Performance enhancers from management guru Mr Marc Effron.

Happen upon new title 8 Steps To High Performance while browsing the business section of your local bookshop and you might ask yourself: why not an odd number like seven or five (inherently more pleasing for lists than their even counterparts), or even a nice round 10? The answer, as author Mr Marc Effron explains in his preface, is that’s exactly the figure he was left with after sifting through academic literature looking for scientifically proven workplace performance enhancers. His gold standard was a meta-analysis – a study of studies – that demanded that the action in question made a difference in the office and not just a lab: as he writes, “studies using rats and undergraduates didn’t count”.

The subtitle of the book by Mr Effron – a consultant and cofounder of the University of North Carolina’s Talent Management Institute who has been a leadership development veep for Bank of America and a congressional staff assistant – instructs you to “Focus On What You Can Change (Ignore The Rest)”. Roughly 50 per cent of the factors proven to influence performance – intelligence, core personality, socioeconomic background and body – are largely fixed. Is it unfair that taller people get paid more and heavier ones hired less? Undoubtedly. But that also means you can influence half of the factors. Below are three (ah, much nicer) “baby steps” from the book that will shorten your career ladder a few rungs.

Feedback is fundamental to higher performance: it’s hard to know what you could be doing better otherwise, or how. We’re also, as Mr Effron says, “wonderfully delusional about our own capabilities and behaviours” – and psychological phenomenon the Dunning-Kruger effect demonstrates that the least capable people are often the least aware of their shortcomings. The problem with feedback is that it’s backward-looking and therefore often frustrating, because you can’t change what happened in the past. Plus we tend to reject criticism that doesn’t fit with our subjective self-image. So instead, ask your superiors, colleagues and direct reports (many HR departments will facilitate this 360-degree assessment) for “feedforward”: what you could do better in future.

One of the most eye-opening insights in the book is that, if left unbridled or dialled up to 11, your strengths can become weaknesses – or “derailers”. Mr Effron illustrates this via a handy table created especially for him by renowned psychologist Dr Robert Hogan, which helps you identify which derailers you’re prone to, avoid showing them and stay on track. For example, if you’re conscientious, then you may also be a perfectionist and the kind of hard-to-please manager who winds up disempowering their staff rather than inspiring them to greater things. If you’re cautious, then you may shun “feedforward” for fear of criticism and appear resistant to change or reluctant to take chances; if you’re bold, then you may fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect (see above).

“Be true to your authentic self” is an axiom of platitudinous personal development books and Instagram memes. But your superiors and co-workers don’t necessarily want to see the real you, especially if you’re really a hot mess. And “Faking It” – the sixth of the eight steps – isn’t necessarily as dishonest or Machiavellian as it might sound. Indeed, Mr Effron compares it to styling your hair: you’re not being untrue to your authentic hair, but merely opting to present a more polished version. In a work context, faking it is about identifying behaviours required to succeed in a given scenario that don’t come naturally, for example leadership qualities, and exhibiting them so that you get noticed; it’s also the first step to you actually behaving that way. In other words, fake it until you make it – for real.

8 Steps To High Performance (Harvard Business Review) by Mr Marc Effron is out 7 August