I have a bunch of “great ideas” that I start a rough draft post on then never finish. Here is one that I started over a year ago. I figure that I still won’t take the time and effort to do the topic justice, but it’s better to get something out there than not.
Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to describe the philosophy I hold when it comes to performance development– whether that is in athletics, work, or whatever. I am fortunate to have a colleague that shares my views on this, so it makes sense for us to be capable of articulating how our approach is different and better than commonly held practices.
The gist of it is that everyone is a little bit different and those little differences matter. I’ve tossed around a few phrases to get at my point including employee-centered coaching and person-centered approach, but I think Alan Couzens got it right with The Principle of Individuality.
This is not to say that there aren’t sound generalizations that we can’t make about how to improve performance. We absolutely can make generalizations. We are all have some human characteristics in common. I don’t argue with that.
But “best practices” will only get you so far. We need to practice with deliberation. We need to stretch ourselves out of the comfort zone in the direction of our goals.
You can only find that sweet spot if you first know where you are. Where you are is individualized. Not only that, it is individualized AND specific to a particular context and time.
Hence the Principle of Individuality.
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