Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Performance comes from Venus, management from Mars, Part II


I've been jogging, and I’ve been progressing – slowly – in the last year. Where last year I did the 4 mile run, this year I was doing 6 miles (10km). Here's a picture.

My end time was not too good, I was slow even according my own standards. 1:14:13. I ended as number 3762. But then again, with 5500 people in the race, it could’ve been worse.

My preparation wasn’t optimal. The run was two days after Open World, and the evening before we had a big dinner with friends, with a glass of wine (or two…). I really felt that during jogging the day afterwards, the last 3 kilometers were not easy.

While jogging, I had this thought about my previous blog on “Performance comes from Venus, and Management from Mars”. I explained that performance deals with matters of the heart (passion, endurance, teamwork, skills), while management deals with matters of the mind (rules, processes, control, discipline).

I learned an important lesson. There can be no performance without management. Passion is great, and I was certainly not lacking it, but without the discipline the result will not be great. 

This is also true with other areas of life. You can only become a great artist if you practice, practice, practice. And wisdom comes from examining a few of your own scars once in a while. 

I don’t think it is different in business. Performance management starts with discipline. Putting together good management processes, clear definitions, a collaborative working style. That should be the focus for most organizations. And putting in a little bit more jogging training needs to be my focus.

PS. In the meantime, I did another 10K run, the Maliebaanloop. What do you think of the following ways of describing it?
• I improved my personal record for the 10K (great!)
• … as no. 570 I came in last anyway (hmmm… not so great)
• … but the system didn’t register the people who gave up and never finished (at least I did!)
• I started front row, and came in last, so I must have seen every single runner (social indicator?)
 
You see, measurement can tell you everything you want.

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