Tom Brady was renowned in the NFL for paying practice squad players if they intercepted him.
Most quarterbacks resent it when second-string players intercept them in practice. But Brady wanted to avoid mistakes in the game, so he needed the practice players to not only imitate the opposition, but also to raise his game by playing for interceptions. By creating a high-stakes reward during practice, Brady was able to identify and correct any major flaws he had before performing on the real stage.
Proactively finding the flaws in a presentation, a swing, a model, a recipe, a slide deck, a sales pitch, or a message post before the actual performance is what top performers do. They stress test their performance with walk-throughs, rehearsals, and practice, looking for those issues that may detract from reaching the desired outcome.
Fatal flaws come with a host of colorful metaphors to describe the weakness they portend. A “chink in the armor,” an “Achilles’ heel,” the “weak link,” and a “soft underbelly” each convey a vulnerability or weakness that can drag down or destroy performance.
Searching for such a weakness or flaw before performance is not as easy as it sounds. The key is to look for an action, approach, or common pattern that would lead to the same negative outcome if repeated. Brady gets to expose his flaws through multiple pass plays, but that opportunity does not always present itself in non-athletic endeavors.
Asking colleagues and mentors to serve as harsh critics is more typical for finding flaws in intellectual performance. Rewarding them for their criticism and candidness is always the hard part.
When others show people what they are doing wrong, even pointing out a potentially serious flaw, it is common for those on the receiving end to react defensively, even when they have asked for such feedback. When performers plead for sharp criticism but fail to respond favorably to it, they suffocate the likelihood of more critical feedback in the future.
Performers who want to be great and desire the harshest assessments to uncover fatal flaws don’t have to pay others for interceptions, but they do have to reward honesty by profusely thanking the person, leader, or coach who is willing to offer an unvarnished assessment of the errors they see. Holding up that criticism as a reason for success is also a just reward.
Only performers who strive to be the best can handle and reward such honesty. The question is: How good do you really want to be?
