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Tag: performance

  • Ultimate Guide for Developing a competency framework

    Ultimate Guide for Developing a competency framework

    A competency framework is one of the most talked-about subjects today in the field of human resource management. All of us are aware that this is not a subject that is new to the area of H.R.

    For the last four decades, David McClelland spoke about this concept in 1973.

    David Mcclelland

    But many people have researched, who have studied, and defined what competencies are.

    So let us look at a few fundamentals to be followed before implementing this concept of competency-based management (framework). 

    WHAT’S IN IT?

    UNDERSTAND AND DEFINE THE NEED-

    Firstly, let’s not jump into this because many other organisations follow this practice, and you are not one among them. 

    So, as an H.R. practitioner, you must sit with the business leader to understand. They want from this initiative and why they feel that competency management could help them take the business to the next level.

    I have come across business leaders who declared it very clear that they would want to see this initiative succeed.

    In seeing that many future leaders emerge in the organisation. Employees have opportunities to understand what their strengths and weaknesses are.

    Employees are allowed to work on their competencies for them to see growth in the organization. 

    WHAT IS A COMPETENCY AND COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK?

    A competency is a fusion of skills, knowledge, attributes, and behaviour, which helps a worker play his role effectively in any organization.

    You can observe and evaluate any worker’s competency (potential, performance, skill, and will),

    This will help you in job recruitment, retaining human resources, sorting existing staff, and development.

    A competency framework is a tool that helps the organisation of any sector achieve its goal with its employee/workforce.

    With the competency framework, every worker will know about his role. When he understands the value, importance, and contribution of his job, he will be excited to value such significance in my work. Am I going to do such an outstanding job? He will do his work more efficiently because he can do a much better position where the person gets a reward.

    SOME TIPS TO EVALUATE THE COMPETENCY

    Potential –

    It means how much your worker can grow further. For this, ask him a situation based and complex question, and when he gives you an answer, you can find out his potential.

    The performance –

    It will tell you how he has performed in his previous jobs. You can check his last results, score sheets, mark sheets, awards, rewards, and talent progression.

    Skill – 

    You see how much work efficiency, the knowledge he has, and how fast he can work.

    Will – 

    You can use this for the hiring of new staff as well as for your existing team because in every organization there are workers who have a lot of skills and they also know how to do any work, Why to do, When to do, With whom to do but they do not do it because there is no will. 

    You can eliminate such types of workers from your organization.

    WHY COMPETENCY-BASED MANAGEMENT?

    Competency-based management is a development process aligned with the strategic direction of the organization.

    The process aims to.

    • Build a high performing organization with capabilities to proactively address business needs.
    • Communicate the competency continuum and the criteria for the competent employee openly.
    • Provide a structure that links the needs of individuals with the needs of the organization.
    • Encourage every individual to be proactive in development (innovative approach, Superior delivery, and equipping for higher roles).
    • Provide opportunities for every individual to identify and enhance strengths and reduce gaps.

    CREATE COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK

    How do you reach out to an employee communicating to them that this is the competency framework of our organization, and this is where we want all of you to work on and develop.

    For this, you have to tell them the core competencies, leadership competencies, and functional competencies of your organization.

    Core competencies –

    These are critical for all employees. They are the reflection of the organization’s values.

    These are required for excellent performance across all levels and functions.

    Leadership competencies- 

    These are the success factors that differentiate performance across levels. 

    (e.g. – First level, middle, executive).

    In other words, it is critical for managerial/executive roles.

    Functional competencies- 

    These are success factors that distinguish functional groups. Specialized know-how or abilities. It is Function/job-specific.

    Remember one thing that all the above competencies also have different names.

    For example-

    Core competencies are also known as 

    • Foundational competencies.
    • Generic competencies.
    • Cultural competencies.

    Leadership competencies are known by-.

    • Professional competencies.
    • Personal competencies.
    • Management competencies.
    • Behavioral competencies.

    Functional competencies common names are-

    • Technical competencies.
    • Occupational competencies.
    • Domain competencies.

    MAP COMPETENCIES

    We talked about the three different clusters of competencies. So how do you map what skills are required for whom?

    First is Core competency- 

    You consider this as a house of competency. Everyone in the organization is required to process fundamental competencies.

    The core competencies are pretty familiar to all in the organization, so we need to identify the 2 or 3 critical competencies that you would like every employee in your organization to possess.

    They could be teamwork, innovation, and customer orientation, which fundamentally emanates from its values and philosophy.

    This applies to the organisation concerning the roles and concerning the position that they handle.

    The second is about leadership competencies-

    One methodology that is predominantly used to identify leadership competencies is ‘BEI.’ It stands for behavioral event interviews.

    It is one of the proven methodologies widely used by most professionals involved in this competency management practice.

    Some people handle leadership roles and responsibilities, such as roles required to have leadership competencies.

    Examples of leadership competencies coaching, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, decision-making, and risk-taking.

    The last one is about having functional competencies-

    The conventional methodology, which is applied for mapping functional or technical competencies, is called role analysis.

    It also has the name of the job analysis. We call it role because any competencies that we’re trying to map are all role-based, and therefore we call it role analysis.

    Examples of functional competencies are budgeting, production planning and management, Networking, negotiation.

    So mostly, if you put together all the three clusters of competencies for any individual, it should not go beyond 8 or 12 in number.

    The ideal number to keep is a maximum of 12 as competencies for any individual.

    So it’s essential to keep it manageable in terms of numbers; only then you would see the result, and only then you would know an appreciation from their employees.

    CREATE COMPETENCY DICTIONARIES

    Let’s look at how we go ahead, creating dictionaries or what needs to be considered while creating dictionaries.

    The most crucial aspect is defining the Likert rating scale.

    Many companies use the 3 points Likert scale, 4 points, 5 points, and 6 points Likert ranking.

    rating scale

    But you can use 4 points Likert scale to be more objective, more manageable in terms of helping employees understand the competency requirements. 

    explanation

    It also helps the accessors in terms of arriving at the right proficiency level during the assessment.

    The second most important thing is to understand what a dictionary is. 

    Now, the reason why we say every competency should have a dictionary. Let’s say if I define communication as one of the competencies which are part of the leadership competency cluster.

    When I define it, I am setting it with my understanding of what communication is all About.

    But if communication as a competency applies to someone who was a supervisor at the shop floor level and someone who was a general manager, and somebody handling the business.

    How do you define behavioural indicators that would consider the various behaviours you would expect all three roles to demonstrate?

    The critical aspect is that the dictionary means it is a standard reference document for every employee to understand the competency. In the same way as the project champion of the organisation would want them to understand.

    While you are defining the dictionary, there are three things that you need to keep in mind that the dictionary should reflect the knowledge element, skill element, and the attitude or otherwise call as the behavioural element. 

    Now you will not be able to dissect and mention all these three in the dictionaries explicitly, but you would put it up in the form of behavioural indicators.

    When you are putting this in the form of behavioural indicators, make sure that those indicators are relevant to your defining competency. They are measurable, and finally, they are absorbable.

    DECIDE THE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY

    So we have identified and mapped all the competencies of fundamental leadership and technical competencies. We also created dictionaries. So how do we go about doing the assessment?

    Typically there are two methodologies, i.e., assessment and development centre methodology, followed across organisations.

    Assessment Centre-

    If the object is only to assess employees and then identify who among them face well, and therefore you do a ranking and then decide whom to give the opportunity in terms of career progression, you call it an assessment Centre.

    Assessment Centre is also a methodology use during recruitment when you want to select people and when you want to access them on competencies before deciding them. All the candidates who appear for the selection process that participate in the simulation exercises and the best among them will get chosen.

    So one of the differentiating factors here is you don’t necessarily give the participants feedback on how they fared on competencies. 

    You should only decide whether they are selected or not selected, and that’s why it’s called the assessment centre.

    Development Centre- 

    If your objective is to help the employee understand where they stand on various competencies and develop an Individual Development Plan.

    For this, the development centre methodology becomes relevant and the prominent one.

    In all these methodologies, whether it is the assessment centre and development centre, the stimulation exercises are the base.

    CONDUCT ASSESSMENT AND SHARE FEEDBACK

    So what are a few things that we need to look at while conducting assessments?

    If you decide to go ahead with the assessment development centre methodology, make sure you have the training in place.

    Either they are professionals or experts who are helping you from outside, or you have to train your people, who are good at assessing people, so they must be ready to determine in place.

    The second is, you should have a lot of simulation exercises and tools created for assessment.

    It could be In-basket exercise, Case analysis and presentation, Roleplays,  competency-based interview with group simulations depending on the list of competencies. Whether you observe them on behavioural competencies or fundamental competencies, you could decide on the simulation tools list.

    However, 5 or 6 tools would require a fair judgment about the person in the organisation.

    If your organisation is a small organisation with about 50 to 100 member teams, it becomes easier for you to involve most of them as part of the assessment development centre process.

    But, If your organisation has an employee strength of 2000, 3000 because, in any assessment development centre, you can’t go beyond participant number 15 or 16, I am talking about the junior level.

    Feedback

    We don’t encourage it to go beyond 8 and 12 in an assessment development centre for senior-level.

    Therefore, you could either go ahead with doing the assessment. Development centre only for the top leadership team or some of the critical positions at the middle and the junior level or go ahead with those positions which are found to be highly crucial where the future leaders are required, where the talent needs to be retained which is essential for the business continuity.

    So you could decide based on such criteria. The most important aspect is to make sure the report writing is done on time, and the feedback is given on time.

    The first assessment centre or the development centre where after the assessment is over. Then the second day of the evaluation, employees give very brief feedback regarding how they have fared on various competencies.

    feedback is necessary in competency framework

    Detailed feedback with the report will be given within 15 days from when the employees have completed their assessment process.

    APPLICATION OF COMPETENCY FRAMEWORK & ASSESSMENT OUTCOME

    So the all process of a competency framework is okay, but has it benefited the employee? Has it helped the organisation? 

    It can create awareness among employees regarding what competencies they would be required to move up in their career beyond that would push them to develop in their competencies. It’s not.

    Therefore the essential aspect is linking competencies to the other H.R. practices.

    Competency management should never be a standalone practice. Competency dictionaries must be used for recruitment.

    Now BEI is one of the most popular methodologies and proven methodologies in assessing people’s selection and recruitment competencies.

    You could also run a mini-assessment centre using the various competencies for a particular role and select the right kind of person.

    So straight away, you could link it to recruitment practices.

    Applications

    The second area where you could link competencies is employee development or training when you create a training calendar at the beginning of the year apart from taking the feedback during the annual appraisal process. 

    You can also take the feedback from the assessment development centre and link it to the training needs.

    Beyond training, if your organisation is keen on institutionalising coaching interventions, it sends employees for continuous education,  encouraging people to attend programs,  conferences and reading various articles and materials. 

    All these are part of employee development practice. It is the best methodology called the adult learning principles used in any employee development where competency can be linked.

    The third and most important aspect is what next for me is the question that an employee will ask.

    So from an employee point of view, career planning and career progression are critical questions that need to be answered. The competency framework and the design work that has been done and the assessment that has been done would be of great help in answering employees’ questions on career progression.

    So you could straight away link into career progression as well.

    Note- Do not link the competency feedback or the ratings to deciding compensations.

    SUSTAINING THE COMPETENCY MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

    To become a role model and a trendsetter for others to follow you in this competency management practice.

    The vital aspect is sustaining the practice like any other initiative; competency management also goes through many tough times. Therefore, putting up specific systems in place to ensure continuous review and continuous thirst is very important.

    We suggest forming a steering committee, which would comprise people from business leaders and people from line leadership. 

    Let them review the model regularly, let them understand how relevant the model concerns the changing business context, and therefore, if any macro-level changes are required, they can suggest.

    Also, the other important thing is to go ahead with forming a review committee. It is a micro-level Management Committee.

    They go into the dictionaries’ details,  what kind of tools are supposed to be used, the assessors’ reliability, and their effectiveness.

    So they do a micro reviewing of the fundamental aspects related to competency management, so that is very important.

    CONCLUSION

    An essential element to be looked at is to make decisions based on competencies.

    Provide opportunities based on competencies.

    Now you have your competency Framework,  set of competencies. Still, if you are making decisions on career progression without looking at the competency rating, then I am sure employees will start losing faith in this whole framework.

    So decisions related to an employee,  career progression, role changes, selection of employees, and the kind of development opportunities you would want to provide with an employee are vital to consider the competency rating. After that, you make a decision.

    If you continue to do that, I’m sure that as the initiator becomes practice at some point in time, then the course becomes a habit at some point in time.

    Also, you can read our blog on How To Run Competency-Based Interview

    FAQ’s

  • Ultimate Guide to Gagne’s nine levels of learning

    Ultimate Guide to Gagne’s nine levels of learning

    Gagne’s nine levels of learning provide a grade by grade technique that can assist managers, trainers, and facilitators to shape or groups to get the maximum from their studying opportunities.

    In this blog, we will learn how to use this device when training your team. The models are helpful for all types of learning.

    WHAT’S IN IT

    Who was Robert Gagne

    Robert Gagne (1916 – 2002) turned into an American instructional psychologist who pioneered instruction and learning technology in the 1940s. His book “The Conditions of Learning,” first posted in 1965, identifies the intellectual situations necessary for powerful learning. 

    Robert Gagne

    Background of the model

    Gagne first laid the essential groundwork for what makes ‘proper instruction’ when he implemented his work and the American Air Corps in World War II. In later years, Gagne carried out his learning concept standards to computer-primarily based gaining knowledge pf and investigating training with several multimedia formats.

    Gagne’s Nine levels of learning

    The nine levels are split into three categories, which are then divided even further. 

    1. Preparation Gaining attention Informing newcomers of the objective.

    2. Instruction and Practice Presenting the stimulus Providing studying guidance Eliciting performance Stimulating keep in mind previous to learning.

    Providing feedback

    3. Assessment and Transfer Assessing Performance Enhancing Preparation and Transfer.

    Level 1:- Gaining Attention

    Start the learning experience by getting to know your audience’s attention. Ensure the learners are organized to investigate and participate in activities by offering a stimulus to capture their attention. You ought to try this via posing stimulating inquiries to your students or starting your lesson with detail of surprise. 

    How to implement

    • Asking stimulating, thought-provoking questions
    • Lead an ice breaker activity
    • Pose thought-provoking questions to students
    • Showing an animation or video
    • Have students pose questions to be answered by other students
    • Just playing a piece of music also does wonders.
    • We are giving them exciting information.
    • Stimulate students with novelty, uncertainty, and surprise

    Level 2:- Informing Learners of the Objective

    The next thing you’ll ensure that your team knows what they need to learn. What target will you cover? What must they understand at the end of the education that they didn’t have before?

    This tells the learner what he/she is going to learn and what is he/ she is going to do with the knowledge.

    This tells the learner what to expect from the teacher and also motivates them to complete the session. These learning objectives also form the basis of content and evaluation.

    How to implement

    • Explain to your crew what they’ll have learned out through the end of the session.
    • You could install a social membership to share your upcoming target along with your learners. This gives them an excellent chance to put ahead of any questions they’ll have approximately the topic.
    • Describe criteria for standard performance
    • Describe the required performance
    • Include course objectives on assessment prompts
    • Have learners establish criteria for standard performance

    For Example, the teacher can, 

    Explain that they are going to learn about types of triangles

    Identify different types of triangles when the teacher shows them various examples.

    Draw the triangles

     Identify the types of triangles from the things they see in their surroundings etc.

    Level 3:- Stimulate Recall of Prior Learning

    It is about making the learner recall their previous knowledge about the trainer’s topic.

    Relating the subject again to a comparable experience your learners have had builds a bridge from the vintage to the new. This hyperlink offers the learners a base upon which to analyse the new content. Associating further information with prior knowledge makes the learning of new concepts easy 

    gange's nine level of learning

    How to Implement

    • Conducting a quiz or giving them puzzles to solve, or play games
    • Asking easy question leading to answers
    • Relate previous course information to the current topic
    • Asking questions about related issues learned earlier. Then make connections among what they may be gaining knowledge of their prior learning.
    • This will help them bear in mind what they already know while supporting personalisation and applying the training at the very start, and accommodating new knowledge becomes much more accessible.

    Level 4:- Present the content

    Content should be broken up into small chunks because learning or making sense of a small amount of information is more straightforward than learning a big piece of small details. Organise and group content in meaningful ways, and provide explanations after demonstrations. 

    Make sure to adjust and use suitable techniques if you are developing an instructor-led studying program or a digital online learning program. The content should be organised from simple to complex, easy to difficult, known to unknown this enhances learning

    How to implement

    • The trainer should use instructional strategies to teach the content so that learning is efficient and effective.
    • Assign activities and projects
    • Post homework assignments
    • The trainer can also use different media such as charts, flashcards, 3d objects, or multimedia such as a film, a video, etc.
    • Incorporate active learning strategies to keep students involved
    • Provide access to content on Blackboard so students can access it outside of class

    Level 5:- Provide learning guidance

    To assist your group in learning and holding the information, Now you’ve taught the content, you’ve been given to discover a manner to fill any expertise gaps. Advise students of techniques to resource them in getting to know content material and of sources available. 

    As a tutorial designer, you want to make the learning experience as easy and as simple as possible. 

    Sometimes which means providing precise commands on which to click and what to do next. It can also appear intuitive to you. However, it frequently facilitates being overly clean in your instructions to keep away from any confusion.

    How to implement

    • Model varied learning strategies – e.g. mnemonics, idea mapping, role-playing, visualising
    • Learning steering may be provided use of examples, non-example, analogies, and activities.
    • Provide expectations as needed
    • Write clear and concise instructions
    • Provide case studies and metaphors – Case studies provide real-world application, visual images assist in making visual associations, and analogies and metaphors use familiar content to help students connect with new concepts
    • Provide an accessible ‘next’ button for online learning experiences
    • Include tips on how best to navigate the course

    Level 6:- Elicit Performance

    This event involves practising new content or skills learned. At this stage, you want to make sure that your people can show their expertise in what you’ve taught them. The blend of repetition and recollect is essential to any deep learning.

    Provides an opportunity for the learner to confirm what they have understood. It helps the instructor identity in the learners’ understanding. 

    How to implement

    • If you have taught new information, ask questions that will display their knowledge. 
    • Facilitate pupil activities – e.g. ask deep-learning questions, have students collaborate
    • eLearning branching scenarios
    • Role-playing situations
    • Activities, projects, and writing assignments

    Level 7:- Provide Feedback

    Performance is essential to be followed by feedback. Feedback is the handiest manner your learners recognise what they’re doing effectively and what they want to enhance upon. 

    Provide well-timed comments on students’ overall performance to evaluate and facilitate learning and permit students to discover gaps in understanding earlier than it’s far too late. Specific and corrective feedback is given to the learner. It corrects misconceptions and confirms correct learning with the learner.

    providing feeddback is a level of learning

    How to implement

    • Detailed rubrics outlining both positive and negative feedback
    • You can provide positive and negative feedback depending on the answers.
    • Personalized written feedback on assignments and projects
    • Do evaluative feedback apprises the student of the accuracy in their overall performance or reaction; however, it does not guide the progress.
    • Do the confirmatory feedback inform the student that they did what they were supposed to do. This feedback no longer tells the student what she wants to improve, but it encourages the learner.
    • Help learners pick out knowledge of gaps and overall performance shortcomings in their very own and peers’ work.
    • Give direction to students to find the correct answer but do not provide the right solution.

    Level 8:- Assess Performance

    Till now in Gagne’s learning levels, you have already informed your learners of their test results in the previous step. Now, it’s time to talk about retention as a formal way of ensuring retention. 

    Before the learner proceeds to perform, there may be a need for additional learning guidance and practice. During such an assessment, the learner must be able to function without any assistance or any aid.

    How to implement

    • Implement a lot of assessment strategies to offer students more than one possibilities to illustrate proficiency
    • Scenario-based quizzes are a fantastic way to check if your learners have retained the information.
    • Administer pre-and post-tests to check for progression of competency in content or skills
    • Assess often throughout the course

    Level 9:- Enhance retention and transfer

    Although, Gagne proposed that the learning journey’s final step is to put the learner in an expert’s position. But, at the end of your level, Help learners retain more information. Thus, providing them opportunities to practice their knowledge in real-world situations. 

    How to implement

    • Engaging videos and high definition animations are incorporated to sustain learning for a long.
    • Repeated exercise is a satisfactory manner to make sure that humans retain information and use it effectively.
    • Continually include questions from previous exams in the following examinations to boost course information.
    • Mobile-enabled guides are designed to allow learners to get entry to applicable information anytime and anywhere.

    Conclusion

    This checklist certainly helps you stay on track and gives you a sequential order to train your team effectively.

    So, Gagne’s nine learning levels can help you build a strategic framework to prepare and deliver step by step perfect instruction. Hence, Gagne’s Nine Levels of Learning’s assistance offers a beneficial approach that facilitates managers to shape the learning process.

    Also, you can read our blog on VAK Learning Style – How to Identify your Learning Style

    FAQ’s

  • What Is High-Performance Culture: A Simple Guide

    What Is High-Performance Culture: A Simple Guide

    Every company or organisation is currently trying to improve its culture performance or framework so the talented employees will not exit from the company.  This is the reason why high-performance culture is playing a significant role in a company. 

    Many companies don’t focus on the company’s culture or environment, which is not suitable for companies.

    And because of that, the employees will not stay in these companies for a long time. 

    WHAT’S IN IT?

    What is a high-performance culture?

    Basically, a high-performance culture is a way to improve the company’s environment by the behaviour & execution of the organisation’s leaders and heads.

    So the company will get more favourable results & accelerate revenue.

    Qualities of a high-performance culture

    We discuss the qualities of the high-performance culture, or you need to understand how you can create a high-performance culture in your company. 

    If you think providing some rest hours, snacks, and beverages, or giving little freedom to employees helps create such a culture.

    Then you are wrong. Read these qualities to create a companies culture 

    Develop powerful leaders

    Developing the culture of the company does not only depends on the company strategies or employee retention strategies.

    It also depends on the bosses, managers, leaders, Is it has expertise in their work or not, how they are good to manage their employees,

    So, this quality is a must in the leaders because they will manage many employees in the company and which will connect to the growth of the company.

    high-performance leader

    Adopt a new strategy for developing a company 

    To create a culture, companies do many things and also measure them. To find which is working or which is not. 

    Usually, this quality you will see in all the multinational companies which will adopt the new strategy to grow the company, like

    I will give you an example of the world’s most famous tech companies that is google. 

    Google will work on many aspects to make the culture of the company.

    These organisations always try to be better, and they will adopt new strategies to enhance engagements or improve an organisation’s culture. 

    Enhance Training

    Every company knew that fact if they want to take their organisation to the next level or make their company better from the last group, then they have to learn or teach to the employees continuously,

    This is the quality which is all about the enhance, which means you should provide new training or seminars to your employees.

    high performance training

    They can grow and learn new skills that implement in the company’s projects; hence, indirectly, they will work harder to boost the company. 

    Share information

    Sharing information is one more quality, or you can say a habit that you should definitely add to your company’s culture.

    Because sharing information, knowledge and experience also with each other is also a part of its culture.

    That will boost your company, and it is showing the bonding between the employees and leaders, so appreciate this quality and add it to an organisation. 

    Make work enjoyable

    Companies use many ideas to make work enjoyable for employees. Hence, they add some fun activities, provide travelling offers, games, messages, food, etc.

    So the employees will not feel bored; they feel active and fresh while doing work. So they can perform better. 

    Measure the culture of an organisation 

    That is the last quality which is about measuring the culture of the company; the philosophy of the company is measured by focusing on many aspects like the team members’ behaviour, leaders, and many more, which we discussed in the above sections. 

    So, Finally, measuring the culture is also an essential part.

    Because by this quality you will ensure which is working to sustain an excellent culture in the company and which is not working so, you change them for a better philosophy. 

    High-performance culture framework

    Framework quickly means to make a structure of your work or divide your work so you can easily manage your work pressure. 

    Now, It is a high-performance culture framework that includes all the structure of the company’s philosophy. Moreover, it is created by the managers of the company to focus on everything essential to do. 

    This framework is divided into three fields those are:-

    Business Framework 

    Business Framework is the first framework. It is a framework where top leaders of the company measure as well as calculate the growth.

    They can set new goals & make decisions for the company’s future development and achieve the next level. 

    This is the first framework that represents the business model of the company. 

    Talent Framework 

    Talent Framework is the another framework; by the name of the framework, you can understand

    That it covers all the significant aspects related to the HR Department.

    human resource for high performance culture

    That means they have the responsibility to ensure that no job profile is empty.

    Also, they have to select talented employees, leaders, and managers who can help the organisation grow. 

    Compensation Framework 

    Compensation Framework is the last framework in this list. It is easy to understand it includes all the activities related to the payment,

    It is a department which takes care of everything such as the salaries of the employee, bonus, and fee-related issues,

    how much to invest, etc. or every account related necessary works comes in this framework 

    Conclusion

    This article finally concludes that high-performance culture is essential for organisations to grow their company professionally and by applying this method.

    It improves the behaviour of the leader’s employees and makes a suitable environment for the company. 

    Also, you can read our blog on The Burke Litwin Change Model – Unraveling the Organizational Change

    FAQ’s

  • The Inverted-U Theory – Balance Performance & Pressure

    The Inverted-U Theory – Balance Performance & Pressure


    Pressure sometimes acts as a catalyst in the process, increasing one’s performance level. Let us suppose that you work as a Sales Representative for an organisation and have been doing pretty well for yourself.

    Unfortunately, in a particular quarter, it seems like the organisation will miss its quarterly target, and your manager asks you if you could bring in more sales this time.

    Given the situation and slight pressure from your boss, you decide to take on this opportunity with open arms.  What happens next is that you not only meet your target but overachieve it.

    image of a person in pressure of work


    One can see that there is a slight relation between pressure and performance. In the same scenario, imagine if the boss would have said, “Either you meet your target or lose your job”. This kind of extreme pressure will do more harm than good as you would be spending more time worrying about losing your job instead of making strategies to meet your target.

    We will learn about the  “Inverted-U theory” – also known as the “Yerkes-Dodson Law” to understand this relation in-depth.

    WHAT’S IN IT?

    What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law


    The Yerkes–Dodson law is an empirical relationship between pressure and performance, originally developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908. “The law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point when levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. “
    -Source: Wikipedia.

    image of dillingham dodson
    image of robert yerkes

    Understanding the Inverted-U theory Curve

    On the left hand, we see that Low-Pressure results in mediocrity in terms of the performance level. The lack of pressure does not push people to give their 100%, let alone “going the extra miles” to finish the task.

    The middle portion indicates that the people are performing at their peak levels. Here the pressure is at the optimum level pushing people to their limits positively and not making them struggle.

    On the right hand, we that under high-pressure work to perform and start to suffer from high stress, anxiety, and unhappiness. People here get overwhelmed by the demands, which are next to unrealistic requirements.

    Here we can conclude that to have high-level performance; there is an optimum level of pressure that needs to be applied. Four such factors help us determine the amount of stress necessary to have a good understanding.

    Factors that influence the Inverted-U theory

    Like we discussed earlier that some factors influence the optimum level of pressure. We have to keep in mind that everybody is not the same, and working for one might not work for the other. These factors consider this point and help you to find the right amount of pressure. 

    Skill Level: 

    Whenever someone takes a new task in their hand, there is a high intrinsic motivation for the study. Eventually, with a passage of time, when the person increases his/her skill to a level to find the study easy, we witness a drop in performance level.

    In such a situation arises the need to exert pressure from outside to keep the performance level up.

    Personality: 

    Different types of personalities respond positively to different levels of pressure. As per a study, an extrovert person would perform better under high pressure. Whereas an introvert person will perform better under low pressure, one needs to keep in mind that the person might already be under some sort of tension or stress due to some of the happenings in his/her private life. This is one crucial point as it can help in not putting up the person under high pressure.

    Task Difficulty:  

    A task of easy difficulty will require less effort and attention than a charge of hard difficulty. Let’s take the example of a Chef. It won’t be a problem if the Chef has to cook for ten people instead of 5 or 7.

    Imagine if the same Chef says, let’s participate in a competition where he has to give a presentation between 100’s of people about various dishes and how he cooks. This might be a task of more incredible difficulty and would require more effort and preparation from his side. 

    Trait Anxiety: 

    Self-Confidence plays a significant role here. A person with high Self-Confidence is likely to perform better under a high-pressure situation than a person with low Self-Confidence. It’s because a confident person always believes in himself and his abilities. He takes on new opportunities with a positive attitude.

    Whereas a non-confident person always lives under self-doubt, questioning his abilities. Before facing the task, he is more about winning or losing instead of preparing for it or looking at it as a learning opportunity.

    Difference between Pressure and Stress

    We often hear these statements that “I work under high pressure” or “I have a stressful job”. Generally, these two statements are the same; for them, pressure = stress. To everyone’s shock, I will say that no pressure does not equal emphasis. As per  Hendrie Weisinger:

    • Stress refers to too many demands and not enough resources – time, money, energy – to meet them.
    • The pressure is a situation in which you perceive that something at stake is dependent on the outcome of your performance.
    image of hendrie weisinger

    Generally, stress is always viewed to be a negative term as compared to pressure. Stress is looked at as a situation where one is not much in control of the problem. For Example:

    late meetings, long commute, too many deadlines. Now, these are the situations that are not possible to control.

    On the other hand, a problem under high pressure is one you own. For Example, You have to meet a given sales target to meet. Now it’s upon you; if you put in the extra effort and are willing to go that extra mile, you’ll accomplish the target.

    Conclusion

    So after this article, I believe readers will now not see pressure always in a negative light like other people. Moreover, you can teach them how pressure can help to enhance performance. This is very useful for people who are having managerial roles as this can help them get maximum output from the team without burdening them.

    Remember, the optimum level of pressure is the key here, which depends on the four factors we discussed. It’s also essential to notice that the individual might be already in some sort of stress because of his/her private life. Confusing pressure with the focus can cost us a lot, especially in terms of productivity.  So, it’s necessary to know when to utilise what.

    Also, you can read our blog on 5 BEST Meditation For Stress Relief: Take a Stress Relief Break


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