Service Snapshot: Improving Performance

Performance matters. Everybody and everything is measured by performance.

Do you know how you get results in your job?

Of the myriad things you do every day what get results and what doesn’t?

Situation

Behaviour drives performance; it’s what you do that makes a difference. High level performance results from doing the right things at the right time

Personality is a poor predictor of performance

Definitive research by Walter Mischel of Stanford University found that personality predicted less than 10% of behaviour.

• If we accept that behaviour drives performance, then personality is not the key.

• Performance is not determined by what you are (personality).

Performance is determined by behaviour (what you do)

The thing that determines behaviour is the situation. How you behave in your job is a matter of the requirements of the job. Your effectiveness is therefore a matter of matching your behaviour with the requirements of the job.

Behaviour must change over time

Adapting behaviour to changing circumstances lies at the heart of effective performance. Performance improvement is about assessing the demands of the situation, examining one’s current behaviour to determine its appropriateness or fit, and adjusting what you do to meet the challenges.

Behaviour changes either when people see the light or feel the heat. Change is continuous but incremental; things change imperceptibly but incessantly. As the demands of jobs change – technology, competition, objectives, resources, responsibilities, skills, knowledge, etc – behaviour must change to meet these demands.

The importance of behaviour for job performance

Mapping Behaviour to job demands

The effectiveness with which an individual manages his or her job – i.e. the level of performance that is achieved – is dependent on the degree to which their behaviour matches the behavioural demands of the job. The diagram below illustrates this. The greater the overlap of the two circles the higher the level of performance.

Job demands take over from behaviour

In our day-to-day work we are faced with a constantly changing situation, and when the demands of the job continue to change and the things you do to manage the job (your behaviour) don’t, then this results again in poor performance.

 

Solution: Our Eclipse approach

• Do you know the three things you should do to improve your performance?

• Do you know how to get other people to improve their performance?

• Do you know how to find out what motivates them?

• Do you know what a performance blocker is?

And do you know how to transform the energy they and you waste on blocking behaviour into behaviour that will accelerate and sustain performance?

Our Eclipse Performance Profile shows the way and it is the only tool that measures behaviours that block individual and corporate success. In fact it measures over 400 key management behaviours which make a difference to corporate success. It is validated at London School of Economics.

Eclipse uses a Service Oriented Architecture

Online Data Gathering

• Individual : Employs electronically based questionnaire survey techniques and is easy to use, requiring less than an hour of individual manager time

• Asks what they think they are actually doing, and what they think they should be doing to be most effective

• Manager: Can be used to get input on what a person is actually doing and / or should be doing

Data Analysis

• General: Data is analysed, interpreted and reported back in terms of behaviours that people are using and may want to continue to use, as well as those behaviours they may want to avoid. It also shows behaviour gaps - where behaviours that should be used to manage a job effectively are not being applied

• Job Specific: Individual

Reports

• Individual data is mapped to tailor-made client requirements

• Provides an effectiveness snapshot of the organisation as a whole or by team, function, or division

• Everyday, observable behaviours based in organisational reality and are expressed in common management language

Cutting edge tool – Offers unique benefits

Focuses directly on performance

It shows people precisely what they are currently doing in their jobs, and most importantly it shows them what they should be doing, in terms of focussed and specific behaviours, to improve their performance.

Change acceptance

Results in people both initiating and accepting changes that improve organisational effectiveness. Because the tool  gets people to generate their own suggestions for change they demonstrate much greater willingness to act on them

Identifies behaviours that drive performance

Identifies the behaviours that make a difference to organisational effectiveness and success – the actions that accelerate momentum and performance and the actions that sustain momentum and performance

Identifies performance blockers

Identifies the specific things that people do that block momentum and performance. It also enables individuals and groups to identify the major causes of these actions and deal with them

Job specificity

Able to define optimally effective behaviour for every job in an organisation. Unlike 20th century approaches which define competencies for groups of jobs, our tool produces specific behavioural competencies for each and every job in an organisation

Very low invasiveness

Performance programmes run with a few number of consultants taking limited amounts of employees’ time

Highly situational

As the job requirements change, the tool helps people adjust their behaviour to maintain high performance.

Benchmarking

It enables an individual and their manager to see immediate returns, regardless of other enterprise-wide benefits by benchmarking current versus past performance as well as between business units.

“Ask them” and “Top Down”

Works equally well in “empowered” organisational structures, such as in the Public Sector, and in more controlled environments in the Private Sector where a Manager’s input is frequently required.  

Scalable

Very flexible with different approaches used for varying levels of staff – senior, middle and front-line – and encourages leadership behaviour.

Creates a common language and understanding

A common language is then communicated throughout organisation for performance improvement and can be readily assimilated into annual appraisal process.