“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.” –Mihaly Csikszentmihaly I recently read that Accenture will abandon their annual performance review system in place […]
Leadership Insights From The Pan Am Games
Performance…it seems these days this word tends to be on most people’s minds. Whether in business, politics or yes, even sports. Performance is one of those terms that has become genericized in our culture. In most organizations, performance usually falls somewhere in the area of performance management systems, operational efficiencies and productivity. With new and […]
Why are you feeling the fear?
Have you ever been given a project or challenging assignment and you begin to ask yourself the “what if” questions? Or perhaps right from the beginning of the project you “know” it will end in disaster? Well, the majority of the time when we start to over think something, or spend hours planning and strategizing, […]
Is co-operating a dirty word?
Athletes are competitive by nature with both themselves and their opponents. They establish goals, create plan on how to achieve these goals, and then begin executing the plan. Regardless of how we phrase it, whether it’s setting stretch goals, establishing reach goals, going head-to-head with your competition, humans, by nature, are competitive. Even those who […]
Get what you have to get done…and then some
What really makes people and teams perform at their best? Several factors are involved: good talent, great habits, and a performance-based culture. When we read all the literature on human performance and organizational development, we start to establish a greater sense of what really allows these people and teams to perform at their best. The […]
Do Social Relationships Affect Organizational Performance?
It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much. –Yogi Berra Our “social relations” or our “circle of influence,” as it is now commonly referred to, can greatly impede or accelerate personal and team performance. High-performing sports teams have known this for years, and augment their teams with athletes who can […]
The Newest High-Tech Performance Tool
In the workplace, we are faced with deciding which new platforms will help revamp traditional performance management systems and practices. There are a tremendous number of new platforms and apps to choose from that allow greater insights into workplace performance than ever before. I often get asked, in a rather urgent manner, “What can we […]
Spotting the Next Generation Leaders
Leadership succession planning and improving performance management programs are fast becoming blended initiatives for progressive organizations. Both areas are receiving a considerable amount of attention, and that’s no wonder, given the pace of change and the considerable amount of unknowns in many marketplaces. As we are all aware, we are living in a time of […]
How Working for a Really Bad Boss Improved my Performance
I was a business director in a mid-size company that specialized in business-to-business marketing communications and learning. When I started there I was warned by several people that my boss, the VP of the organization, was going through a mid-life crisis. I thought, big deal, how bad could it be? Needless to say, I knew […]
Is Ongoing Learning the Focus of Performance Improvement?
A considerable amount of attention is currently being placed on “outdated” performance management systems. As such, there is a mounting need to “reinvent” workplace performance reviews and systems. Now is the opportune time not just to develop new systems and processes, but to create cultures that enhance an employee’s performance. As we know, career progression and […]