Productive and busy, we all know, are two fundamentally different things. The trouble is they can sometimes look a lot like each other, at least on the surface. That makes it easy for entrepreneurs to mistake their own packed schedules—or those of their employees—for evidence of exceptional achievement.
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What’s needed is a gut check—a quick list of questions to help you determine if a person is a genuine high performer, working hard in a sustainable way toward well-defined and important goals, or a workaholic, who is burning himself out running around endlessly without a clear focus.
Jullien Gordon, founding partner of consultancy New Higher, thinks he has developed just such a test. In a LinkedIn Influencer column recently, he shared a list of questions you can use to tell if all that frantic activity you or your staff is engaged in is a sign of actual business progress or simply the byproduct of workaholism.
Here are five of them:
1. What’s Your Goal?
High performers work plenty of insane days, but they always have specific reasons for doing it. It’s not simply the status quo. If there’s nothing that can get done at the moment, a high performer won’t manufacture busy work for herself. A workaholic will.
“A high performer’s number one goal is to do business. The only thing that matters to them are results. If they can’t see a way to create value in the moment, they facilitate or strategize instead. They know that like the economy, business comes in waves, therefore, they get ready during the dips so they can capitalize during the upswings,” writes Gordon. On the other hand, “a workaholic’s number one goal is to be busy. Workaholics fill any space in time with busy work because they feel insecure doing nothing.”
2. Is There an End Line?
Are you the type who sets a goal, attains it, and then realizes that whatever you’ve accomplished isn’t quite enough? Be warned, you might be a workaholic. These workers are often guilty of moving the goalposts on themselves to ensure they’re always, always running.
“A workaholic doesn’t know what enough is. I’m not good enough. This isn’t good enough. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough support. They are always focused on more and seeking to maximize everything because they don’t really know what success means to them,” Gordon explains. High performers, on the other hand, know success when they see it and know to savor it.
3. Do You Ever Turn it Down?
Nothing is ever constant in this world. Your energy, your to-do list, the importance of the task at hand all vary. So high performers also vary their level of effort depending on these and other factors. Workaholics are the exception to this rule of nature—they’re always running at maximum capacity (until they inevitably flame out, of course).
4. Are You Proactive or Reactive?
“A high performer is proactive about their time and work. They design their day and anchor the most meaningful and important things in time first, and then they allow fires and other unplanned events to fill in the rest of their day. They don’t allow distractions to deter their strategy,” Gordon asserts. “A workaholic is reactive about their time and work. They allow other people to choose how their time gets spent working by reacting to emails, fires, unplanned events, and other distractions that arise throughout the day.”
5. Who Sets Your Value?
This might be the most fundamental difference between high performers and workaholics. The latter types look for validation outside themselves; the former types knows their own worth and don’t need to constantly prove it to others. High performers, therefore, have a sense of interior calm and “create their own feedback loops,” while workaholics live with the nagging fear of failure or disappointment that comes from constantly seeking validation from others.
Workaholics have difficulty prioritizing, giving 110%, 200% or whatever higher-than-100 percentile they can think is achievable. High performers don't buy into that illusion. They give their full effort only at the right times, instead of too much effort all the time.
Workaholics have difficulty prioritizing, giving 110%, 200% or whatever higher-than-100 percentile they can think is achievable. High performers don't buy into that illusion. They give their full effort only at the right times, instead of too much effort all the time.
In a nutshell, high performers go above their port of call to meet their goals and complete work tasks. Top-performing employees take the initiative to assist their company by improving their behavior and habits. They go beyond what their role requires and regularly take on more leadership and work tasks.
Reliability. Being reliable is directly related to trust and dependability—which are both critical to being a high-performer. If team members know they can rely on someone, they're more likely to assign them projects, ask them for help, and trust their feedback. And those are the types of people we want on our teams.
High performers are always taking the initiative. They're not afraid to get their hands dirty and always look for ways to contribute to the team. They're also quick to identify and seize opportunities. These are just some key attributes that make an employee a high performer.
Both are interested in the pursuit of success, but overachievers are never satisfied with their achievements. 2 Their focus is on the goal, and not what it takes to reach the goal. High performers are focused on their goals, but they care much more about how well they perform.
Low performers often show inconsistencies in their work. This means they might excel one day and fall short the next. Keep an eye on team members who frequently miss deadlines, deliver quality work, or prove to be unreliable in their tasks. Inconsistent performance is a sign of underperformance.
High performers are more willing to take on new challenges and learn new skills. They are not afraid of change and they know that it can be an opportunity for growth. Average performers, on the other hand, are more likely to stick with what they know and focus on their strengths.
I have seen rock star high-performing employees make one mistake, and then they are suddenly on the watch list. This is a common occurrence when a high performer is challenged with a high-stakes, high-visibility assignment, doing more difficult work than he or she is used to.
“Purpose, engagement, communication, and culture all have a direct influence on growth and performance.” There are countless factors that contribute to high performance. It is up to leaders to understand the motivations that drive their teams to succeed.
High performers will always stand out, but high-potential employees have even more to offer than just great results. Those with high potential will not only be results-driven, but they will also possess an aptitude for leadership qualities necessary for business continuity.
Elements of HPWS or High-performance work system are staff training, sharing knowledge and skills, offering constant feedback after the company's undertaken task, the company's ethics, and finally compensation and rewards to the team concerning its performance.
High-performing teams are aligned in their focus, purpose, and priorities. They set team and individual goals that support this shared vision so that their work drives achievement. Goals are not only aligned, but they are clearly defined so everyone knows exactly what they need to do and how to get there.
High performing employees are highly skilled at their roles and demonstrate exceptional effort. If an employee is proactive, eager to take on new projects that challenge them, constantly seeks feedback, and is actively and continuously improving and growing their skills, they are a high performing employee.
However, various researchers have indicated that people who are more extroverted, conscientious, and neurotic — as well as people with personality type A (described as ambitious, status-conscious, impatient, anxious, and rigidly organized) — are more likely to develop workaholic tendencies.
What is a high performer? A high performer is someone who goes above and beyond to achieve their goals and complete their tasks or assignments at work. This type of person takes initiative and focuses on improving their workplace habits and behaviors so that the company or team benefits from their actions.
Performers are characterised by their commitment, leadership ability, and mindfulness. High performers, meanwhile, possess a clearly defined purpose, a unique capacity for creation, and a deep sense of care. The high performer will always delve a layer deeper. They want meaning and understanding, something profound.
Workaholism is viewed as a three-dimensional phenomenon consisting of excessive involvement in work, compulsive need to work, and lack of satisfaction from work. Based on the multiple linear regressions, the authors constructed a model of relations between personality traits and workaholism.
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