The New Performance Environment - Performance Connections
The old performance management model of the manager setting goals, establishing expectations and giving semi- and or annual performance reviews with little or no feedback along the way is an ineffective performance model. True performance is all about clarity, alignment, action and feedback.
Subscribe to the Lead Where You Are Podcast on all your favorite streaming outlets! Simply click one of the buttons below.
Let's get straight into what a performance connection accomplishes.
New Expectations
Expected Accomplishments
Expected Challenges
Opportunities to Accelerate or Change
Barriers to Success
What’s Next to Accomplish Success
You should be able to articulate all of these after each performance connection.
Now imagine it's 1999 and you're a young buyer for an up and coming retailer. You just had your first annual review and had glowing remarks from your three different superiors. You have met all your annual goals and have been spot on with the purchases for your first 8 months on the job. Your're told, "Just keep doing what you're doing!" And that's what you do. Over the entire next year you continue what had made you such a company hit in your first annual review. You have been riding high from that review and are looking forward to your second annual review, only this time you are completely caught off guard. The same superiors that had been singing your praises last year are now utterly dissappointed with the work you have done over the past year. How could this be? You did exactly what you were told to do and hadn't been told anything to the contrary. You're told that you just aren't performing like you have been expected to and you need to pick it up. Six months later and you're let go. Not only do you have to go in search of a new job, but the retailer that put the initial effort into you to train you now has to spend time and resources to find and train a new buyer. It's a lose-lose scenario.
Could this have been prevented? Absolutely. This young buyer didn't all of the sudden lose her ability to purchase efficiently and effectively. A lack of communication and feedback is what created this scenario, a costly disservice to both the employee and the employer.
And this is where the performance connection comes in.
The old performance management model of the manager setting goals, establishing expectations and giving semi- and or annual performance reviews with little or no feedback along the way is an ineffective performance model, and it has been for over 40 years. It is your performance and your career, and now it is time to take control of it. It is time to flip the performance model. True performance is all about clarity, alignment, action and feedback. We do this by establishing and leading ongoing performance connections with our superiors.
Truly sustaining that next level of performance success in this complex and ever-changing business environment requires ongoing performance connections, not just once or twice a year review cycles.
These connections are employee-led, not manager-led, and consist of 15 to 20 minute conversations, held every four to six weeks. They establish an ongoing dialogue of feedback focused on performance clarity, alignment and accountability, with a goal of mutually agreed upon performance expectations.
If you invest time in conducting these performance connections consistently and frequently there should be no surprises at the end of the year. You gain and provide clarity along the way and you ensure that you stay aligned and connected on your performance. In the end, you and your leader should leave with greater performance clarity, complete alignment, clear accountability on your commitments, and an understanding of what to expect and the future desired impact. You walk away from each connection with all of the items mentioned at the beginning, answered.
Always remember, it's your performance and your career. You can take control of it.
And for more detailed information about how to lead your own performance be sure to check out our Lead Where You Are book or online training! Both have greater insights and give you an actual plan to begin leading where you are.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
The New Performance Environment - Negativity Island
The Island of Negativity is where negative people go to thrive. And if not dealt with quickly and in a positive way, just one negative person can destroy an entire performance environment, so we need to be prepared to respond.
Subscribe to the Lead Where You Are Podcast on all your favorite streaming outlets! Simply click one of the buttons below.
The Island of Negativity is where negative people go to thrive. And if not dealt with quickly and in a positive way, just one negative person can destroy an entire performance environment. Their attempts to expand their island’s territorial boundaries by recruiting negative converts to join them become successful and the islands population begins to grow exponentially. These negative individuals and their eventual island mates are the ones who are always sitting around, letting things happen to them. They are the victims. They have made making excuses, placing blame, and justifying failure a core competency.
Negativity is one of the great detractors to anyone or any organization's path to success, so we need to be prepared to respond when we begin to hear statements like "That will never work.", "It's not my fault." and "That's just the way it is." We do this first by keeping focused on making things happen, no matter what. Once we have our self-discipline we begin to respond to those negative statements with positive ones such as "How can I help?", "What can we do to make this situation better?" and "Let's figure out some options." By responding with statements like this we don't give the negative individual what they want most, a friend on their island.
This individual, through our positive actions, will eventually have to make a choice as the island begins to gets lonelier and lonelier. Either leave the island or go to another organization that allows for Negativity Island to grow. And this is the exact outcome we want. Either the individual will change their behaviors and become a positive force within our organization or they can go and be disruptive in another.
As an individual we always need to remember: We control what we can control, influence what we can influence and when we can't control or influence, we keep moving and making things happen.
Join us next week as we discover the cure for the dreaded annual review cycle - Performance Connections.
And for more detailed information about how to lead your own performance be sure to check out our Lead Where You Are book or online training! Both have greater insights and give you an actual plan to begin leading where you are.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
The New Performance Environment - How to Own Your Own Performance
The true measure of any organization and its people are the consistent results they deliver and how those results are achieved. It creates an opportunity to shift the old performance model to one where we are leading our own performance. It is your performance, your impact, and your career in your control.
Subscribe to the Lead Where You Are Podcast on all your favorite streaming outlets! Simply click one of the buttons below.
The true measure of any organization and its people are the consistent results they deliver and how those results are achieved. It creates an opportunity to shift the old performance model to one where we are leading our own performance. It is your performance, your impact, and your career in your control. Shifting to proactively accepting more responsibility, actively pursuing personal and team performance, and taking control of performance activities and results may not completely eliminate surprises, but it certainly allows you to lead the conversation, control the development activities, and take more ownership of the results.
Making the shift to leading your own performance versus performance that is leader managed or just annually reviewed sounds great, but how do we get there? By proactively leading where you are and developing a personal blueprint for your personal performance actions and behaviors that are aligned to your team’s and organization’s culture, direction and priorities.
This blueprint starts with establishing a foundation of greater awareness by creating and cultivating enhanced organization, situational and self-awareness. From there, you create a framework for focused development that assists in enhancing your professional eligibility (your required job and technical skills), suitability (your natural behavioral traits and characteristics matched to your position) and viability (the actual impact of both your eligibility and suitability combined). Then, ongoing reinforcement and continual enhancements allow you to reach your full potential while increasing your organizational value and relevance.
Once the foundation, framework, and enhancements have been set, establishing an ongoing “performance connection” is the key to evolving and shifting the performance model from leader-directed, mid-year and end-of-year performance reviews to employee-led performance connections that pursue performance. We'll discuss this in much more detail in a few weeks.
If you follow your performance blueprint, by the end of the year there will be no need for managing performance. You will have been enabling and leading your performance all year long. It is your performance, your impact, and your career in your control.
Join us next week as we discuss Negativity Island and the effect just one negative person can have on an organization.
And for more detailed information about how to lead your own performance be sure to check out our Lead Where You Are book or online training! Both have greater insights and give you an actual plan to begin leading where you are.
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Lead Where You Are - And We're Off...Now What?
Each of us has the opportunity to lead where we are, no matter our title or position in the organization and to have a positive impact on others, ourselves and our respective organizations. Skeptical? Then try a few of these actions in the next couple of weeks and let us know your impact.
True leadership is not a title or position. True leadership is daily actions and behaviors that influence others. (Hopefully positively).
Each of us has the opportunity to lead where we are, no matter our title or position in the organization and to have a positive impact on others, ourselves and our respective organization’s. Skeptical? Then try a few of these actions in the next couple of weeks and let us know your impact:
Lead Your Performance – Set time on your manager’s calendar and listen to their vision and priorities for your organization in 2020. Based on that vision, develop a set of expectations that you will communicate back to your manager and commit to achieving. Delivering on these expectations will be your contribution to the organization’s 2020 success. Next, set 20 minutes each week on your managers calendar to review your progress, good, bad or indifferent, and proactively create an ongoing, dynamic performance development plan.
Lead Change – See possibilities for change in and around you. Identify what has been drifting that might be negatively impacting you and or others. Take action, think disruptively, create options and form recommendations for change. Then, act with urgency. Don’t let the drift and negative impact continue. Finally, don’t stop the process of seeing possibilities for change you can impact.
Lead with Accountability – When you hear blame being placed or excuses being made, then intervene with these simple but powerful statements, “How can I help?” and “What does success look like if we take a step back from the blame and excuses and how can I help get us there?” You will be amazed at the positive impact you will have just by reframing the focus.
True leadership is performing actions like these on a daily basis that will provide a positive and lasting impact on others and your organization. So, for the next couple of weeks, take a risk and step up and step out to lead right where you are.
To aid in your progress of leading where you are, check out our new book, Lead Where You Are, available today on Amazon. Available for the reduced price of $7.99 for a limited time! Don’t wait!
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Lead Where You Are - From the Boardroom to the Mailroom
For decades, leadership was reserved for a select few individuals in any organization. Top-down decision making and command and control management created a performance environment of employee compliance, focused on task completion.
However, an evolution in performance is rapidly occurring. With disruption and globalization impacting nearly every industry and organization, the top-down, command and control performance and leadership models of the past are proving to be too slow and increasingly ineffective.
For decades, leadership was reserved for a select few individuals in any organization. Top-down decision making and command and control management created a performance environment of employee compliance, focused on task completion.
However, an evolution in performance is rapidly occurring. With disruption and globalization impacting nearly every industry and organization, the top-down, command and control performance and leadership models of the past are proving to be too slow and increasingly ineffective.
Expecting and developing core leadership traits and behaviors in every employee regardless of title, position or tenure provides a key competitive advantage for any organization. Leading personal and team performance actions and activities, creating and cultivating an environment of personal change and accountability and developing authentic relationships that are aligned to a clear and compelling purpose ensures top-tier employee engagement, not command and control compliance.
This new, lead where you are, no matter where you are culture creates a positive, powerful and differentiated employee experience. So, whether your role resides on the executive floor, the shipping and receiving dock or somewhere in-between, leading where you are is truly the future of performance. Don’t get left behind.
To aid in your progress of leading where you are, check out our new book, Lead Where You Are, available today on Amazon. And we have decided to give everyone the opportunity to download the eBook version for free until January 18th! So don’t miss out, go download it today!
For free engagement and performance resources head over to our Resource Vault!
Lead Where You Are - 2020: A Career Year
It’s now December 31, 2020 and another year has just flown by! You are at a New Year’s party with family and friends, reflecting on this past year and the start of a new decade. You mentioned to the group that 2020 was by far the best year, professionally, you have had. They asked, “What made the difference over other years?” You told them that you make a conscious decision last January that 2020 was going to be different; that you were going to take more control of your career, your performance and the impact you would make.
It’s now December 31, 2020 and another year has just flown by! You are at a New Year’s party with family and friends, reflecting on this past year and the start of a new decade. You mentioned to the group that 2020 was by far the best year, professionally, you have had. They asked, “What made the difference over other years?” You told them that you make a conscious decision last January that 2020 was going to be different; that you were going to take more control of your career, your performance and the impact you would make.
You decided to lead where you are, not wait for others to manage you and your activities. You listened to the direction of the organization and you proactively asked your manager what success would look like in 2020. You aligned your personal plan and worked with renewed purpose to achieve that success. You set expectations with your manager and each month connected on your results and your planned actions for the next month. In other words, you reviewed your performance each month, not your manager reviewing your performance at the end of the year. You took control of your performance, good, bad or other wise, and did something about it each month.
Instead of waiting for change to happen to you or trying to “manage” it, you led it. You saw possibilities for change, not obstacles and barriers. You viewed your work differently and acted with urgency to make the change happen by creating options and making proactive recommendations.
You led with personal accountability no matter the circumstance. No excuses, no blame, no justification, you just did what was right. You cultivated more authentic relationships by getting out of your daily world to understand others’ view of success, their obstacles and barriers, so you could align your actions and activities to better achieve team success.
Bottom line, you stepped up and intentionally made a difference in 2020. Making a decision to lead where you are, not waiting for things to happen, but making things happen made all the difference.
Now back to January 2020. Are you ready to try something different to make a difference?
To aid in your progress of leading where you are, check out our new book, Lead Where You Are, available on Amazon for pre-order now and release on January 13th!
If you would like to get the ebook for free, head to the book page from January 13-18 and download the book for free!