One of the other speakers at the conference in Ghana ~ Managing Employees during turbulent times, May 2009 ~ was Roy Braxton

Roy is CEO of Braxton and co-authored ~ Crafting and Executing Strategy: South African Edition ~ which is an adaptation of the market-leading American book of the same name by Thompson, Strickland & Gamble. The aim of the book is to effectively and interestingly cover what every senior-level or MBA student needs to know about crafting, executing and aligning business strategies. The book has a solidly mainstream, balanced approach mirroring both the best academic thinking and the pragmatism of real-world strategic management.

Roy is an international thought leader around strategy, culture and people management knowledge, providing solutions, services and products to corporate, medium and emerging (small) businesses.

He spoke of the need for strategic positioning and alignment with clear design and implementation of organisation and business unit strategies alongside accountability frameworks for individuals and teams

In Roy's opinion "Good People Management" requires a combination of people management strategy, process design and implementation through systems and technology. Performance management without the culture of learning and accountability is unsustainable alongside these elements the processes and technology must make the aspirations possible, for the organisations, their teams and each individual.

For me the big insight was the need to shift balance of accountability and responsibility toward the individual building their own brand and performance rather than the external drive coming from the organisation. Performance management approaches which empower are far more likely to actually work...

What are your thoughts on "performance management"

For more on Roy please visit ~ http://www.braxtongrp.com