Performance Management

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.