Quotes About Performance

Acting on a good idea is better than just having a good idea.

The first myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of management is that success equals skill.

Pretend you are dancing or singing a picture. A worker or painter should enjoy his work, else the observer will not enjoy it.

It is a curious fact that the delicate acoustic arrangements of a music hall can be impaired by the music of inefficient, discordant orchestras, and for this reason poor musical performances have been forbidden in some places. If a poor performance could affect adversely the acoustics of a hall, would not an able performance tend to improve them?

A series of controlled experiments and field studies in organizations shows that when teams engage in conflict over ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect, they develop better ideas and perform better .

And the most talented people in every occupation have huge advantages over their ordinary peers. Dean Keith Simonton, who studies greatness and genius, finds that whether it comes to songwriters, composers, scientists, programmers, or filmmakers, the top 10 percent generate as much or more output than the other 90 percent.

Ignorance, mediocrity, and mistakes run rampant when organizations fail to link the right people to the right information at the right time. This

smart talk trap."17 This a syndrome where companies hire, reward, and promote people for sounding smart rather than making sure that smart things are done.

Be wary when people tell you that they don't produce a lot, but when they do, it will be "brilliant." Remember that innovation is largely a function of productivity.

The possible answers were: 1 = de-energizing; 2 = no effect/neutral; or 3 = energizing. The colleagues in their team or business were then listed, and each was rated by every coworker. Rob and his fellow researchers were stunned by how strongly this "energy" question predicted performance evaluations and promotions, and whether people stayed with or left an organization.

If you want to make good decisions as the day wears on, watch for signs of fatigue. Even seemingly trivial levels damage performance. Build in ways for yourself and others to take breaks, whether it's getting a bite to eat or taking a few minutes to stretch your legs.

In short, if you are a boss, ask yourself: 'Who have I anointed as stars?' Think of your workplace more broadly and ask, 'Do we anoint people who bolster or bring down others' performance and humanity?

My rule of thumb is that no work team should have membership in the double digits (and my preferred size is six), since our research has shown that the number of performance problems a team encounters increases exponentially as team size increases.

The truth is that bosses...don't matter as much as most of us believe. They typically account for less than 15 percent of the gap between good and bad organizational performance, although they often get over 50 percent of the blame and credit.

Confirmation bias can cause bosses to make excessively glowing judgments about people they have invested a lot of time and money in or who they simply find to be likable or admirable. Even if your judgment is generally sound, confirmation bias can blind you to mediocre or even downright rotten performance displayed by your favorites.

Accountability means that an organization is packed with people who embody and protect excellence (even when they are tired, overburdened, and distracted), who work vigorously to spread it to others, and who spot, help, critique, and (when necessary) push aside colleagues who fail to live and spread it.

Performance and humanity are the goals that great bosses aim to achieve. Yet the best bosses devote little energy to thinking about how great it would be to reach these goals, worrying if they can, or even celebrating when they do.

Perry "puts all the bad apples in one barrel" so they don't wreck other teams. He then assigns a no-nonsense coach to lead the bad apples or does it himself—he is adept at dispensing tough love.

Leslie Howard.' 'Howard – yes, I remember him in The Scarlet Pimpernel. He was very good.

The problem of doing better in the modern world, as I see it, is this: How can people perform better in, and be better served by, institutions—especially large ones?

Trustees are accountable to all parties at interest for the best possible performance of the institution in the service of the needs of all constituencies—including society at large.

There is very little sustained performance at the level of excellence—of any kind, anywhere—without continuous coaching.

The team's diagnosis of a problem this morning centers on Sergio. The entire group has just spent time discussing Sergio's most recent review. On any given day, all employees are getting and giving feedback from multiple sources about how they're doing their jobs. Nothing in a formal review comes as a surprise. But it's also expected that individual reviews will be discussed with the entire team and with total candor. Niko

Performance management systems that promote individualistic behaviors seem to be one of the primary causes of sparse, disconnected networks. Hierarchy, too, often has a marked impact on who has access to whom.