Why Is Strength Based Performance Management?

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Many organisations use a process of performance management as a mechanism for driving up productivity and employee engagement through objective setting (targets), competency assessments, employee development needs, reward and remuneration packages and career development strategies.
Performance management processes are commonly based on annual or biannual performance assessments; in these, employees usually assesses their own performance in their allocated key areas of responsibility and discuss the outcomes with their line manager who, in turn, provides a personal or, sometimes, collective assessment of the employee’s performance; too often this is focused on alleged weaknesses or deficits. The discussion is usually linked to employee development …show more content…

The whole concept of managing performance has hit stormy seas.The days of a systematic, aligned approach where the horizons were clear, and the route easily set have been replaced with confusion for organisations and individuals alike.
Performance management was designed for an era typified by predictability, hierarchy, command and control, and stability. Its roots were firmly embedded in Frederick Taylor’s notions of scientific management. Today, the entire premise of performance management has profoundly shifted. With widespread emphasis on teamwork, shared leadership, and an environment of volatility and virtuality, the performance management model is increasingly coming under pressure.
Why is strengths based performance management a hot topic?
There is a growing awareness across the business spectrum that typical performance management systems focus too much on remedying individuals’ weaknesses or deficits; it is much more powerful to focus on people’s strengths and apply these to the required organisational outcomes. This is particularly so in difficult operating times when the importance of hiring to strengths as well as to skills can be a real differentiator of …show more content…

Before you can start measuring performance, you’ll need something to measure against because what gets measured gets done.
If your organisation uses competency frameworks, then a good starting point will be to realign your competency frameworks to integrate strengths with skills. This doesn’t mean “throwing the baby out with the bath water” and abandoning tried and tested approaches to job and person specifications. Rather, it’s about integrating strengths into competency definitions.
According to Gallup Consulting, a strategy for maximising organisational outcomes lies in integrating strengths and competency development. While you will still need to define competencies (something proven to drive performance that can be developed; what people can do), you should more closely identify what employees will naturally do, based on their strengths.
A strengths based approach is likely to encourage people to reach their full potential rather than stopping when they have achieved the requirements defined in a traditional competency

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