- We've covered a lot of ground in this course
as we shifted the perspective of
traditional performance management to an ongoing process
of continuous improvement.
Now, as human beings, we're all growing
and changing constantly.
The more we can guide our own growth towards the things
that matter to the most of us as individuals,
and to the goals of our teams, and of our organizations,
the more we can feel we can accomplish.
So, how can you live a life that's dedicated
to continually improved performance?
I'm going to give you five strategies.
First, know thyself.
The more regularly you conduct your own self inventory
of your skills and your interests,
the better you'll be able to understand how far you've come.
Compare what you've learned about yourself recently
with your self inventory from a previous time.
Giving yourself credit for all that you've accomplished
and for the knowledges and skills you've developed,
is the most basic building block of lifelong performance.
Second, have a portfolio of goals,
a set of the things you want to attain in your life.
Some of your goals can be near term and tactical,
such as improving your ability
to perform a particular process.
But some of your goals need to be longer term,
like reaching a certain role in your organization
or learning a new field.
And, make sure that a number of your goals
are stretch goals,
things you want to attain where you're taking a risk
and you're not quite sure how to reach them.
If every goal is easy,
you won't continue to improve your performance.
Third, continually embrace your failures.
If you're taking risks, at some point, you're going to fail.
Understand why you might not have performed
to your ideals in the past,
and make sure you know how to improve in the future.
Accept those failures as the necessary results
of taking risks in your life.
Because without taking those risks,
you would simply have been playing it safe,
and therefore, you wouldn't have truly
improved your performance.
Just make sure you learn from your failures.
As my friend Esther Dyson, the iconic investor
and entrepreneur says, "Make new mistakes."
Fourth, seek feedback constantly.
Asking others for unvarnished input about your work
is a critical key to improving your own performance.
If someone tells you you performed perfectly,
have the strength to challenge that perspective
just a little and nudge them for some more complete input.
Compare their feedback against your own perceptions.
Then set goals for addressing the shortcomings
you feel are legitimate.
And here's the fifth, and to me, the most important.
Have a mission or a purpose,
or whatever label is most valuable to you
in defining why you are here on this planet.
Have an opinion about the reason that
you're doing your work,
and do everything in your power to ensure
it's connected to that mission or purpose.
If you do these things, you'll find that lifelong
performance improvement isn't just possible,
it's absolutely achievable.
Good luck.