Ricardo is an associate financial analyst in a large financial
consulting firm. He works in the emerging markets division
developing low-cost products for the Southeast Asia region.
He was selected for this position because of his wide range of
skills, relevant experience, and analytical abilities.
During his time at the firm, he has worked on a variety
of projects and has become well respected among his peers.
He is satisfied with his job and with his progress so far, but he
strives to work on more challenging projects, wants to make a
greater impact, and seeks a leadership-centered role. Ricardo
has a strong drive and eventually hopes to get a position at
the highest levels of the organization.
In recent years, the firm has remained stable but has
struggled with growth. The recent economic downturn
changed the financial landscape and is requiring new and
innovative solutions to common issues such as reducing and
calculating risk. As a result, the firm decided to launch a company-wide competition for the best risk assessment model in
order to motivate all of its employees to work on solving this
issue. After several rounds of assessment and interviews, the
top two finalists will be invited to present their ideas to the
CEO who will make the final decision regarding the winner of
the competition. The winning team will receive a substantial
cash prize alongside significant prestige.
Ricardo sees this as the perfect chance to impress his
colleagues and supervisors and to establish himself as a top
performer. This competition presents the ideal circumstances
for him to not only prove himself but also really shine. He and
his team are incredibly excited about this opportunity and
have been working tirelessly on this project. Ricardo’s strong
math and finance background help him come up with a
comprehensive and complex algorithm that seems to be
surprisingly effective in predicting risk. Each member
contributes to different aspects of the project and together
they create a strong proposal that they believe is worthy of
winning the competition.
Behavior approach to measuring performance is most appropriate when
the link between behaviors and results is not obvious
outcomes occur in the distant future
poor results are due to causes beyond the performer’s control
Results approach to measuring performance is most appropriate when
workers are skilled in the necessary behaviors
behaviors and results are obviously related
results show consistent improvement over time
there are many ways to do the job right
104 Part II • System Implementation
Ricardo emerges as leader of the group due
to his detailed knowledge and understanding of its
proposed model. He is excellent at motivating and
guiding his small team, but he gets very nervous in
formal situations and speaking in public, which
questions his ability to influence people. He knows
that part of the selection process will involve
presenting his team’s idea to different departments
and important stakeholders and that he will be
expected to take the lead during these presentations. He also knows that the key to passing through
each round of the selection process will be to get
people on board with their idea and convincing them
of its potential.
You are Ricardo’s manager, and he comes to you
for advice and guidance about the current situation. You
believe that he is one of the brightest employees in the
company and that he has the potential to become the
most successful as well. However, he will need to
overcome his fear of public speaking and develop his
presentation skills in order to win this competition and
reach his goals. Ricardo is committed to improvement
and to becoming a top performer, and he understands
that this will require a considerable amount of time and
dedication. However, he hasn’t heard of the concept of
deliberate practice and is unsure of how to get the most
value out of the time he dedicates to improving his
performance.