Category: Performance
Einstein had it Right – Performance is Relative
Albert Einstein was a pretty smart guy. The former patent clerk turned physicist turned our world upside down when he determined that speed is relative, depending upon the point of view of the observer.
PermalinkThe Shifting Sands of Performance Management Success
Historically, with every New Year, I’ve started my blog with a series of sweeping predictions. It’s an approach that always seemed logical – out with the old, in with the new. And it did make sense until this past year – 2009 – the year when everything that we previously knew to be true, no longer held credence.
Responsible Parents Being Responsible Employees
This morning had a difficult start, as my son and daughter had doctor’s appointments first thing. While this isn’t a really big deal, yesterday I had to take my son to the same doctor for conjunctivitis. I’m sure the doctor was glad to see him again, knowing that it was 24 hours later and he wasn’t contagious anymore.
The doctor’s trips were also challenging because I found it somehow difficult to balance that much time for my kids with the pressures of work sitting in the back of my mind at a critical time for many of my projects. I felt very guilty that I was spending more time on my kids this morning then work. However, now I feel more guilt for having felt guilty in the first place. Being a father should be a number one priority.
Do Top Performers Make the Best Managers?
We’ve all seen it before. A managerial position becomes available and is filled by a top performer with minimal or no previous management experience. It makes sense. After all, shouldn’t an individual top performer be able to easily make the transition to manager? Shouldn’t a person who performs at the highest level be able to guide others to reach that same level of productivity? The answer is a 100%, absolute maybe.
Pay-for-Performance in a Downturn: Best Practices for Employee Engagement
As an active member of several regional and national HR organizations, I can tell you with some confidence that there’s a lot on HR executive’s minds right now. A host of new HR tools, such as compensation planning and performance management applications, are empowering businesses to drive engagement and retention like never before. However, the recession’s ability to shrink merit budgets and increase margin pressures has caused some hesitation about initiating a pay-for-performance strategy.
