For many, it is that time of the year again for festivities and holidays. It is also the time of the year for the white-collared community to take stock of the hits and misses for the year i.e. performance appraisals.

Simon Sinek says that "you can’t incentivize performance, you can only incentivize behavior". But what happens to an organization if you reward the right behaviour and fail to deliver on results?

Embracing the philosophy of 'survival of the fittest' might be a company's best mission statement for staying afloat, but should they reward good behaviour at the expense of performance?

Goldman Sachs has a 'culling' ritual annualy whereby it terminates the lowest-performing five percent of its workforce. This sounds brutal but this practice is probably one of the main reasons why the investment bank has successfully kept its edge over the rest of its competitors.

In the book "Dream Big", Jim Collins also talks about private equity firm 3G Capital's corporate culture:

"The very best people crave meritocracy, and mediocre people fear it."

Generally speaking those who are guilty of cruising their way to passive retirement in the organization should be eliminated for the greater commercial good of the company. Yet this is not always so. Large companies often have blind spots and loopholes within their hierarchy for lazy people to hide away. At times, it can also more costly to replace a long-serving employee who has been too familiar with keeping up with the firm's day to day operations. But trimming the fat is a crucial aspect for staying alive.

And in all of these scenarios, the firm pays the ultimate price in terms of profitability and efficiency.

---

For those on the lower percentile of the bell curve, it can be easy to feel victimised when you don't get credited or rewarded for your effort and work. Performance appraisals have never been straightforward and there are many softer dynamics at play at the workplace. It could be a certain line manager deliberately picking on you due to one missed deadline, that phone call or message that you did not reply on time, or even just optically not trying hard enough.

Sometimes the way things work or don’t work within the company is not entirely your fault. The larger the company, the more complex and inter-connected these workings are, and some problems are just un-fixable.

The reality is everyone is entitled to their opinion. Just remember that the ones who have real skin in the game (those who have something to really lose when things go bad) have the absolute right to ask questions and demand for results - even if they sound unreasonable.

Don’t beat yourself up too much.

But remember, as an employee, also don't be too quick to give yourself more credit than you deserve for your achievements at the workplace.