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Why am I on payroll? This is one of the most important questions you an ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career.
As it happens, most people are not sure exactly why they are on the payroll. But if you are not crystal clear about why you are on the payroll and what results you have been hired to accomplish, it is very hard for you to perform at your best, get paid more and get promoted faster.
A simple terms, you have been hired to get specific result. A wage or a salary is payment for a specific quality and quantity of work that can be combined with the work of others to create a product or service that customers are willing to pay for.
Your job can be broken down into about five or seven key result area, seldom more. These represent the results that you absolutely, positively have to get to fulfill your responsibilities and make your maximum contribution to your organization.
A key result area is defined as something for which you are completely responsible. If you do not do it, it does not get done. A key result are is an activity that is under your control. It produces an output that becomes an input or a contributing factor to the work of others.
Key result areas similar to the vital functions of the body such as those indicated by blood pressure, hart rate, reparatory rate and brain wave activity. As absence of any one of these vital functions lead to the death of the organism. By the same token, your failure to perform in a critical result area of our work can lead to the end of your job as well.
The Big Seven in Management and Sales
The key result areas of management are planning, organizing, staffing, delegation, supervising, measuring and reporting. These are the areas in which a manager must get results to be successful in his or her area of responsibility. A weakness in any one of these areas can lead to underachievement and failure as a manager.
The key result areas of sales are prospecting, building rapport and trust, identifying needs, presenting persuasively, answering objections, closing the sale and getting results and referrals. Poor performance in any one of these key skills can lead to lower sales and sometimes the failure of a salesperson.
Whatever you do, you must have certain essential skills for you to do your job in an excellent fashion. These demands are constantly changing. You have already developed core competencies that make it possible for you to do your job in the first place. But certain key results are central to your work ad determine your success or failure in your job. What are they?
Poor Performance Produces Procrastination
One of major reasons for procrastination in the workplace is that people avoid jobs and activates in those areas where they have performed poorly in the past. Instated setting a goal and making a plan to improve in a particular area, most people avoid that areas altogether, which just makes the situation worse.
The reverse of this is that the better you become in a particular kill areas, the more motivated you will be to perform that function, the less you will procrastinate and the more determined you will be to get the job finished.
The fact is that everybody has both strengths and weaknesses. Refuse to rationalize, justify or defend your areas of weakness. Instead, identify them clearly. Set a goal and make a plan to become very good in each of those areas. Just think. You may be only one critical skill away from top performance at your job.
Give Yourself a Grade
Once you have determined your key result areas. The second step is for you to grade yourself on a scale of one to ten in each of those areas. Where are you strong and where are you weak? Where are you getting excellent results and where are you underperforming?
This rule say that although you could be exceptional in six out of your sever key result areas, poor performance in the seventh area will hold you back and determine how much you achieve with all our other skills. This weakness will act as a drag on your effectiveness and be a constant source of friction and frustration.
For example, delegation is a key result area for manager. This skill is the key leverage point that enables a manager to manage and to get result through others. A manager who cannot delegate properly is held back from using all his or her other skills at the maximum levels of effeteness. Poor delegation skills alone can lead to failure in the job.
Clarity is Essential
The starting point of high performance is for you to identity the key result arras of your work. Discuss them with your boss. Make a list of your most important output responsibilities and make sure that the people above you, on the same level as you and below you are in agreement with it.
For example, for a salesperson, getting qualified appointments in a key result area. This activity is the key to the entire sale process. Closing a sale is also a key result area. When the sale is made, it triggers the activities of many other people to produce and deliver the product or service.
For a company owner or key executive, negotiating a bank loan may be a key result arras. Hiring the right people and delegating effectively are both key result areas. For a receptionist or secretary, typing letters and answering the phone and transferring callers quickly and efficiently are defines a key result areas. People’s ability to perform these tasks quickly and efficiently largely determines their pay and promotability.
