High Performance – Star Qualities to Get You Noticed

Strategy Plan One

July 19, 2012

High Performance

Whether you are an employee in the private or public sector, or into self-employment, you need to set yourself apart from the pack.  To make a significant impact on your organization or industry, there are things you can do to achieve high performance.  Possessing and demonstrating qualities will ensure you stand out from the competition, internally and externally.

For the most part, personalities get noticed, but other characteristics and qualities gained through experience can make you shine through.  Your qualities can assist in your performance, but can also rub off also in the higher performance of employees, teams and business itself around you.

High Performance Qualities and Tips

Here are some qualities and tips to performing at a high level and getting noticed:

• Demonstrate excellence in everything you do, strive for excellence and encourage all to achieve excellence
• Set aggressive, achievable goals and demonstrate dedication by hitting them
• Seek and implement continuous improvements for yourself, for your team, for your business
• Be genuine, truthful, honest, respectful and fair; uphold strong values and ethics and treat others as you would want to be treated
• Create an open and transparent environment around you; staff, stakeholders and customers will want to go to as you have gained levels of trust
• Keep emotions in check
• Be consistent in your responses, decisions, and in your daily work
• Be an example of collaboration, partnership building, encouraging team effort
• Rely on other’s expertise; be noticed for calling upon others for their value-added advice, opinions and recommendations
• Value everyone’s input and feedback
• Lead by example
• Be energetic, enthusiastic, creative and innovative
• Be loyal to colleagues, staff, customers
• Hit and make the deadlines, be on time

More on personal and business development:

• Social Media Jobs – What Social Media Companies Are Looking For
• Productivity – 6 Small Steps For a More Productive Day
• Fathers – Great Dads, Great Mentors
• Positive Words – Business Communications in a Positive Way
• Goal Setting – Keeping You Going in the Right Direction
• Presentation Tips for Business Meetings and Interviews
• Values and Ethics – Integrating Strong Principles into your Organization

More business blogs of interest:

• Business Plan – The Next Steps

• Business Intelligence – Keeping you Wired In
• SEO Guide to Higher Conversions with a Few Steps [infographic]
• EService, Social Media and Customer Service Trends [infographic]

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Strategies to Improve Performance in your Personal Life and Business

Strategy Plan One

April 9, 2012 

Improve Performance

One should never be fully satisfied that they have reached their performance peak, that no further improvements to any aspect would be necessary.  With rapidly changing environments, entrepreneurs and successful professionals must constantly seek methods to improve, on a personal and business level.

To stay on top on the cutting edge, innovative level, you will need to engage in a systematic process of continuous improvement.

Determine your Performance Goals

There should always be a purpose behind a strategy, plan, or movement to improve performance.  You need to determine why you need or want to improve performance.  This purpose will set the stage to improve performance.  Performance goals can help guide you to an end point, assisting you to keep focused on the objective to improve performance.  Every professional and entrepreneur has differing performance goals, and differing levels to reach.

Ensure that you identify a strong performance goal, that is measurable and linked to a time frame (i.e. :  Personal goal of achieving 5% more income by the end of 8 months, or Business goal of achieving 12% return on marketing investment through the first quarter marketing campaign).

Identification of Performance Issues

To get to the root of all performance issues, one must start with an objective analysis of either your personal or business situation.  Shake that notion that you haven’t been doing anything wrong or could not have been doing anything wrong.

You will need to take a serious look at any deficiencies around your professional life and in your organization.  Step two is digging deep and really identifying the issues that create barriers to achieve the next step or improved performance.

Example of personal and business challenges and barriers may include:

• Financial limitations
• Time constraints
• Organization issues
• Educational or professional limitations
• Health and wellness, and work-life balance
• Balancing family responsibilities
• Location and connectedness
• Access to resources

Whatever the issue or challenge is, ensure that you objectively list them out as you will be seeking genuine resolution to improve performance.

Pathways to Improve Performance

Once issues have been identified to improve performance, you will need to develop some options to resolve performance issues.  Breakdown larger issues and barriers into micro issues and establish a plan with milestone goals along the way.  Similar to business planning, your personal improvement plan will be your blueprint to improve performance.

If it seems like you have many issues and barriers, don’t be overwhelmed by the overall picture.  Feel assured you can improve performance by breaking the plan down into smaller performance goals and solutions.  The example of personal performance of increasing income by 10% may involve many complex issues.  Break it down into what can be achieved on a micro-step, daily basis.  As part of a detailed plan, you may need to take small steps daily, seeking alternative employment options on a daily basis, or seeking promotional opportunities at work.

Stay on track and be dedicated in meeting your end performance goals.  Stay positive and work hard at this to improve performance.  Performance will not improve if you do not put in the effort.  Your dedication and hard-work ethic will pay off and you will soon observe yourself hitting milestone performance goals.

Achieving Performance Goals

Through your dedication, performance goals will be achieved at milestone stages and at the end goal.  Throughout the whole process, ensure that you continuously review your initial purpose, your initial goals.  As mentioned, your plan to improve performance should be measurable and tied to a time duration.   Measure your actual improvements against your planned performance goals.  If necessary revise and be motivated to achieve the goal or next step.

Motivation, perseverance, dedication, hard-work … grab and use these from your personal toolbox and you will achieve improved performance.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Capacity Building with Successful Training Programs

Strategy Plan One

March 28, 2012 

Capacity Building

Capacity Building within your organization starts with successful training programs.  To achieve success in training programs, research the capacity building needs of your organization, and the needs of employee development.  Significant surveying of the potential participants should take place – this will shape your program.  From this point, strong and detailed planning will be required to take your training initiatives into successful capacity building territory.

Mandatory Training Programs for Capacity Building

If the training is essential or mandatory for your staff, then your employees need to be committed.  To make that experience more value-added, ask employees for their input into mandatory training, which could involve flexible scheduling, involvement in the design and preparation, and pre-emptive messaging on the importance of the mandatory training programs.

Value added Training Programs

If the training program is one of value, but not mandatory, it is sometimes a hard sell.  An example of this would be skill enhancement or management training for organizational development.  Programs such as this require gauging employees for interest.  The organization has a vested interest in the capacity building of internal employees, as this may be the most cost effective way to retain human capital and corporate knowledge.  To the employee developing and moving into management of specialized area is not a mandatory exercise but one of choice.   The benefits of the training program and future prospects within the company must be promoted.

Capacity Building Benefits of Training Programs

Organizations must zone in on the benefits, especially the benefits to the employee, which will result in benefits to the organization through capacity building.  The highest priority should be to convince employees that training will absolutely benefit the employee first, organization second.  This will enable a high-level of buy-in when the employee benefits are placed out front.

Similar to promoting products or services to the populous, organizations must develop the right messaging around training and development programs for their employees.  A well-developed training program will demonstrate how the organization will assist with the personal and professional development of employees, with no huge commitment from the employee.  If the employee is quite demanding with training and development that they are interested in, that is a different story, and may require a bit of negotiation and commitments from both the employer and employee.  With expensive management training an organization may want a commitment from the employee, such as strategic employee retention, development and promotion.  Strong commitments will create strong relationships between employee and employer.

Training and development programs are essential to capacity building within organizations and staying competitive in the global environment.  As noted special emphasis must be placed on ensuring there is a two-way beneficial aspect of the training program to get maximum buy-in from staff leading to a successful training program.

Tracking Capacity Building Progress & Results

To round off the procedures for successful training plans, ensure you track progress and results.  With any project such as a training program, measure the effectiveness and return on investment.  Revise accordingly for continuous capacity building in your organization.  You will note progress when your units are gaining capacities in operations and management, and if your employees are buying in, you will achieve a high retention of your staff.

Strategy Plan One

http://strategyplanone.com

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One