How well do you actively manage your workplace performance? Do you track your progress regularly or do you passively rely on your organisations annual performance development process? The pace of daily work place requirements often result in personal development assuming a much lower priority. For many it is managed inconsistently often with high reliance on existing employer performance management frameworks.
However relying solely on your corporate performance development frameworks can be problematic. While many organisations have mature systems many others are poorly formulated, haphazardly applied, or subject to a degree of non compliance that renders the outcomes moot.
How then do you take control of your development? There are a multitude of self help courses, management texts and guru's preaching a variety of methods to enhance your personal brand. However a number of simple activities can be undertaken and applied as first principles. These principles are predicated on the notion that focused self analysis will allow you to optimise the way you operate on a daily basis and serves as a basis for managing performance throughout your career. These principles include, understanding your strengths and positioning yourself to best leverage them, being aware of your preferred cognitive processes and working styles, always being able to articulate your role and contribution and better managing relationships in the workplace. These core principles are evident in the works of many leading management theorists however the critical success factor is ensuring you actively apply the principles regularly on a weekly, monthly and annual basis.
First you must understand what you do well. Many performance management frameworks focus on identifying and shoring up weak areas. The great business thinker Peter Drucker highlighted the fallacy in this approach suggesting this is an inefficient use of time and energy that only ever results in moving capability in the weak domain from incompetence to mediocrity. It is far better to develop a capable skill into an outstanding attribute. Knowing your strengths allows you to actively seek opportunities and situations that enable you to leverage those strengths: an optimum outcome for you and your employer. For further reading on this topic see Marcus Buckingham's and Curt Coffman's excellent book "first break all of the rules, what the great managers do differently".
The next principle requires developing an awareness of your cognitive process and preferred working styles. Often our work is scheduled in a way that conflicts with our preferred style or worse we don't understand how we process information. By understanding our default preferences we can make adjustments that allow us to ensure as much as possible we operate in our preferred mode increasing our effectiveness. Examples of questions you should ask yourself include do I work best alone or in a team, do I require structure or am I comfortable with an amorphous environment and do I get bored easily and therefore require variety? There are a number of tools that can assist in this diagnostic process to uncover your thinking style and behaviour preferences including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DiSC behavioural model and the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) . However these tools should be used only as adjuncts to your self-analysis. Each tool has its own limitations and biases and it's worth remembering the adage "the map is not the territory". Seeking feedback from your trusted mentors or role models is also an excellent method to inform your analysis and often provides valuable additional perspectives.
Once you are aware of your strengths and your preferred work styles this information can be used to agree your specific contribution in your role or current project. This can assist in alleviating disconnects between employer expectations and your abilities.
The final principle and a critical success factor is management of workplace relationships. If you have undertaken the steps outlined in this article you will have a better understanding of the specific and unique set of parameters that define your strengths, work preferences and ultimately your behaviours. This concept of uniqueness extends to your colleagues who also have their own particular preferences which may conflict with your own. Recognising these differences is empowering and can inform so many daily interactions in the workplace. Often these differences are the root cause of many workplace conflicts. Recognising different preferences in others can do much to depersonalise conflict and transition to resolutions. How then do you understand the preferences of others? This can be accomplished by taking the time to observe your interactions with others and certainly in many situations this can then be tested by simply asking. Recognising the difference in others can lead to authentic relationships that will significantly enhance your performance.
A detailed self analysis can and should cover many additional areas including reviewing your values and their alignment with your current work environment. However the suggestions provided should serve as excellent first steps. The subtext of this approach is that accountability for your own development rests with you. Don't rely on the efficacy of your organisations performance management system. Embracing a lifelong process of regular workplace self analysis will provide an excellent basis to develop and actualize your short and long term career aspirations.
Published by The West Australian Business News, Nov 18, 2010
