​I hope that you agree with me that, whether at the individual, team, managerial, leadership, or overall organizational level, ‘people performance’ is crucial to business and career success. Yet, despite all good intentions, too often we see performance results (at all levels) falling short of desired performance expectations. So, based on my experience working with top performers in successful organizations, I thought that I would discuss a few ideas that I believe are important to positive performance change.

Minimal effort will get you minimal results. Everything of real value will come through your effort.
I recently began some career development work with a new client, a 15 year business owner who asked for my help in transitioning into a new role. At one point, when we were discussing performance motivation, I asked “what irritates you most about employees”? Without blinking an eye she responded …” minimal effort. It drives me crazy when people don’t see the substantial results that could be achieved if they simply did a little more than the minimum”.

​What you do matters much more than what you know or who you know.  
 
Actual performance, whether at the organizational, leadership, managerial, team or individual levels, is the real key to success. If you want to experience greater profitability, higher productivity, greater personal recognition, internal promotions, or even a progressive career change, the solution is simple – focus on achieving actual performance results. And surround yourself with people who do the same.

“If you are not moving forward you can expect to be left behind”

While recently on holiday, I was introduced to an American reality television program entitled ‘Bar Rescue’.  I am not promoting this program in any way, but rather, I wanted to share some impressions that I received from watching it and how they relate to performance, resistance to change, and loss of opportunity.

There is a direct relationship between performance and success. And with each successful performance accomplishment you open the door for your next challenging opportunity.

Your personal career success is dependent on your performance.

Those of you who know me have often heard me say that people who are successful, and who have great careers, accomplish this because they actually perform in their current positions and they can show the potential to perform at their next career level. It’s all about performance. And my consistent message is, “for superior performance to be achieved, and sustained over time, there needs to be a balanced match between an individual’s technical capabilities (education, technical skills and experience) and their non-technical (‘soft’) skills, to their specific work, manager, team and overall organizational culture”.

Your organizational success depends on the performance of your people. Growth, revenue generation and overall profitability is totally dependent on the contribution of your managers and staff, each person having a role to play and a contribution to make. Superior performance will only occur when you establish reasonable, yet challenging, performance objectives at the organizational, departmental, managerial and individual levels, and when you hold everyone accountable for meeting them.

​Yeah yeah – I’ve heard it all before.