We wanted to find the optimal number of goals an individual should focus on. There is a trade off between lack of focus and under utilization of individual capacity.

Our research hypothesis was that every individual should have a handful of goals so 5 goals is the sweet spot. Long story short we leveraged tons of anonymous data and worked with a UCLA econometrics professor and his student to see if there was a connection. The answer we found was a standard distribution function centered around 8.

We’ll share more of this and tons of other research in our forthcoming book Return on Execution(c). http://www.successfactors.com/download/getresource/?doc=/docs/Return_on_Execution.pdf

The nature and quality of one-on-one conversations between managers and staff are super critical. Our research has uncovered 74 possible management levers available to leaders to stimulate improved performance and deliver heightened execution. In the corporate landscape we have also found a lack of attention and focus on knowing what is the right lever given the circumstances within an organizations. By understanding the dynamics of their own performance environment managers become better equipped to have these crucial conversations.

For example: Corporates often have too many goals which could be interfering with the ability of the organization to execute what is truly important. Equally the performance review process might not be measuring the real indicators of great performance for an employee.

Regardless, the magic is in how the performance environment is implemented as you correctly attest. So if you want to improve business execution an important question to ask is does your staff have clarity of its High Performance Environment?

People adapt or change based on their environment – so what is the environment that produces the change called “high performance”? Said another way – what are the circumstances that are most conducive to improved execution!

Leaders can fast track performance by providing and improving the circumstances within which we can perform our best.

This is the secret to the success of performance environments from all over the globe – from the Juilliard School to Special Forces Units in the military. Exceptional execution and performance is fostered by the right circumstances.

I hope people enjoy the whitepaper. Warm Regards

The article also asserts that “the key to implementing high performance in organizations is clarity & effectiveness. Not only does an environment need concepts defining direction, performance status and motivation, those concepts must be clear & effective if a performance outcome is desired. It is the Leaders job to provide this clarity and ensure effective implementation throughout an organization.” But the article does not provide any guidance on the actual interpersonal mechanics of how to achieve clarity; effectiveness is asked for, but it is not defined.

In my view, we need to shift the focus from models to the softer stuff. The next area to focus on is the nature and quality of the one-on-one conversations between managers and their staff. It is in these moments when employees can be motivated to move beyond their comfort zone and really stretch their marginal performance to new heights. And this is true for all members of the group – the top, middle, and weaker performers. Goal setting is the start of this conversation, but only the start, and performance reviews tend to be at the end of this conversation. What’s missing is tools that help guide managers and employees toward how to collaborate in effective, ongoing conversations for action. The next generation of performance management systems will offer guidance on how to establish and maintain such conversations.