Every organization, division, department, group or team is successful from time to time. However they key to growth and longevity is 'Predictable Success': not just occasional success, but success that can be planned, and with reasonable certainty, achieved, month in month out, quarter by quarter, from year to year.

Why doesn't every organization attain Predictable Success? In my thirty years experience coaching business leaders, I've concluded that in most cases, it's simply because they fail to use the simple tools necessary to achieve it. And the very foundation stone of Predictable Success is that most basic of business tools - the dreaded performance assessment.

What is a performance assessment?
Conducting a performance assessment involves evaluating an employees' performance by comparing his or her actual results with expected results over a historic time frame (most often the previous month, quarter or year).

The assessment is conducted by the employee and their manager, and sometimes in larger organizations an HR manager may also be involved.

Why are performance assessments important?
Put it this way - how many world class athletes do you think simply plunge from contest to contest without ever reflecting on or examining their previous performances? Can you imagine Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal or Michael Phelps leaving the golf course, the tennis court or the swimming pool and never giving another moment's thought to their performance until the next tournament, game or meet?