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Performance Standards: The Scoreboard That Records Progress Towards Goals

By Leon Noone

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Published: 10Sep2009
Word count: 412
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Summary. Performance Standards are more important than goals. They tell people how well they're progressing towards goal achievement. They are the scoreboard that keeps us informed about how we are going and whether our goals are worth persevering with, and whether we need to change our tactics.

Know How Well You're Doing. Imagine a sports game without a scoreboard. No one: players, coaches, officials, spectators would know how the game was progressing. Players and coaches wouldn't know whether to try harder, slacken off, intensify their efforts or change the game plan. They wouldn't know how to deploy players for best results or match up opposition players for maximum advantage.

And How Well They're Doing. Without a scoreboard you could rely only on voice contacts to receive information about the state of the game. You wouldn't know how the opposition was doing either. And you'd have no real idea whether the information from the voice contacts was worthwhile or useless. Your players would be "in the dark" about their progress.

The Sports Arena and The Workplace. It's hard to conceive of a professional sports arena without a scoreboard. Coaches, officials, players and spectators all look at it from time to time. But we don't demand a scoreboard telling us about workplace performance.

If we went employees to achieve work goals successfully, we need a system to tell them how well - or otherwise - they're doing. Employees don't want to be uninformed. They want to monitor their own progress.

We set work goals routinely but don't set standards to tell us how well we're progressing towards them. In a sports arena this would be seen as just plain stupid.

Benefits of Performance Standards. Performance Standards measure how well you're progressing towards your goals. They also enable you to measure goal achievement precisely. But they do more

• they provide intermediate goals to motivate employees

• they reinforce the importance of measurement of progress towards goals

• they enable employees to assess their own progress

• they allow revision of tactics for goal achievement

• they force managers to be precise and specific about what they're trying to achieve

• they improve clarity of purpose for all concerned

• they facilitate evaluation of performance in a consistent manner

• they highlight circumstances that enhance or inhibit goal achievement

Conclusion. Without professional Performance Standards you'll not only be unable to work out whether you're successfully or your way to achieving your goals. You'll have no precise way of knowing whether you've arrived either.

If you've enjoyed this article, you might like to read my FREE, 42 page Special Report, "5 Proven Methods For Improving Employee Performance On The Job". It's yours to keep. You'll also get a free bonus eBook about setting Performance Standards for employees. Just go to http://www.leonnoone.com and they're yours. I work with small-medium business managers to improve on job staff performance without using training.

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