'BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN OTHERS' Book educates parents, bosses on how to inspire

Nearly every one of the early astronauts were first-borns. The author says their birth order was not the key but the way they were treated by their parents.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
"Bringing Out the Best in Others" by Thomas K. Connellan, Ph.D. (Bard Press $19.95).
Perhaps you've read recently about the success rate of first-born or only children in many areas of life -- from work to schooling -- and how parent behavior toward these children is a big reason for it.
Now an author has started with that assumption to try to teach all of us how to act like first-borns so that we can all achieve at high levels in life as well.
In "Bringing Out the Best in Others," Thomas K. Connellan describes how first-borns are the most likely children to be given high expectations, high levels of responsibility and more feedback.
As a result, two-thirds of all entrepreneurs are first-borns; more than half of all presidents are first-borns; and most of the first 23 astronauts were first-borns, even though the number of first-borns and only children in the general population is about 35 percent.
Expectations
In the first of the three areas, people achieve more when expectations of achievement are higher.
For instance, when the U.S. Census officials began to automate census tabulations in 1890, it was guessed that workers could tabulate about 550 cards per day. Then they began, and most employees reached the 550 target with a couple of weeks of training. But when the next group of workers began, they were not given a target of 550. The result: They tabulated 2,100 cards without breaking a sweat. The workers achieved only the amount asked of them.
Supervisers, the author noted, show expectations in subtle ways, such as whether they make eye contact or other non-verbal cues. People tend to believe the nonverbal cues more than verbal ones, Connellan said.
"If you expect the best from people, and if you communicate it clearly and consistently through your words, your tone of voice, your body language, and your communication setting, people will respond," he said.
Accountability
"Without accountability, nothing ever really gets done," Connellan says of the next element of success. "Anything that is 'everyone's' responsibility quickly becomes no one's responsibility," he observed.
Make accountability a positive, instead of a way to assign blame. And then set goals, develop plans and engage. He pointed to the Army, for instance, as a place that understands how to use accountability in a positive way. And at General Electric, company president Jack Welch has used this strategy to make the company's response time like that of a much smaller company, he said.
The book lays out many specific steps to take to provide targets for performance and how to achieve them.
Feedback
The book demonstrates in a poignant way how even employees who receive negative feedback are more successful than employees who get no feedback at all. They can feel, in the author's words, like they are "extinct."
So, "if you make no response whatsoever to someone's good performance, even a marginal improvement, you're going to extinguish that person's motivation to do better," the author states. "If we can't get good attention, then we'll settle for bad attention. The thing we find hardest to accept is no attention," he said.
The author's approach to the book was to present a seminar format, in which the material given by the author is presented to a handful of seminar participants.
Their questions about how to carry out the methods bring the material into focus. The people in the book try out the methods and come back to report on their successes and failures.
For instance, the author presents the thesis that when dealing with a worker who isn't performing up to expectations, a meeting with the person needs to be held in which the person is asked what needs to be done to fix the problems. The manager has to be persistent to prompt the employee to come up with the solutions by asking "What" or "How" questions.
One participant tried this strategy, and found that by being persistent and a little sneaky, she achieved the desired result.
The author proposes that the methods used should work within 90 days.
The ideas make sense, but it obviously would take any manager not using these techniques some time to practice the techniques and reconsider some of their actions to have success. For companies wanting to make some improvement in productivity, this book just might make a big difference.
runyan@vindy.com