In this video, I explore a leadership principle that has the power to transform team performance: treating people as if they are extraordinary human beings. I explain how many employees become trapped by "old tapes" or "Polaroids," labels and stories created from past mistakes or perceptions that limit how others see them and, ultimately, how they see themselves. When leaders allow these narratives to define people, they unintentionally reinforce mediocre performance and prevent individuals from realizing their potential.

Drawing from my own personal experience, I share the story of an employee who was widely viewed as a poor performer until a company bowling event revealed her exceptional talent. Seeing her excel in a different setting changed how others perceived her and how she perceived herself. That shift in confidence and respect eventually helped her grow into a leadership role. The lesson is that people often rise or fall to the expectations placed upon them, and leaders have a responsibility to create an environment where people can transcend limiting labels.

I also challenge leaders who blame poor performance entirely on their workforce. Using an example from a consulting engagement, I question the logic of labeling the majority of employees as "slackers." If organizations are hiring capable people from the community, then leaders must examine how their culture, systems, and leadership practices may be contributing to disengagement and underperformance. Leaders must take ownership for creating conditions that encourage initiative, enthusiasm, and personal growth.

Treating people as extraordinary does not mean ignoring performance issues or avoiding accountability. Leaders should distinguish facts from stories, provide honest feedback, offer coaching and support, and ensure employees understand expectations. When every reasonable effort has been made and performance still does not improve, it may be appropriate to part ways. Respecting people as extraordinary human beings ultimately means holding them accountable while preserving their dignity and worth.

Key Points

People are often limited by "old tapes" and "Polaroids" that define them by past mistakes or outdated perceptions.
Leaders can unlock higher performance by treating people as extraordinary human beings, regardless of their past performance.
People tend to rise to the expectations placed upon them, especially when they are seen and treated differently.
According to McGregor's Theory Y, most people want to do well and contribute, so leaders should examine what is preventing that desire from showing up at work.
Organizational culture can turn extraordinary people into ordinary performers if leaders fail to create the right environment.
Leaders must take responsibility for how people show up at work, rather than simply blaming employees for poor performance.
Treating people as extraordinary does not mean ignoring performance problems. Facts should inform coaching, development, role fit, and accountability.
Respect is not conditional on performance. Every person deserves dignity and honest feedback.
Withholding corrective feedback is actually disrespectful, because it prevents people from improving and succeeding.
After providing support, resources, coaching, and clear expectations, leaders may need to part ways with an employee who still does not perform.

Quotes

"If we manage to help people shake off those Polaroids and old tapes and stories and snapshots and treat them as if they are extraordinary human beings, they begin to rise to the occasion."
"Nobody starts a career, nobody starts a job with this aspiration of going to work every day and doing the minimum."
"When we withhold corrective action or some feedback that the person really needs to hear, we're actually not respecting them."
"We have to, as leaders, take responsibility for how people show up."
"Don't hold people to those limitations that they may have created or others may have projected onto them."
"People want to do well. But what happens is something gets in the way."
"If you treat someone as an adult, if you treat someone as an extraordinary human being, you do what you need to do to ensure that they know what the expectations are."

What if you had the superpower to turn every one of your team members into an extraordinary contributor, someone who is being engaged, doing their best, and making significant contributions? I wanna share with you one thing you can do that will help you tap into the superpower that you already have…That one thing is to begin to treat people as if they are extraordinary…Let me tell you, when I first started my career many, many years ago, there was this phrase that I kept hearing. People kept referring to old tapes. What does that old tape mean? The old tapes refer to…the behavior that that person was known for. Maybe they made a mistake at some point, or maybe they had certain habits at some point, but they couldn't shake it off. They had been labeled. A company that I recently worked with as a consultant…had a similar kind of concept, except they called it Polaroids. Oh, this person is just never gonna succeed. Why? Because there are too many Polaroids in the system about this person. Snapshots that at some point somebody got of that person, they just couldn't shake it off. See, the the truth is that this is not a silver bullet. Of course, there there are other factors that come into play when it comes to really causing everybody to bring their best and be excited and do well at work. But I guarantee you that if we manage to help people shake off those Polaroids and old tapes and stories and snapshots and treat them as if they are extraordinary human beings, they begin to rise to the occasion. I'll give you a very specific example of this from many years ago. I used to work in a plant, and we used to have this one person who just couldn't do anything right. In the eyes of everyone, they were just a slacker. Whatever they touched…
just didn't work out. Except this one time, we went bowling. We had a team building activity, and it was bowling. Well, the person showed up with their own shoes and their own ball, and they started rolling, strike after strike. They almost bowled a perfect game…And everybody was astonished because in our eyes, I have to admit, in my own eyes, she just was kind of mediocre at whatever she tried, but she was totally excellent…at bowling. Well, we go back the next day, and people begin to see her differently. She begins to feel different. She begins to feel that she is competent and show a certain level of confidence. Make a long story just a little longer, this lady went on to become a team leader, which was…
not in the cards as far as any of us were concerned. And that one situation that caused everybody to see her differently and caused her to feel differently and show up differently made all the difference in the world. We have to, as leaders, take responsibility for how people show up. I mean, if you subscribe to McGregor's theory y, that essentially says people want to do well, they want to take initiative as opposed to theory x that says people are just lazy and they wanna do the minimum. Then you have to take some responsibility for the person showing up at work and checking their enthusiasm and initiative and energy at the door and just coming in and doing the minimum. Nobody starts a career. Nobody starts a job…with this aspiration of going to work every day and doing the minimum. We all want to do well. But what happens is something gets in the way, and…that something leads to something else and something else. And before we know it, we just basically turn into button pushers. Right? We go to work and we wanna do our aid. We wanna hit the gate. We just wanna stay out of trouble, so on and so forth. And then other people begin to see us that way, and the old tapes begin to accumulate. And next thing you know, the person becomes a mediocre performer. So we've gotta figure out a way…
to break that cycle…Now…this starts with the leaders taking responsibility for creating the kind of culture…that is conducive to everyone bringing their best and treating people such that they're not feeling like they're limited by their past mistakes and and perceptions. Let me give you one more example of where I've seen this. I was working with a company as a consultant, and all I heard from the leadership team was that their people were slackers. So the leadership team, when we started working together, was really unwilling to take responsibility…for shifting the culture. And they just felt like they're victims to the people because they're all slackers. So one day I asked them, what percentage of the people working on the floor are slackers? And they gave me a number like eighty percent. The average was about eighty percent of the people on the floor were slackers. So then I asked them a question. I said, you guys hire from the community here, right? Because as far as I know, you're not, like, flying anybody in, and most of the people working on the floor are not relocating for this particular job. They say, oh, yeah. Yeah. All of our people from this community. I said, so is it true that about eighty percent of the people who live in this region of the country…
are slackers? Is that true? No. No. Of course, many of them grew up in that area. No. No. That's not the case. I said, oh, okay. So is it true that your…
recruiting process targets specifically…those few people who are slackers, and therefore, you end up with eighty percent slackers in your workplace? They're like, well, no. No. That's not the case. I said, so the only other possibility could be that you hire extraordinary people, but you end up…turning them into ordinary or less than ordinary people. And that is something that you as a leadership team…have to take responsibility for…
So my request of you…is to take one action coming out of this. And that is to make an inventory of the people that you work with, just the immediate circle around you. And be honest with yourself around what are some of these Polaroids…that you're holding on to about them? What are some of these old tapes that you keep running…over and over in your mind about them…Be intentional about letting that go. Letting those Polaroids go. Letting those old tapes go. And don't hold those people to those limitations that they may have…created or others may have projected onto them. And just see what kind of a difference that makes…
I didn't wanna go off on too many tangents, but I thought about a couple of questions that I'd like to expound on. The first one was, well, okay, Amir, you say treat people as if they're extraordinary. But are we supposed to forget about the old tapes? Maybe they were true. What if the person really has poor performance? Do we ignore that? So that's question number one. The second question is, well, what if we…treat people as if they're extraordinary and they continue to have poor performance? What do we do then? So let me address the first question. When I talk about old tapes, I'm talking about the stories that people have made up. Some of these old tapes may have been rooted in some actual events. Something happened, and then people continue to talk about it and make up stories about it. It's important to distinguish between facts and fiction, which may have been born out of the stories that that have been made up. So I'm not suggesting that we ignore performance problems. I'm not suggesting that we ignore history that could actually inform us on how we can best set the person up for success. If someone has demonstrated repeatedly that they are not really good at certain things, we have to either give them the skill or we have to make sure that they're in a role that really is a good fit for them. Or we have to make sure that we coach them and support them in…
shifting their their approach and their mindset, whatever the root cause may be. So real events, uh, inform our actions, and we should take them into account. For me, uh, treating people as extraordinary human beings is about respect. Respecting a person is not conditional based on their performance. In other words, a person's worth…is not dependent on their performance. They are a human being and these they deserve a certain amount of respect. Right? And when you respect someone, you are honest with them. So if they need to get some feedback that may not feel right at the time, assuming that it is delivered, uh, correctly with some level of compassion, it needs to be delivered. When we withhold corrective action or some feedback that the person really needs to hear, we're actually not respecting them. We're not treating them as extraordinary. I joke about this sometimes in my workshops. I say, you know, sometimes people say, oh, bless his heart. He's not gonna do any better. And and in that case, bless his heart, is not a compliment. It's essentially insulting the person. And in fact, what we're doing is we're letting ourselves off the hook and giving that feedback…
Now the second question is, okay. So if we do that, let's just say someone has had a kind of a rough, uh, past and they, they have had some old tapes about them in the system, Polaroids, whatever you want to call them. And, um, we give them the benefit of the doubt. We work with them, do whatever we can to help them correct their behavior or their performance, and they still don't do that. So what are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to…perpetually just sort of giving them more…uh, you know, opportunities and chances? And the answer is no. If you treat someone as an adult, if you treat someone as an extraordinary human being, you do what you need to do to ensure that know what the expectations are, that they know where their performance is relative to those expectations, they have the right resources, that they know you got their back, and you got their support. And at the same time, they also know that it is their responsibility to change their behavior or do better. So…
at times, when you've done everything you could, you may get to a point where it is time to part ways. Once you get to that point where all options have been exhausted, it's totally fair to acknowledge that we have done everything we could and, uh, we are still not where we need to be and at times we need to part ways. I'd love to engage with you. If you have questions, send them to me or put them in the comments, uh, on LinkedIn…or a comment on the blog post. Whichever way, I'd love to get your thoughts on it and and share mine