Myles Downey speaks about “potential” as part of a mathematical formula Potential minus Interference = Performance. Therefore, in order for a person’s potential to be achieved, their current performance needs to be increased or the interference holding them back needs to be reduced. In order to assist a staff member to achieve their full potential, Managers tend to focus on increasing a person’s current performance and will pay little attention to interference. Current performance can be improved through training, experience and practise but have you ever wondered why certain people do not show significant long-term improvements in their performance even after significant investment in their training and development? The answer may lie in the fact that there is large amount of interference holding them back.

What is interference? There are two types of interference, external and internal. External interference might be lack of resources, working conditions, organisation structure, restrictive policies and procedures, uncooperative colleagues. Internal interference focuses on the person and might include the following. Fear (of losing, winning or of making a fool of yourself), lack of self-confidence, trying too hard, trying for perfection, trying to impress, anger, frustration and boredom.

As a Manager, what can you do to assist your staff in reducing internal interference and thus strive towards operating at maximum potential? First we need to understand the main sources of internal interference. These are limiting beliefs, fears and confusion. Limiting beliefs include, I am not experienced enough, I’m no good at that, I can’t do that. The most common fears people have include fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change, fear of confrontation. Confusion can manifest itself through a person’s lack of understanding of their role and responsibility in the organisation, conflicting or mixed direction from Management and unclear communication.

In this article, I would like to share with you some tips that will help you deal with your own and your staff’s limiting beliefs, as I believe these are what have the greatest impact on restricting peoples development. Perhaps we can come back to exploring fears and confusion another day.

Firstly, define a specific outcome or goal that you really want to achieve but for whatever reason has not happened yet. Next take a quiet honest few minutes to do some soul searching to establish what beliefs you have that are obstacles to you achieving your goal. Remember, beliefs do not have to make sense and quiet often make no sense at all. This does not mean that they are not real to you. Do you belief you are not good enough, not qualified enough, not good looking enough, not confident, too lazy? Identify the biggest belief creating your biggest obstacle and taking this belief ask the following questions. What is the purpose of this belief? And don’t think there is no purpose because if that were true you wouldn’t hold the belief in the first place. Where or who did this belief come from? Did it come from a family member, teacher, boss? In what ways is this belief ridiculous? When was there a moment or situation when this belief was not true? What will I loose by keeping this belief? And finally the clincher after answering all these questions, ask what belief can I replace this old disempowering self limiting belief with that empowers, motivated and will serve me in achieving my goal or outcome? It is that simple. As human being we have the power to choose what we belief, so make a decision and choose better beliefs.

I must confess this is a challenging exercise to do on your own but please give it a go and feel free to share your experiences with me by dropping me an email. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

GOOD LUCK!

Fergal O’Connor is a Business and Personal Life Coach working in partnership with his Business and Private clients providing a supportive, confidential, challenging and non-judgemental environment to make their ambitions and dreams a reality. Fergal can be contacted at Synergy Coaching Services, Tel: (061) 467287, email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it