If you work in a people business, you can sure relate to this entry. If you have plans of immersing yourself in this type of industry, I
hope that this will help you understand and comprehend the eclectic facets of
the field. However, some knowledge points can widely be incorporated to any
type of situation but more so to the type of personality that aims to acquire
or achieve. For those otherwise, I hope in a way, this can give you a different
type of perspective.
Performance management
as defined by Dr. Aubrey Daniels in 1970, “..is a technology for managing both behavior and results, two critical
elements of what is known as performance.” The definition conspicuously uses
technology brought about by science applied through skills. It aims to reduce
defects, maximize potential or just simply, succeed.
For anything you do in life, you manage your performance. If
you are student, you aim to have higher grades and your end goal, to pass or
exceed expectations. If you are a member of the workforce, you aim to hit
targets, complete projects, sell, analyze and implement. Your end goal is to
ensure these are all met so that you can keep your job and bring food to the
table. If you are an entrepreneur, you look into your operating costs, study
the market and your customers, and invest intelligently your money and talent.
Your end goal is to ensure you have steady growth in profit and assets. If you
are in showbiz, you battle out in gaining projects, series of shows whether in
TV or theatre and aim to get endorsements. To keep your job, it’s a must to be
popular. Your fame is nothing but primordial. The same line of thinking goes
for the government and other types of industry.
Achieving goals and sustaining it, needs performance
management. I can think of two intertwined results of performance management
and those are – expected influx in income and motivation.
To manage performance, we need something to propel behavior.
A sense of commitment should take place so we can draw specific job
requirements’ output. Managing performance therefore starts from ensuring we
know the major or foremost goal for a certain individual. Influence and
leadership to oneself or the team, is perfect ingredient in determining or
bringing out commitment. Motivation on the other hand should juxtapose commitment.
Without motivation, performance management is next to impossible.
It is a known fact that motivation determines a person’s
capacity to sustain desired action or behavior. Therefore, it is imperative for
any organization leaders to ignite motivation in its truest sense. There are so
many forms of motivating the staff. I can name a few: recognition, rewards and
discipline. To motivate oneself on the other hand varies from person to person.
It is subjective. But it doesn’t hurt to motivate yourself through recognizing
your own strengths, rewarding yourself for a job well done and putting discipline
in line with your personal goals in life.
Performance management is necessary in life as it is
necessary to learn a skill or hone a talent. This skill or technology is a must
for change and development to take place. It is you who can tell which
structure will best work for you, just understand and learn to be open to your
approach. Because at the end of the day, we all aspire to be successful and if
failure is inevitable after you have given all – that’s called excellence.
