Execute More Effectively This Year with Conscious Self-Management

All of us have natural tendencies that are key factors in how we respond to things in our life as we are trying to get stuff done.  In this article, we're going to deal with two that make up the paradox that is an important factor in how we accomplish work,  the trade-off between tempo and attention to detail.

Insights into Improving Performance Management 

Over the last few years, there has been a significant trend away from performance appraisals and all kinds of discussions about this "dying" practice and some generic alternatives.  Has it really gone away? Should it be killed off?    The reality is that it has gone away in many organizations and in many, with rather dismal results.  In other cases, it's been transformed and this is, we believe, as it should be.   An effective manager in today's environment needs three things…

How things are done, processes, the building blocks of business are changing.  You build successful organizations by building processes(sets of activities and decisions to achieve specific goals)  but now it's even more important that you optimize the people, technology and analytics in these processes if you want a successful result (and more literally, if you want to survive).  This is increasingly complicated by the fact that many processes, especially those involving the product or service delivery cycle, involve and flow through multiple organizations.

If you want to be a truly effective manager, you need to be able to shift roles situationally.  Some do this quite naturally and often effectively,  but most do not, at least not without a fair amount of forethought and practice (i.e. work developing new habits).   We arrive at work each day with a set of natural tendencies, attitudes, motivations, likes and dislikes that largely guide our responses.

Most people don't understand themselves particularly well.  This we believe without reservation.  So why do we say this???