Is It Wise To Be Smart? (2/2)

Breaking large tasks into bite-sized pieces so that these can be more readily understood and digested is one thing. To define individuals' success or failure in terms of their achievement or otherwise of these separate elements is quite another. The interdependencies and uncertainties are too great for this to be a sensible way forward. Strict adherence by individuals or teams to their own specific, measurable, achievable, (one-time) relevant and time-bound targets, which SMART-based performance management systems are designed to encourage, is more likely to guarantee under performance of the wider organisation than to secure its success.

In a complex and constantly changing environment, managing performance demands a WISEr approach to leadership than that offered by the overuse of SMART targets.

If people are to perform effectively under these conditions, they need first to understand why their contribution is important. Secondly, they need to be aware of, and remain alert to, the inter-dependencies within the overall system - understanding how their contribution fits in, what others need from them, and which relationships are critical to their own and others' success. These first two requirements provide perspective, by giving context and meaning to people's work.

Next, they need to be encouraged, assisted and enabled to exercise self-management:

• gaining and consolidating new experience, knowledge and skills, to become increasingly self-sufficient and self-confident in their own abilities
• taking more responsibility for self-directing their own actions and exerting more self-control over their own performance, in an adaptive rather than pre-programmed way; and
• collaborating effectively with others, to build coalitions of co-operative effort that extract maximum value for the organisation from emerging events and challenges

Finally, people need to be inspired and enabled to achieve extra-ordinary performance, through leadership that embeds a positive culture of achievement, builds the capabilities needed to deliver and sustain it, and creates a climate in which people have the motive, means and opportunity to excel. Smart leaders will WISE-up to these challenges!