I Read this
recently and thought of sharing the same with
you people........
Every company has a performance appraisal system in place to measure
the
effectiveness of its employees.
Employees are normally rated in most of the companies in the above
categories.
Apart from the above non performance category is also there, which is
not
depicted here ) . Needless to say everyone wants to be rated
Outstanding.
What is the yard stick and how do you measure these aspects?
- Employee "A" in a company
walked up to his manager and asked what my job is for the day?
- The manager took "A" to the
bank of a river and asked him to cross the river and reach the other
side of the bank.
- "A" completed this task
successfully and reported back to the manager about the completion of
the task assigned. The manager smiled and said "GOOD JOB"
Next day Employee "B"
reported
to the same manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager
assigned the
same task as above to this person also.
- The Employee "B' before
starting the task saw Employee "C" struggling in the river to reach the
other side of the bank. He realized "C" has the same task.
- Now "B" not only crossed the
river but also helped "C" to cross the river.
- "B" reported back to the
manager and the manager smiled and said "VERY GOOD JOB"
The following day Employee
"Q" reported to the same manager and asked him the job for the day.
The manager assigned the same task again.
- Employee "Q" before
starting the work did some home work and realized "A", "B" & "C"
all has done this task before. He met them and understood how they
performed.
- He realized that there is
a need for a guide and training for doing this task.
- He sat first and wrote
down the procedure for crossing the river, he documented the common
mistakes people made, and tricks to do the task efficiently and
effortlessly.
- Using the methodology he
had written down he crossed the river and reported back to the manager
along with documented procedure and training material.
- The manger said "Q" you have
done an "EXCELLENT JOB".
The following day Employee
"O'
reported to the manager and asked him the job for the day. The manager
assigned
the same task again.
"O" studied the procedure written down by "Q" and sat and
thought about the whole task.
He realized company is spending lot of money in getting this task
completed. He
decided not to cross the river, but sat and designed and implemented a
bridge
across the river and went back to his manager and said, "You no longer
need to assign this task to any one".
The manager smiled and said "Outstanding job 'O'. I am very proud
of
you."
What is the difference between A, B, Q & O????????
Many a times in life we get tasks to be done at home, at office, at
play….,
Most of us end up doing what is expected out of us. Do we feel happy?
Most
probably yes. We would be often disappointed when the recognition is
not
meeting our expectation.
Let us compare ourselves with "B". Helping some one else the problem
often improves our own skills. There is an old proverb (I do not know
the
author) "learn to teach and teach to learn". From a company point of
view "B" has demonstrated much better skills than "A" since
one more task for the company is completed.
"Q" created knowledge base for the team. More often than not, we do
the task assigned to us without checking history. Learning from other's
mistake
is the best way to improve efficiency. This knowledge creation for the
team is
of immense help. Re-usability reduces cost there by increases
productivity of
the team. "Q" demonstrated good "team-player" skills,
Now to the outstanding person, "O" made the task irrelevant; he
created a Permanent Asset to the team.
If you notice B, Q and O all have demonstrated "team performance"
over an above individual performance; also they have demonstrated a
very
invaluable characteristic known as "INITIATIVE".
Initiative pays of every where whether at work or at personal life. If
you put
initiative you will succeed. Initiative is a continual process and it
never
ends. This is because this year's achievement is next year's task.
You cannot use the same success story every year.
The story provides an instance of performance, where as measurement
needs to be
spread across at least 6-12 months. Consequently performance should be
consistent and evenly spread.
Out-of-Box thinkers are always premium and that is what every one
constantly
looks out for. Initiative, Out-of-Box thinking and commitment are the
stepping
stone to success.
Initiative should be life long. Think of out of the box.
