Performance on Purpose is Buzz Coaching’s core method, and it is set out in full on the Performance on Purpose page. It asks two questions together: are you performing well, and is that performance pointed at a purpose you chose?
Plot the two on a quadrant, with performance up the side and purpose across the bottom, and every owner is in one of four positions.
The four positions
Drifting — low performance, low purpose
The business runs, roughly. Nobody is certain where it is heading, including the owner, so priorities get set by whoever asked most recently.
The Treadmill — high performance, low purpose
This is the dangerous corner, because from the outside it looks like winning: turnover is up, the team is growing, and the owner cannot remember choosing any of it.
Unfulfilled Potential — low performance, high purpose
The owner can describe exactly what they want to build. The week never cooperates. Plans get written and rewritten, the strategy day produces twelve actions, and the numbers do not move.
Performance on Purpose — high on both
Output is high and aimed at what the owner chose. This is the goal, and coaching moves you towards it deliberately.
Why the two questions have to be asked together
An employee in the wrong job can resign; an owner who builds a business that performs well at something they do not care about has no such exit.
Purpose is what makes hard decisions fast. An owner who knows what the business is for can turn down the wrong contract before lunch. An owner who does not will turn it over for three weeks, take it because the number is large, and then spend a year servicing a client that damages both the margin and the team. Low purpose shows up as slower, worse decisions every time something significant lands.
It also decides what you build. Two owners in the same trade at the same turnover will build completely different companies depending on whether the purpose is income now, a sale in six years, or a business that fits around a family. Those are three different businesses, and an owner who never chooses between them tends to end up with a version that serves none of the three well.
How to test yourself this week
Score the two axes separately, out of ten
Performance first, then purpose. Do not average them; look at the gap between the two numbers.
Write what the business is for, in one sentence containing a number and a date
Rewrite it until it is specific enough to turn down work with.
Mark last month’s diary
Block by block, mark each one P if it moved you towards that sentence and N if it did not.
Take the decision you have been sitting on
Hold it against the sentence you have just written and decide it this week.
Questions to ask yourself
- Out of 10, how clearly is this business pointed at something you chose rather than something that accumulated?
- If the next three years looked exactly like the last three, would you sign for that today?
- What are you performing well at that nobody would miss, and that would cost you nothing, if you stopped entirely?
- Who set the shape of your week — you, your largest customer, or your inbox?
The full method — the two scores, the four levels it works at, the three freedoms and the ninety-day coaching rhythm — is on the Performance on Purpose page.
Performance on Purpose is the first thing we test in Personal Coaching, and it runs through all four coaching areas. The Three Freedoms is what the top-right corner buys you in practice, and The Performance Zone explains why an owner stuck on the treadmill so often mistakes exhaustion for progress.
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Common questions
What are the four quadrants of Performance on Purpose?
Performance runs up the vertical axis and purpose runs across the horizontal one, which gives four positions. Drifting is low on both: the business runs, but nobody including the owner is sure where it is heading. The Treadmill is high performance and low purpose, and it is the dangerous corner because from the outside it looks exactly like winning. Unfulfilled Potential is low performance and high purpose: the owner knows precisely what they want to build and the week never cooperates. Performance on Purpose is high on both, and it is the goal. Coaching is the process of moving from wherever you are towards that corner deliberately.
How is this different from the full Performance on Purpose page?
This page is the summary of the model: the two questions, the quadrant and the four positions. The main Performance on Purpose page carries the whole method, including how the two scores are taken, the four levels it works at across you, your leadership, your business and your finances, the three freedoms it is designed to deliver, and the ninety-day rhythm of scoring, working and re-scoring that makes progress measurable rather than felt.
Does a purpose have to be something inspiring?
No. Purpose here is not a mission statement and it does not need to be noble. It is the answer to a plain question: what is this business for, in your life, and by when. Fund three days a week and be sellable within eight years is a far better purpose than anything containing the word empower, because you can hold a real decision up against it on a Tuesday and get an answer. The test is whether it can make you turn down the wrong contract.