How Well Do You Manage Your Own Performance?
One of the toughest tasks for any business owner is to determine the cause of their own performance challenges. Since decisions to remedy the problem will depend on the diagnosis, accurate assessment is crucial. Let’s explore a number of factors influencing self performance, so that you are less likely to ignore a possible source of performance deficit.
Work performance is influenced by a number of factors. When performance is excellent, it is a result of a number of circumstances that work together to make this excellence possible.
So, stellar performance requires that ALL relevant influences on behaviour are in place.
Let’s look at several factors that influence or determine the level of performance. If there is a deficit in any one of these factors, performance will suffer.
Aptitude
Aptitude refers to a business owner’s natural ability to perform the task or tasks. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses that determine if we can learn or perform a task. Poor aptitude for a task could mean that the business owner could never learn how to do it, even with all the support in the world. Assessing aptitude is very difficult.
Skills
Even the simplest responsibilities require skills. Skills differ from aptitudes in that they can be learned, up to the limits imposed by aptitude. To assess whether a performance deficit is a result of lack of skill, ask the questions, “If your life depended on it, could you do the task?” If the answer is no, then it could be a skill problem.
Clarity
A person must understand the nature of the task, and what is expected. If this clear communication is lacking, no amount of skill or motivation will bring about effective performance. Performance management is the common means for conveying understanding of the task. The best way to assess your understanding is to buddy with a trusted friend and take them through the task as if they are hearing it for the first time.
Effort
If a business owner has the aptitude, skills and understanding of the task required, it may be that there are factors causing the business owner to “not make the effort”. These may be personal or related to the work environment. Assessing whether there is a motivational problem is difficult, and can best be done by examining other indicator behaviours i.e. procrastination, not having clear goals, failure to produce a valid 90 day plan.
Sometimes effort is not an on/off button. A business owner may be putting in a limited amount of effort and therefore producing inferior results. Performance requires that effort be initiated and sustained over time.
Performance can be reduced due to factors beyond the control of the business owner. If this is the case you should be in a position to identify these and seek the advice of others on how to reach a solution.
Important
It is important that performance challenges be addressed as soon as they occur, and the above factors be examined to determine whether they are contributing to the problem.
Lack of results will manifest itself in a level of negativity and/or self doubt that will be harder to overcome the longer it is left.
Need Help?
Typically running our own businesses is fulfilling and rewarding, the challenge, I have encountered, is for business owners to be humble enough to just ‘ask’ for help.
If you or your business is not performing to the level you feel it has the potential to perform at – you will benefit from a Complimentary Business Breakthrough Coaching Session more…
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