Performance management is a process effective managers use to make sure that results happen – that what's intended to get done, actually gets done, and when it's not, that it gets quickly rectified. Integral to that is the priority to review results vs. plan on a scheduled basis at every organizational level. Then, corrective actions must be developed and implemented where variances exist, to get back on track in real time. Delusion, wishful thinking and false hope are not part of this process. Management information must be developed that enables managers to measure what needs to be managed rather than managing what is currently being measured.

 

We have crafted a six-section approach to help companies, divisions and departments create and implement successful performance management processes. It contains the following subjects:

 

• What is performance management?

 

• What is it not?

 

• What are the components?

 

• Guidelines for developing a performance management process

 

• Expectations you should have of your performance management process

 

• Guideline for management reports

 

• Guidelines for conducting an effective performance management review

 

As an example, the first section (What is performance management?) contains six steps of its own:

 

• Performance management is an ongoing process for managing results vs. plan.

 

• It's a process to propel the development of the appropriate management reports at the appropriate detail.

 

• It's a process to assist in the development and use of control systems to ensure the accomplishment of objectives.

 

• It's a process for conducting monthly/quarterly reviews for the purpose of:

     • reviewing actual vs. planned results

     • analyzing "off-track" results (positive or negative, within pre-defined

       parameters)

     • developing corrective action plans to get back on track

 

• It closes the loop on performance vs. plans and provides the feedback to ensure that the management process is dynamic: responsive to change, accommodating new issues and information, etc.

 

• It's a process for linking performance appraisals and compensation to the achievement of planned results.

 

For a FREE COPY of our brief, five-page discussion outline – The Golletz Approach to Performance Management – send us an e-mail or give us a call.

 Welcome to the People's Republic of Montgomery County

First I must confess: I do no business with government agencies. It's a personal, conscious decision. I'm also an advocate for self-management and personal responsibility. Government should provide basic needs, not create eutopia, discourage initiative or cultivate dependence. That said, I was talking recently to a Montgomery County, Maryland, elected official about the differences between government and business. A primary difference, I insisted, is choice. In business, customers can choose with whom they do business or whether to buy a particular product or service at all. If you don't like Coke, buy Pepsi. If you don't like soft drinks, drink water. In addition to the choices buyers can exercise, investors can decide whether company performance merits their capital. He responded with the following: "Well, Rand, it's really no different in government. We have elections for people to choose."

 

I held my tongue in amazement for a brief second and then asked:

 

"What if I decide not to participate? What if I decide to opt out? What if I decide not to pay a portion of my taxes because I neither use a majority of your services, nor support a majority of your agenda?"

 

He responded in a huff: "You just don't get it."

 

He was right; I don't! Here's my take:

 

Like businesses, government agencies do annual financial projections and operating budgets. During the "good times," those projections and budgets – always rosy – lay the groundwork for new projects and programs. Those new projects and programs then become embedded; people get used to them; they never go away.

 

Two years ago, our County Council approved a budget increase of over 14% (let the good times roll, baby!). Most of those Council members are still serving; they can run, but they can't hide. Obviously the ability to establish responsible budgets based upon realistic projections isn't a prerequisite for serving.

 

During tough times (like now) governments blame the economic downturn for their allegedly unpredictable decrease in tax revenue – laying the groundwork for "massive cuts" (politicians' shorthand for a 3% budget increase in lieu of 14%) and massive tax increases. Spending growth never stops; it just temporarily slows.

 

On occasion and under pressure, state, county or local governments propose referenda – allowing the public to vote on spending for specific initiatives. Politicians then proclaim their own magnificence as they let the public decide in a very direct, hands-on way whether to fund specific projects. The problem – these referenda are a scam. They require us to implicitly agree that the REST of the budget is sound.

 

The message is, "If you want this school (for example), you'll vote yes on Proposition 109. If you vote no, no school." That"s great, but what about the 30 miles of dog-paths you built last year or the sidewalks on a road that no one uses?

 

Entrepreneur, author and speaker Randy Gage says it well:

 

"Each (political) party must compete with the other for power, with their success based on their ability to give away more pork than the other party. If party A offers free high-school, party B has to up the ante with free college. … Political parties retain or reclaim power by promising more perks than they can take in through taxes.

 

"As a creative, thinking human being, you are up against a mass of people who want something for nothing and governments who want to give it to them. The sad truth is that your government doesn't want you to be successful. It wants and needs you to be a worker drone in a collective to support its system of dispensing free cheese to maintain its power structure. So you can be sure that every interaction with government will foster programming to support this."

 

Montgomery County is now planning the largest property tax increase in history. Officials explain that they're also planning to terminate three-hundred and some county employees, as if that compensates for gross negligence.

 

As Butch asked Sundance, "Who are these guys?" In the case of Montgomery County, they are people for whom more government is the answer regardless of the question or circumstance. Unfortunately, our problems cannot be solved with the same quality of thinking (or by the same people) that created them.

See you next month. Until then, get real; get tough; get going!