10 Ways to be Performance Oriented
Success November 19th, 2011One more of the traits I referred to and read about recently in “The Good Among the Greatâ€Â that I wanted to explore in more detail is Performance and Process Oriented.  I especially value the performance oriented and while I know the process piece is associated with that, to me it is a subset of performance.  This article explores how to put performance as a focus in much of what you do.
Work for Joy and Not for Money
Performance occurs when you are happy doing the job you do. Â Study after study shows that money does not bring happiness to life or a workplace and so you have to find joy in what you do to truly perform at your best. Â Finding ways to enjoy your work are important regardless of what you do with your used cell phones. Â At the same time, I don’t think you need to quit your job or find a new career that is more satisfying just to have a joyous reason to work. Â Every job has its joys or satisfactions and it requires the person doing them to discover them. Â In whatever job you do, you can either choose to complain about it (which many people seem to do in work) or you can find ways that you can value the work, the results you get and make the job more enjoyable. Â Perhaps this is through the people you work with, adding some humor or fun to the culture, making some friendly competition or self challenges to make the work more than just showing up for a pay check. Â If you don’t enjoy your job now, ask yourself, “Will it really make a difference to liking your job if you get a 10% raise?” Â Probably not, however, it will make a BIG difference if you can positively change the culture, make work more fun, know and have fun with the people you work with or simply love the results you can produce in that job. Â The great part of having more joy in the workplace, is that you will still end up having better performance which will always lead to that better pay in the long run anyway.
Value The Journey more than The Achievement
Being performance oriented often leaves people solely focused on a outcome instead of truly optimizing the process or journey towards that achievement. Â While obviously results are an important aspect of any performance oriented person, they are not the only thing that matters. Â The methods, the journey and the process used to get to that outcome is often more important since it is where the learning occurs along the way. Â The journey is where the experience is really coming from, not the end result and that experience is what you will remember and be able to repeat. Â If you achieve something and don’t know how you achieved it, does it really have any value?
Study The Results of Everything You Do
So, if you look at the journey or your performance and not only the results, it helps to pick apart the results and examine them to help uncover the truths of why they work or how you got them.  Of course the journey is part of this to know the process and methods, but the results are often not as obvious as they might seem at first either.  What impact does the result actually have?  Does the result reach other people, other areas or aspects of that job that you didn’t intend at first?  Are those positive or negative results?  What about the repeat-ability of your results, is there someone else who you could teach or help achieve the same thing?  Can you repeat them yourself?
Reflect on Your Talents and How to Use Them
Something leads to great results and sure the journey is part of that, but often that journey is shaped by a talent that you have. Â Do you know what your greatest talents are and is it clear to you when you are using them and how to make them more effective? Being performance oriented will require you to use all of your skills and talents. Â Reflect on them to figure how you can use them more? Â You are way better off spending your time on your strengths and talents than you are on weaknesses when you are looking to be performance oriented. Â Weaknesses may be an area you want to improve on to help get results, but every hour spent using a talent will always get you more than an hour spending working on a weakness. Â That is exactly why you would call it a weakness in the first place, you are not as good at it!
Learn From your Mistakes
I am amazed how many people seem to be afraid to make mistakes, want to hide mistakes they do make, and don’t seem to tolerate others making mistakes.  These are not the behaviors of performance oriented people, as hiding and avoiding mistakes is something that limits people from learning from them.  Obviously making mistakes  on purpose is not valuable here, but tolerating mistakes for what they are and then maximizing them by learning from them is incredibly valuable.  Ask yourself why the mistake happened?  Can you avoid it from happening again?  What did you learn from the mistake and can you share that or teach it to others?
Create Experiences Over Acquiring Things
The materialism and disposable world we have created is shifting people more and more towards what they want instead of why they want it. Â Acquiring things is often at the top of people’s goal lists or wish lists and it happens more and more as people achieve more. Â To be truly performance oriented however, one has to care more about the experiences they gain and wish for over the things they might be able to acquire. Â Every thing (even a status item or symbol of prestige) is still for the purpose of the feeling it gives the person. Â That is even more true with experiences that don’t come with some item or thing. Â The stuff we accumulate often holds us back from being able to do and experience more. Â If you want to be more performance oriented, you must think about and shift from acquiring things to creating experiences. Â It is the experiences you will remember and value years later and its the experiences you can share with others on a personal level.
Change What Doesn’t Work Quickly
Many people get their mind set on something and keep being persistent, without exploring new options.  Persistence has its merit when it is the only option to accomplish something (like my article on perseverance climbing a mountain) but most of the time there are alternatives choices and methods to get a similar result from.  This is why it is good to react when something doesn’t work and to change it before wearing yourself out or wasting too much time on the wrong thing.  If you can change something that is not working quickly for another method, this is much better than just continually pushing through when there is tiring resistance (either skills, circumstance, etc).  Optimizing the way to get results is important to do at all times, so change what doesn’t work quickly and you will certainly find the optimal path and be more performance oriented.
Kill Distractions and Find Solitude
Distractions seem like they have become part of everyday life now for most people but the truth is that they are chosen by people and it is quite possible to choose to eliminate distractions just as easily as it is for people to choose to have them. Â Whether it is how many times a day you check your facebook page, whether or not you stop a personal conversation to answer a phone or simply how you fill your productive and spare hours with extra things like music, a bit of web surfing or checking your email 25 times a day; Â all of these are distractions you choose to have or allow. Â If you want to be more productive identify the distractions that don’t help you and choose to kill them. Â Maybe for an hour to start, a day or if you are determined, forever, but no matter the time frame you have to choose to kill the distraction to gain performance. Â Combine that with some solitude where you can actually think about your life and the things you need to accomplish and you suddenly find yourself more performance oriented with an ability to get a lot more done in the same period of time.
Take Risks and Ignore Conventional Thinking
Performance oriented individuals are those who are willing to take risks and they know that a risk is often necessary to take a leap forward instead of always playing everything safe and conservative. Â Often conventional wisdom or wisdom of crowds forces conventional thinking that keeps us from trying something new, being creative or experimenting with some idea that might fail. Â Without the guts to take the risk, we limit every possibility of it working and kill what might have turned out to be an amazing ideal if only it was acted on.
Relationships Must Come First
Last but certainly now least in this list of being more performance oriented is relationships.  Relationship are absolutely crucial to great success and are one of the strongest areas to help accelerate and connect a person for success. Whether it is for support and empathy from people we know, trust and love, or connecting businesses and networks of business people towards win win situations, no matter what the performance you are after, relationships will help it come faster, make it easier to enjoy and share, and empower you with more passion and emotion than when others are not involved with you.
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November 20th, 2011 at 8:08 AM
Mike:
This was a fine article. I will be referring to it in a post on engaged performance on Tuesday. Your style and content as a writer seems to keep growing and getting stronger. Keep up the exceptional work as you balance on one wheel!
David
November 20th, 2011 at 6:55 PM
Thanks so much David!! I really do appreciate the feedback and your continual ability to sty engaged with so many people and your network. Look forward to seeing your article as well, and I hope many others check out more of the great stuff at your employee engagement network, its incredible content with many exceptional authors, including yourself!
November 21st, 2011 at 6:23 AM
Very true words, Mike. When you do something for a living that you truly enjoy, or atleast find a true purpose or meaning in doing, you almost don’t feel like calling it work. I have had this pleasure a few times in my life but financial pressures have forced me to log long hours in jobs that I didn’t find any sort of real interest or passion for. Now I am doing a mix of both types of work and hoping that one day, I can focus myself completely on doing what I love only.
-Jean
November 21st, 2011 at 8:58 AM
Great list. I’m particularly trying to focus on “Study the results of what you do,” lately. My life is full of aspirations but I don’t have great metrics to let me know how near (or far) they are.
January 3rd, 2012 at 9:35 AM
im in the process of setting up my new office . should be complete in the next 6-7 months along with my new house . hope to get a more distraction free environment for some peaceful dedicated work
January 3rd, 2012 at 6:29 PM
That’s great Sourish, distractions can be such a productivity killer it is important to be able to control them and the environment we are in a huge part of that. Good luck getting it all finished and the house for your work.
January 3rd, 2012 at 11:07 PM
I have no doubt that in your neck of the woods, there are ton’s of “Little Theater” opportunities. Find one that is close, and you are comfortable with, and get your foot in the door by volunteering for non-acting jobs.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:32 PM
I love this, Mike.. Thank you for sharing! I agree with all that you have detailed. Through following your above points, anyone can achieve their goals and performance. This same thought process inspired my book Unstoppable: 6 Easy Steps To Achieve Your Goals, Keep it logical vs. emotional to stay on track.
Gail Kasper
Motivational Speaker and Author, Unstoppable: 6 Easy Steps To Achieve Your Goals
January 4th, 2012 at 6:33 PM
@Gail, thanks for the comment and yes, steps toward great performance are hopefully quite overlapping from anyone who has researched and really thought about the subject. A great book I read recently was The Good Among the Great and it has 19 traits of great successful people. If you haven’t seen it, I’m sure you would love it as well.
Thanks for stopping by.
January 6th, 2012 at 9:50 AM
Thank you, Mike. I’ll have to check it out, sounds very interesting!
Gail Kasper
Motivational Speaker and Author, Unstoppable: 6 Easy Steps To Achieve Your Goals
January 13th, 2012 at 3:39 PM
It is not just important to learn from ones mistakes but to view those mistakes as part of an important learning process. It was Nelson Boswell who said “The difference between greatness and mediocrity is often how an individual views a mistake…”
January 24th, 2012 at 7:21 AM
Distractions and procrastination have bring me to fail to accomplish some goals.
I always looking to find new ways to increase my productivity!!
March 2nd, 2012 at 12:34 AM
Yes is it right we have to work for our satisfaction not for money. Once we start to work for money we will at some point of time will develop an hatred. I always love the job which i do.
March 2nd, 2012 at 3:22 PM
That’s so great, Catherine! This life is worth so much more than not enjoying what you do. It makes all the different when you follow a path that leads you to something you love.
January 8th, 2013 at 1:01 AM
Thanks for the great ideas. I wish I could figure this one out at work: Kill Distractions and Find Solitude!
February 26th, 2014 at 3:11 AM
This is a very enlightning article. Specially the notes about risk taking. It demonstrates how many of bright students in colleges do not sustain their success in real world because of their inability to think out of the box.