Performance, Image & Exposure
We often evaluate performance ourselves disappoints after looking at our manager’s results which would not at par with our own expectation evaluation. It happens to the new entries to corporate world, also who are not aware of corporates’ performance evaluation system.
One should know the concept when u just starts your career with corporate career and is followed to evaluate your appraisal or performance; PIE model – Performance, Image and Exposure.
Typically this represents a pyramid diagram or a pie chart and each segment represents is as follows;
v Performance: The actual work you do the results you deliver.
v Image: The impression that others have of you.
v Exposure: The people who get to know about your results and your image.
You do 100% hard work but lacking other two segments, no wonder you fail. On the other hand, if you are excellent in creating image and good exposure, you will gear up excellent rating; performance is not 100% though.
This is how your success formula is. If you have one element without others, you can end up on the slow road to success. Here are some example personalities we will all recognize from the work place end up with wired results.
- The Worker Bee: You know this person, perhaps you are this person. They come in early, stay late and crunch all the important numbers for the big meeting. The Worker Bee knows a lot, but ask yourself how often these folks get noticed for their work in a big way. That’s right, almost never. They have the performance, but the wrong image or limited exposure to move ahead. If you don’t have the image or charisma of a leader, or the exposure to get noticed, then the credit for great performance will often go to others.
- Mr. Important: This is the person that walks around all day looking important and making connections while the real performers toil away with little recognition, and bitter feelings. They have the image down correctly, but they have very little ability to make great decisions and lead when needed. Mr. Important often gets promoted. However, one day, they get shown up; sometimes in a very public and excruciatingly painful way. They are great negotiators and they delegate well. Many of them get very far with this persona. Secretly though, their staff ends up leaving their team in order to find better leadership elsewhere.
- The Rock Star: This person is known and liked by all, including the management team. They have a great image and tons of exposure. Unfortunately, there is often not enough substance to get the job done and they are not seen to have the right “leadership image” for the company. Rock Stars often get great perks, but there is ceiling to their success in certain office environments. So, while this image may look like the one to be, the Rock Star cannot succeed without a wingman with substance.
Whether you like it or not, only a limited number of people will get to work with you directly. Even those that do will get a fairly narrow view of the real results that you deliver. On the other hand, many more people will form an image in their minds of what you’re like — perhaps that you’re a safe pair of hands, maybe that you’re very smart or very ambitious. Some may form a very negative image — that you’re a scrap or unreliable or untrustworthy. The combination of that image that people have of you (Image) and the groups of people that share that view of you (Exposure) can make or break your career.
