1  2 

Performance management – the essence of excellence

Performance management is about measuring, building and precision-tuning personal proficiency. The first step towards turning the performance of public servants around and attaining a new level of professional excellence is to build a clear understanding of the term, personal proficiency. Danie Joubert developed a questionnaire which, answered on a weekly basis, will help and guide people to achieve personal proficiency and excellence.

by Danie Joubert

When President Jacob Zuma announced in his State of the Nation Address on 11 February 2010 that public servants now had to work harder, faster and smarter, he touched the hearts of many people in South Africa. People experienced a quiet joy and hope because his official intention may inspire the service delivery that people have been seeking for a long time. The announcement marked the time to introduce an excellence philosophy and framework into the circles and teams in which leaders and senior managers of state departments and institutions move and work.

It is quite obvious that the performance management policy and practices of government institutions have failed to ensure sustained excellence in service delivery. The technical jargon and the dearth of emotional resonance in measuring performance and inspiring people have left employees out in the cold.

State entities have been toppling like dominoes in terms of making losses, failing in service delivery and being in the news for some form of abusive extravagance. A week before the State of the Nation Address, newspapers reported that only 91 out of 250 (36%) government entities were given a clean bill of health during the 2009 audits by the auditor general's office. Of all the qualified audits, 83% related to capital assets. It was mentioned that there were fundamental problems in the capital asset arena as a result of leadership not setting the tone to expect full compliance.

The failures are ascribed to over-ambitious employment equity actions and “white flight”, but the failures are not caused by race. The root cause is a toxic performance culture caused by employee-unfriendly policies and systems. A lack of clear goals, virtue ethics, standards of excellence, written achievement undertakings, monitoring and evaluation, continuous inspiration, appreciation and worthy incentives are contributing factors. Right in the heart of all of this is the vacuum of personal proficiency. Performance management has an overarching aim to measure, build and precision-tune personal proficiency – that magic blend of professionalism, passion, enthusiasm and efficiency. 

The first step towards turning the performance of public servants around is to build a clear understanding of proficiency. Proficiency is an innate state of performance consciousness and pride, which enables one to incisively assess and proudly evaluate one’s every task and output (even the smallest), one’s own products and one’s own successes in sustaining progress and accomplishing valuable outcomes despite challenges and adversity.

Proficiency derives from professional ethics, knowledge, skill, practice and experience. It is about carefully making things happen, being acquainted with goals, targets and performance standards, being passionate and proud, being confident, self-reliant and self-disciplined and possessing the breadth and depth of applied knowledge and skills required by the job. It is about going the extra mile!

The goal of personal excellence is to do everything in your power to fulfil your own goals and dreams. This may include raising the level and consistency of your performance, experiencing a greater sense of joy or satisfaction in your personal and professional pursuits, and enhancing the quality of your life. Everyone begins at a different place with respect to personal assets.
 

1  2