The Principle of Fueling Performance

Inspiration

If you haven't read Ray Dalio's book, Principles, do so. Mr. Dalio is one of the most successful business leaders in U.S. history, founding and leading Bridgewater Associates to becoming one of the world's largest hedge funds.

In his book, Ray describes the trial and error and thought processes he went through during the course of his company's founding and growth. He distilled the lessons he learned into a collection of principles and algorithms that helped make his company what it is today.

We would like to reference two quotes from Principles that are especially relevant to those curious about the use of psychometric assessments like the Core Values Index. Mr. Dalio discusses the immense value Bridgewater achieved through the use of psychometric assessments, and the role they played in putting the right people into the right seats.

"Knowing how one is wired is a necessary first step on any life journey. It doesn't matter what you do with your life, as long as you are doing what is consistent with your nature and your aspirations."

Dalio summarizes quite nicely the value of these assessments:

"Getting the right people in the right roles in support of your goal is the key to succeeding at whatever you choose to accomplish."

Building a great team through psychometric assessments like the Core Values Index is the first step. Next comes empowering and engaging your team for optimum performance.

Research

After a great deal of research into the latest advancements and understanding in social psychology and workplace performance, eRep honed various principles for what makes people happy and productive in their work into a brilliantly simple yet powerful formula for fueling performance:

Clarity + Purpose + Feedback

This performance fuel formula distills the wisdom of efficiency experts, psychologists, and old fashioned hard-won knowledge into three easy to understand components.

The performance fuel formula provides the worker what they need to not only succeed in their role, but to thrive through engagement and empowerment.

It works by providing the worker with the three things they need to succeed:

• Clarity is understanding what needs to be accomplished, without ambiguity.
• Purpose is knowing that what you do matters and will be appreciated.
• Feedback is getting the right amount of information at the right time to tie it all together.

When workers have the clarity they need and a sense of purpose to drive it in a way that is coherently unified and driven by appropriate and timely feedback, their performance is fueled at the highest level.

Tools

A great algorithm or principle needs a set of tools that implements its objectives in an efficient way. The Performance Fuel application provided by eRep.com takes the performance fuel formula and turns it into a powerful reality.

With Performance Fuel, employees have a focused set of tools that enables them to set short-term objectives that feed a suite of long-term goals. These objectives and goals are managed in a way that produces measurable, finite results. Through these tools, employees get the clarity they need to stay focused on what they are to accomplish.

The feedback component of the Performance Fuel application gives each employee a direct and efficient connection with their supervisor or coach using a familiar paradigm similar to instant messaging apps. Because the feedback is tied to specific objectives, it is focused and efficient, further providing clarity to the employee without inducing inefficient time burdens on their supervisor.

Supervisors and coaches have full visibility of their team member's objectives, and through the feedback tool are able to provide the specific sense of purpose — appreciation and value — that is needed for employees to be engaged and empowered.

Since all objectives and goals in the Performance Fuel system yield specific, measurable results, performance is measured and reported with real-time objective data.

Short-term objectives are defined, measured and achieved on a cadence set at the individual or group level, often weekly but sometimes biweekly or even monthly. Because managers get the operational visibility they desire and employees get the feedback they need on a regular basis, the outdated and loathed annual performance review is eliminated.

Results

The Performance Fuel application and performance fuel formula serves both the individual and organizational leaders quite well. Individual workers get the clarity, purpose and feedback they need to perform at their highest level. Supervisors and business leaders get the visibility they need over the work being performed, with objective measurable results provided in real time. All of this is provided with optimal efficiency and little or no wasted effort.

The result of the Performance Fuel system is a team of engaged and empowered employees who thrive in their roles.

The principle of fueled performance is here today and it is setting a new standard for operational success.