What are the performance standards that shape your expectations of how you will deliver on the responsibilities of your role.

What do assume about the behaviors and actions you will need to take to get your job done?

To be assessed by those for whom you work or work with as having performed your job well?

Energy

The performance standards you set significantly influence:

  1. How much work you seek to get done.
  2. The pace at which you commit to work.
  3. The hours you are prepared to work.

The higher your standards, the greater the energy required to achieve them.

The greater the energy required to sustain your standards, the more at risk you are of experiencing fatigue, pressure and at worst overwhelm.

Automatic Standards

Have you fallen prey to the trap of setting ‘automatic standards’?

Of setting standards of performance by default, standards to which you have given little thought? Of which have had or are having unintended consequences on the amount or quality of your energy?

Have you set standards that put you at risk of:

  1. Not understanding the energy required to achieve and sustain them.
  2. That have you assuming they must be achieved regardless of the impact to your energy levels?
  3. Of feeling like you must push through fatigue, pressure and overwhelm to meet them.

Set Expectations

It is essential you set explicit performance expectations.  That enable you to be clear on the standards they imply.  That enable you to be clear on the energy you need to achieve and sustain them.

It is important your standards reflect reasonable stretch and challenge.

However it is important you understand the energy required to achieve them.  And whether your standards put you at increased risk of fatigue, stress and at worst overwhelm.

Sustain energy

Energy is the currency that drives effort, your sustainable capacity to do, relate, think and be self-directed.

You need strategies to create, protect and replenish your energy.  To build sustainable capacity.

To have:

  • Physical energy; to meet the ongoing demands of your busy working life.
  • Relating (emotional) energy; to deal with difficult relationships or situations you encounter.
  • Mental energy; to protect against decision fatigue and losing sight of your vision and goals.

What is next?

Take time to reflect on and understand your performance expectations and the standards they imply.

Understand whether your performance standards require low, medium or high sustained effort to achieve?

Get clear on:

  1. What they imply for the amount of work you seek to get done?
  2. What they imply for the pace of work you try to maintain?
  3. What they imply for the hours you commit to work.
  4. What strategies you need to build sustainable energy to met them?

Actively take charge of creating the sustainable energy you need to met the performance standards you set yourself.

Good luck.

To explore how to create sustainable capacity to perform, call or email me.

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