Performance & Learning

What’s Your Performance Strategy?

I suspect your organization has a strategic plan, the plan of how it’s going to get from here to where it wants to be. If you’re like many organizations, it also has a marketing strategy, a sales strategy, a pricing strategy, a product development strategy, a human resources strategy, an R&D strategy… all of which rolls up into your overall strategic plan.

But does your organization have a performance strategy? You know, a strategy for ensuring that each and every individual and team performs at their best?

A number of years ago a study (“Public Agenda Report on Restoring America’s Competitive Vitality,” Yankelovich and Immerwahr, 1983) reported that only 23 percent of the workforce in America felt they were performing at their best. That means that 77 percent felt they could do more, and be more productive. In fact, 44 percent admitted that they do just enough to keep their job. And those were just the ones that admitted it!

While the study was conducted decades ago, it is consistent with my own informal surveys where I ask employees to rate their current performance on a scale of 1 to 10. At least 90 percent of the people I’ve surveyed rate their performance at no more than a 7.

Imagine if these employees were in your organization. Imagine if 90 percent of the people in your organization stepped up their performance from a 7 to a 9. What impact would that have on the overall performance of your organization?

One thing I know for sure is that hope is not a very effective strategy! Hoping that the individuals on your team and in your organization will improve their performance is really just wishful thinking. Unless there is a strategy implemented to make improvements, things will carry on just as they have in the past, no matter how much you or anyone hopes they will improve.

Oh, this applies to you, too. If you want to improve your performance, you need a strategy and a plan to implement it.

In these economic times, performance is more important than ever. It used to be that improving your performance was necessary only if you wanted to see some kind of promotion. Today, performance improvement may be the only thing between you and the long unemployment line.

From an overall corporate perspective, performance improvement may be what keeps your organization alive.

So, what’s your performance strategy?

Corporate Values & Culture

A company’s values and its culture are interlinked. Some would say they are the same thing, but I disagree. Values are what you begin with; culture is what you end up with.

The Problem with Performance Improvement Plans

Changing habits and behaviors is tough enough on its own, but when you throw in the hurdles that others provide, it can be a huge challenge.

The Learning Formula

A number of years ago I came across a very interesting factor in the learning process. I was coaching a young race driver who, no matter how many times I told him what to do, he just couldn’t get it. So, relying on my knowledge of the “mental game” and on my study of sports psychology tactics, I felt he must not have a strong and clear mental image of what he was supposed to do.

What Are You?

Here’s a question that requires some deep thinking before answering: What are you, and who are you?

Often, when I ask that question, the answer I get is along the lines of business-owner, teacher, executive, salesperson, chef, or agent. But that’s not necessarily the answer I’m looking for. I’m not looking for the answer to the question of what you do for a living, unless that’s truly what and who you are.

Time For an All-New Level of Personal Performance

In your job, and on a scale from 1 to 10, how would rate your performance? When I ask people this question, most reply with an 7 – some with a 8 or a 9, but mostly in the upper range of the scale. It seems that most people are above-average performers.

The Myth About Natural Talent

I’ve recently read two books that talk about similar subjects: Outlier, by Malcolm Gladwell (author of the best-selling Blink and The Tipping Point), and Talent is Overrated, by Geoff Colvin. Both books back up what I’ve been saying for years, and what I wrote about in my Speed Secrets books. Great performers in any activity, whether sport, music, arts, business or whatever are not born with more talent than average performers.

Are You At-Stake, or At-Risk?

Organizations are either in an at-stake or an at-risk state. Which is your organization in?

Being in an at-stake state, the focus – and even the culture – within the organization is on what’s at stake to be gained. It’s forward-focused. It’s on the offensive.

Changing Behavior

Many of today’s business leaders talk about the importance of change, and of the ability of companies and people to be accepting of change. They talk about how today’s workforce must learn how to change. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen and heard, there is much more talk about change than there really is change. Individuals embrace the idea or concept of change, but when it comes right down to it, they don’t really change when change it needed.

Not All Executive Coaching is Created Equal

Executive coaching has become very popular over the past decade or so, and that’s for one reason: it works. But not all executive or business coaching is the same, though. Generally, there are five different types of executive or business coaching: