Learn from your best

What can I learn from my highest performers?

To learn from your best people, look at who’s had the strongest month and study what they’re actually doing differently – their cadence, how they break work down, where their momentum comes from – then spread it. Each Friday this preset surfaces those people from the last month of work and, just as deliberately, flags anyone struggling who needs support. Work Rules! calls these the two tails: help the people at one end, learn from the people at the other, and ignore the middle at your peril.

What this is for

Performance management usually points in one direction: down, at whoever’s behind. The people quietly doing the best work get a nod and otherwise get left alone, which means the most valuable lessons in your organization – how your strongest people actually operate – never get extracted or shared. Meanwhile the people who need help get noticed late.

This preset watches both ends at once. It identifies who’s carried the strongest momentum and progress over the last 30 days and describes what’s visibly different about how they work, and it separately flags anyone slipping who could use support before the slip compounds. Laszlo Bock’s argument in Work Rules! was that both tails teach you more than the average ever will; this runs that read on your own team.

Who should use this

Managers building a high-performing team rather than just policing a baseline. You’ll learn from your best instead of only managing your strugglers.

Leaders who want to codify what works. You’ll see the patterns behind your strongest performers clearly enough to teach them.

Anyone who notices struggling people too late. You’ll catch both tails on the same regular cadence.

The prompt

Identify who has had the strongest momentum and goal progress over the last 30 days and describe what they appear to be doing differently. Separately, flag anyone who's struggling and may need support. Keep it specific and grounded in their actual work.

How to use

Click here to create a new Echo using this preset. You'll be able to customize the prompt and schedule before it starts generating answers.