Realistic Performance Review: A Simple Way To Build Expertise

I recently read Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biography, Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story. It’s a fascinating read. I’d highly recommend it.

The book explores how Arnold came to build successful careers in a foreign country in bodybuilding, real estate, acting, and politics - very disparate performance domains.

As you might expect given his success, the book touches on many concepts from performance psychology.

One concept that jumped out at me, and one that is so often overlooked, is Realistic Performance Review. Realistic performance review helps us to critique performance, learn, and grow.

On bodybuilding, Arnold comments:

After any competition, I always sought out the judges to ask for their input. “I appreciate I won but please tell me what were my weak points and what were my strong points.”

On acting, he adds:

I invited other cast members to critique my acting. I was a beginner.

Realistic Performance Review is vital in enhancing self-awareness.

How do you review performance? A method I use, simple and effective, is to ask 3 questions:

• What went well?

• What did I learn?

• What might I do differently next time?