What to Assess When Assessing Performance

What is performance management? Now that is a loaded question. What do you measure when assessing performance? Does everyone in your organization measure the same things when assessing performance? How often do you assess performance? If you could correct performance before the results hit the bottom line, would you?

I am suggesting that there is only one thing that should be measured when assessing performance – commitment to the organization. How often have you wishfully asked, ‘why can’t “they” just put the organization first’. The strength of any organization is the result of how well the members serve the vision. When people are committed to the vision they put the needs of the organization before their own interests.

The manager in my last blog was working from an incorrect assumption. He assumed that it was enough to be a great chemist. He believed that if the chemistry was done right that was all that mattered. So the young chemist, being fresh out of school, was trying to get the purist sample and a scalable process. No one even took into account the needs of the organization or the customer.

The organizations goal was to make money for their shareholders and the organization by providing the best samples at a competitive price and fastest time possible. The organization was built on the assumption that the customer needed the sample for testing and needed it fast. If the sample proved useful good service, on our part, would bring the customer back for further development. Chemistry is what the organization does it is not the goal.

Because the manager was working from the wrong set of assumptions he was measuring the wrong thing. If commitment is the one thing every manager is measuring there could be no confusion. If the manager had been committed to the organization’s goals he would have been able to coach the young chemist and created a department that was committed to delivering the best sample possible within the customer’s timeframe and budget.

As it turned out, this manager valued chemistry over the organizations needs. He was coached, the assumptions discussed and agreed to, but his behavior did not change. His department continued to loose money and his employment terminated.

You will notice that I used the word behavior. Behavior is how to measure commitment. What people say and what they do is the only measure of their commitment to the organization. People will make excuses or blame others for poor results but that is a whole different blog.