talent expert and best-selling author Marc Effron cuts through the noise with his signature "science-based simplicity" approach to identify what matters most and show you how to optimally apply your time and effort to boost your performance. It turns out that higher performance comes from doing many things well-but some of those things are not in your power to change. Effron reveals the eight key factors you do control and practical steps for improving yourself on each one.

You'll how to set goals that create higher performance; which behaviors predict higher performance in different situations; how to quickly develop the most important capabilities; who to connect with and why; how to understand and adapt to your company's strategy; why you sometimes shouldn't be the "genuine" you; how to best manage your body to sustain your performance; and how to avoid management fads that distract you from high performance.

Research-based and practical, this short, powerful book will help you and anyone on your team deliver outstanding results.

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership, Personal Development, Management, Self Help

Audible Audio

Published February 1, 2022

Reviews

[Toyin Spades · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always seeking opportunities to consistently optimise my performance and this book seemed to have some answers. As it is research based, Marc provides 8 steps readers can take to predict and create high performance. He also describes how you can take care of your body so it is not weary from your new level go performance.

There are so many practical steps and assessments that Marc provides to the readers. For example, he provides the “Fit Matrix” assessment that helps the reader assess and understand how they fit within an organisation.

The 8 steps he writes about are:
1. Set big goals
2. Behave to perform
3. Grow yourself faster
4. Connect
5. Maximise your fit
6. Fake it
7. Commit your body
8. Avoid distractions
.
My favourite Quotes:
“Coach toward the future. Coaching combines feedback with direction—here’s what you’re doing today and here’s how to do it better tomorrow.”
.
“There’s even a phenomenon called the Dunning Kruger effect showing that the least competent people are the least aware that they are incompetent.”
.
“Everyone has derailers, including high performers, so the secret is to recognize which ones you have and work hard to keep them in check.”
.
“The person you see behaving badly may be delivering such strong results that the company is giving them a temporary pass on certain behaviors.”
.
“To grow faster, you must understand which development activities matter most and do as many of them as quickly as possible.”
.
“High performers continually adjust and maximize their fit with their company.”
.
“Two performance factors you can’t fake are sleep and exercise.”
.
“Your body plays a critical role in your performance; it’s important to eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep.”

[Karen ⊰✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marc Effron has researched for years existing scientific studies, to develop these 8 steps that be believes are scientifically proven to increase your performance.
Step one - Set big goals
Step two - Behave to perform
Step three - Grow yourself faster
Step four - Connect
Step five - Maximise your fit
Step six - Fake it
Step seven - Commit your body
Step eight - Avoid distractions

Effron defines performance as someone who consistently delivers better results and behaviours, on an absolute and relative basis, than 75% of their peers. That sounds like a pretty tall ask, but if you treat this book like a meta-analysis of various scientific studies on performance, I've no doubt you will find information that will be helpful for you to improve your performance.

A caveat here is that there are parts I don't agree with based on my own psychology studies. Caution should be taken, as even the author states, to always critically review any study before taking it as fact. For example, Effron claims that your personality and intelligence is fixed ; that EI is a myth ; and that focusing on your strengths is a distraction. But his comments in these areas are related purely to if they increase your performance (or not), and are based on select studies related to performance.

think this was a great, easy book to read and I have already recommended this book to a few clients to pre-purchase (book is released August 7), because I think there is real value in this book for anyone who wants to develop themselves, but really doesn't know where to start or even what role they want next. There are also a number of tools and quizzes in the book to help you set your development path.

Thank to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Mukesh Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

There have been a lot of books on individual peak performance that have gone on to becoming best sellers with massive impact on how people think about peak performance.

Marc Effron in this book claims to have distilled down proven scientific ideas that can help us start on our way to becoming high performers. There is no doubt that these 8 steps make sense. The way he goes about writing the book is what makes the book interesting. He shares the 8 steps and talks about what we can learn from proven scientific studies.

His practical & pragmatic approach makes the book both interesting and at times off-putting,

I would recommend this book for all aspiring high performers but would also advice them to take the advice with some scepticism, just to be sure that they don't go overboard, following the advice in the book.

[Titli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dependable book on how to improve one's performance. While none of this is rocket science, having them in one place definitely helps. I especially liked the templates provided with guidance. The guidance pointers are corroborated by several independent research papers. Also, like any other self help book, it's only as good as the effort one puts in implementation. With good intention and solid effort, this book launches one on a good career trajectory.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard the author Mark Effron speak about this book and I really liked his presentation…but the book seemed of a different era, encouraging people to be workaholics.

Now, work/life balance feels more important.

[Davide · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book starts with the sentence: <>

And I fully agree, so I went through the paged of this book, reading it avidly, looking for the best advices that could improve my career. And I found out several very useful hints.

The author analyzed thousands of articles and books in order to define which steps met his "desired level of proof that these actions definitely improve individual performance at work." and are based on conclusive science.
These are "Set big goals", "Behave to perform", "Grow yourself faster", "Connect", "Maximize your fit", "Fake it" (why you sometimes shouldn’t be the “genuine” you), "Commit your body" and "Avoid distractions".

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

#8stepsToHighPerformance #NetGalley

Marc is a world expert in leadership and performance. His book contains very good references on the domain. Marc propose a eight steps to create successful leaders in every sector with a theoretical and practical blend that can be used in any sector. The book can be used by professionals for autodidact purposes or as a companion book for students of business school at any level.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A concise approach on how to become a high performing individual . These 8 steps are clearly written and easy to understand by anyone .

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I expected. No frills good insights and research driven. Worth the read

[Luciano Elementi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fast read, a good book since most advises are scientific and not just opinions.

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ignore this book -

[Aryn Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s good if you’re a corporate nerd like me.

[Jess Macallan · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars
I initially wanted to read this book to glean ideas for entrepreneurs; however, this book is written for people who work for larger corporations. I appreciated the chapter on setting effective goals, as well as the various questionnaires and troubleshooting questions at the end of each section. Some readers will find the ideas for connecting with others in your industry and the scripts helpful.

A few sections didn't work for me. First, the author claims quality sleep and exercise are important, but diet doesn't influence performance. He should have done more research on nutrition and cognitive function. I was also surprised when he disparaged popular concepts like power posing and fixed vs. growth mindset. It's not only for children or raising general IQ as the author mistakenly assumes but rather emotional intelligence and the ability to grow and improve. Attempting to discredit other professionals diminished his credibility.

I received an e-copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Juan Castro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Key Concepts
1. Set big goals. Focus on significant goals that are aligned with your company’s strategy. This will help you
build new skills and grow faster.
2. Behave to perform. Choose the right behaviors and adapt quickly.
3. Grow yourself faster. Identify your goals and create a personal experience map.
4. Connect. Strengthen relationships with your manager, peers, and subordinates. Create an external network.
5. Maximize your fit. Understand the company’s changing needs and how your skills fit in.
6. Fake it. Don’t be afraid to fake behaviors to demonstrate leadership or power.
7. Commit your body. Sleep is most important to high performance, exercise has minor effects, and diet has
little effect.
8. Avoid distractions. Management fads should be ignored.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected to love this book, because I'm all about self-improvement, science, and learning new good habits, but this book read like Machiavelli updated. I think it's because the author wanted only to put forward clearly established ideas that could be well-grounded in a good deal of scientific research. Fine; but the result is the advice is at once a little banal (fake it until you make it) and manipulative (the networking section is all about how to suck up to your boss). Good advice, I'm sure, if you want to climb the greasy pole of corporate success, but I have a feeling today's new workers want a little more meaning in their work lives than this book offers.

[Greg’s Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes a straight and concise approach on how to become a high performing individual in your organization. The author mentioned 8 steps he deemed to be the way to do it. This book is also well-written and easy to understand. Nevertheless, I find that his attack of other management ideas a little bit uncomfortable since I’ve read and watched about those things he mentioned. Those ideas work in several different contexts if not all. Anyhow, we can apply the same principles of research, science, and conclusive science to evaluate the ideas in this book.

[Markéta Gajdošová · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do začátku roku stylově. :) Knížka je určená hlavně zaměstnancům s ambicemi. Líbí se mi, že jde proti všem moderním trendům a mmj. tak trochu říká „když chcete být výkonní a úspěšní, musíte práci tak trochu obětovat vše. A autenticita je v pracovním prostředí kravina."
Rozhodně zajímavý pohled a čtení, spousta praktických tipů a cvičení a rozhodně si z toho pár bodů do svého pracovního života odnáším. Přestože mi spoustu z toho bylo dost proti srsti, docela věřím, že to funguje. A ne výhradně jen v USA.

[Ann Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there were some good messages in the early chapters of the book. Later in the book when it talked about "sucking up" and not listening to the science of the importance of sleep, alluding to leaders sometimes needing to "pull all-nighters", I lost confidence in the book.

I also didn't like how he belittled other studies and philosophies of leadership. I recognize the that power stance has limited strategic value in leading teams and companies, but I didn't need to listen to the author berate what others have found useful.

[Ercavallero · Rating 4 out of 5]

8 steps to high performance:

1. Set big goals
2. Behave to perform
3. Grow yourself faster
4. Connect
5. Maximize your fit
6. Fake it
7. Commit your body
8. Avoid distractions

One remarkable interesting statement, not shared in almost all books about performance and growth, is that you have a fix core of around 50%, which can't be changed, whatever you try, so you have focus in improving the other 50%.

[Chels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reached a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. A solid management self improvement book. The steps are clear cut and the book is laid out nicely. I plan on going through the book again and doing the self-inventories and reflective tests. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to become a higher performer at work.

[Kim Miller-edmondson · Rating 2 out of 5]

While there was some helpful information in this book that I would like to apply, most of it was about counter to my core beliefs. So therefore I would not follow most of the advise the author shared.

[Ruben Dario Avila Home · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buen libro, muy enfocado al ámbito empresarial, es un buen libro para aquel que quiere destacar en un mundo corporativo. No es un libro para independientes.

[Jacek Korzeniowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book was a waste of time. Useless information or obvious truth.

[Winyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a short and efficient, easy to digest read. I liked that the author had a very research-focused method to explaining. I don't know if "Faking it" was an appropriate step. I also was intrigued at how he debunked grit, 10,000 hours, etc. I will try to implement some of the earlier steps, since they had concrete instructions.
Update: Upon a second reading, I didn't find this as useful as I'd remembered. So, this is skimmable.

[Yechan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked some chapters, and I will probably re-read them in the future. I could feel that the author is sincerely interested in providing relevant and useful insights. A few of them were helpful, and some were generic. Also, Effron tends to be repetitive; this book could have been much more concise.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second time I read this and I still think it’s great.