Ottawa YESP Training
- Barry Smith
- Jul 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 14
July 14-16, 2026
Your job is not simply to manage performance. It is to notice potential, nurture confidence, and create conditions where people can become more than they currently believe they are.
“Catch people doing something right, and tell them what they did, why it mattered, and how it made a difference.”
Discussion
How many people in your life can you still remember who genuinely changed your direction?
What did they do?
What was the outcome?
As managers, are your staff leaving interactions feeling more capable or less capable?
If one of your staff members were interviewed ten years from now, what would you hope they would say about working with you?
Are your young people and staff becoming more dependent on your program, or more confident without it?
Strategy:
Because of my influence, are people leaving with more hope, confidence, courage, and belief in themselves than when they arrived?
You can offer managers a simple self-audit:
The Four Questions
At the end of each week ask yourself:
Who did I encourage this week?
Who did I challenge to grow this week?
Who left an interaction with me feeling more capable than before?
Who would notice if I stopped showing up tomorrow?
If managers cannot answer those questions consistently, the statistics may eventually follow.
"People rarely remember the spreadsheet, the policy, or the meeting. They remember the person who saw something in them before they saw it in themselves."
Brief Synopsis
Whale Done! was inspired by the training methods used with killer whales at marine parks. The authors observed that trainers do not focus on punishing mistakes or catching whales doing things wrong. Instead, they build extraordinary performance by noticing and reinforcing desired behaviors.
The lesson for leaders is simple:
People move toward the attention they receive.
If managers spend most of their energy correcting, criticizing, and chasing problems, they often create more of those problems. If they intentionally recognize effort, growth, and strengths, they tend to create more engagement, confidence, and ownership.
A mentor can change a life by recognizing potential.
1. Catch People Doing Something Right
Most managers spend their days responding to crises, complaints, and deficiencies.
Whale trainers do the opposite:
They actively look for behaviors they want repeated.
Ask your managers:
Am I spending more time correcting mistakes or reinforcing strengths?
How often do my staff hear what they are doing well?
What gets recognized gets repeated.
2. Redirect Energy, Don’t Punish Potential
When a whale does something incorrectly, trainers don’t dwell on the mistake or shame the animal.
Instead they:
redirect,
reset,
and reward the desired behavior when it appears.
For staff and young people this means:
Separate the person from the behavior.
Correct privately and specifically.
Return quickly to opportunities for success.
Young people and staff often rise or fall to the expectations communicated by leaders.
3. Belief Often Comes Before Performance
The teacher believed in Anna Lambe before she believed in herself.
Great mentors and managers often see potential before there is evidence.
Who in your program needs someone to believe in them before they have earned it?
Sometimes one sentence of encouragement can alter a person’s trajectory for decades.
A Closing Thought
Your job is not simply to manage performance. It is to notice potential, nurture confidence, and create conditions where people can become more than they currently believe they are.
“Catch people doing something right, and tell them what they did, why it mattered, and how it made a difference.”
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