Friday 16 July 2010

Confuse people with their performance at your peril

Some politicians trot out this line We don't negotiate with terrorists.

Consider this; people are not terrorists.
Sure (sadly) some people commit terrorist acts.
And even good people do bad things occasionally!

Confuse people with their performance however at your peril. By calling people terrorists, politicians are setting up confrontation, and it's all down hill from there.

Do you confuse people, the one-of-kind human being that each of us is, with what they do or don't do?

Recently I was helping a client deal with some poor performance issues, particularly with one individual. My client in referring to this person said He is such a dickhead most of the time.

I am willing to bet that all of us have labeled someone like this.  I have.

I ran the following past my client:

Despite all the ghastliness that is around, human beings are made for goodness.
Desmond Tutu

I asked my client: Does Alan (not his real name) have all the skills to fulfill his role?
My client answered Yes I think so.

I then asked: Is he willing to apply all his skills?
Nope. was my clients answer.

Turns out, as is often the case with poor performance, "Alan" is not clear on what is expected of him. His personal and business goals and how he intends to achieve them weren't even written down when I first spoke with him, therefore making it impossible to properly and professionally lead and manage for "Allan", let alone him leading and managing for himself.

Does every employee at your place have their personal and business goals and how they will achieve them written down? On one page is plenty.

And is there alignment between each individuals goals and how they will be achieved and the strategy and execution plan of our organisation?

Individual performance plans should be a cascade down of your organisations overall strategy and execution plan to the people charged with execution.

If you would really love to get good at engaging people and never again confuse people with their performance then get my ebook 45 tools, tips, and techniques for recruiting, engaging and retaining great people. It is available here for just $5 AUD.

Be the difference you want to see in the world
Ian

Founder Differencemakers Community
Storyteller
Strategist
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