Migrating from organizational to personal performance. Useful or not?
Ever since Performance Management has made its entrance into the world stage, a stubborn resistance towards it continues to persist.
How far are we going to take this process? Where will it stop? How many more levels of our lives will it invade any further? These are just some of the questions that reluctant voices continue to raise.
However, the true question we should be asking ourselves is: how long are we able to survive in the harsh environment of today if we don’t change our approach? To what extent do we consider ourselves to be ambitious, competitive, SMART?
Nevertheless, the voices of non-believers are quieting down, as direct evidence of success with Performance Management systems emerges to the surface, clearly showing us all that this is the right path towards the future.
If, by now, it is more than clear for most companies that, sometimes, the future holds little in stake for them unless they implement a Performance Management system, how clear is the need to have different performance-related elements applied to our personal lives?
How many of us want to return home, drained by the long working hours, only to resume measurements, monitoring, evaluating? The most frequent quarrels people have with Performance Management systems are related not to the results obtained through its use, but to the effort and energy that go into making such a system truly function.
Therefore, a line must be drawn: what are we throwing out the window and at what costs? If the results are positive, are we then rejecting a useful system only for the extra time it requires to obtain these outcomes? Are we scared of the meaning conveyed by a continuous process, which is, in fact, what performance management, whether personal or organizational, presumes?
Undoubtedly, we are, to some extent. However, we also are fighters, otherwise, we wouldn’t strive to improve, we wouldn’t have plans for a better future, we wouldn’t be able to call ourselves human, unless we always wanted to become superior versions of ourselves.
Then, from this perspective, is it truly far-fetched to embrace personal performance tools and techniques as means that were created for the sole purpose of improving a process? They are not.
It is all a process which sets order and discipline while also optimizing and improving the time we spend with our families, the budgets we allocate to our holidays, households, education, and the projects we embark on with the purpose of becoming better selves, such as diets, exercise routines etc.
That is what performance management ultimately translates into. It takes the dream of something better and it shows you the path towards it. From this perspective, can you still deem it too invasive?
