Ganesh Srinivasan

We do set our annual / time frame based goals and focus our efforts in achieving them.

Different organizations use different formats for monitoring and reporting progress against these goals

Here is a format, I have used successfully in my professional and personal life. the examples stated are for our professional life, but the same are very much applicable for our personal life as well

The Basis

We sign off our annual / quarterly objectives with our boss

The performance as per these set objectives is called as On Plan [OP] performance

There are occasions, we perform much better - such a performance is called Significantly Above Plan [SAP] performance

And there are occassions, we do under-perform - such a performance is called Below Plan [BP] performance

Even though the objectives are for individuals, others do play a positive or negative role for our success or failure, affecting our performance. You can only succeed with the help, interest and support of others, and this requires the ability to form business and personal relationships

In a professionally managed organizations, such realities are very much recognised and they do have processes to address these, on a continuous basis

The 'One Page Report' is a simple tool - to raise the bar as well as to do timely course corrections, when things are going off-target

The Format

Divide one page into four quadrants - the top half to list SAP performances and the bottom half to list BP performances

And the right half is for self and the left half is for others - who may be internal or external to the organization

One need not report OP performances - this is very important, as the core objective is to keep improving on our plans

thus the format is as below:

Top Left:- SAP performance by Others

List 3 to 5 key significantly above plan performances by others

Others may be from your department / organization or external to your organization

Top Right:- SAP performance by Self

List about 3 to 5 significantly above performances by Self

If you have helped others' succeed, list them here [and ensure that others list in their reports as well]

This approach would help you to become an individual performer as well as a team player

Bottom Right:- BP performance by Self

Be honest in reporting Below Plan performance [professional organizations expect every one to report realities, so that the problems can be addressed]

With International experience, you will realize that customers from abroad want you to highlight shortcomings without fail and in time

Here again list 3 to 5 key below plan performances by self

Bottom Left:- BP performance by Others

There are many real life situations, wherein you need to wait for completion by others - like in Government Approvals etc.

Here again, list 3 to 5 below plan performances by others

The Strategy to Improve Performance

The Strategy is to keep closing issues and keep pushing the items from bottom half to top half
In real life, professional or personal, individual as well as team performances are important for collective winning. I have found it to be an useful and effective tool, in achieving these

Use it in your personal life

Look at yourself as a student, youngster or aged, simply as an individual and list down your goals

For you to achieve your goals, list down others who could play a positive or negative role for you to achieve your goals

Discuss with others to play facilitating role and make them part of your success

Focus on / list only critical things and make the list manageable - the objective is to succeed

Using similar approach for your personal life, would make you a better performer in professional life as well

I have personally tried, rather I use it regularly in my professional and personal life, experienced tremendous success

This article can be copied, printed and distributed to others, in full form only, duly acknowleding the copyrights of Ganesh Srinivasan

All other use or partial use of this article is prohibited and in violation of Indian and International copyright laws, unless approved by Ganesh Srinivasan, the author of this article. You can reach Ganesh Srinivasan on sganesh13@gmail.com