How Truvelop Leverages Performance Psychology

This past Friday, Juliana Withers, a member of our Customer Success Team, graduated from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology with her Master’s Degree in Performance Psychology.  When she first entered the program, Juliana was trained to work with sport teams and coaches, but quickly saw how transferable the skills were to other performance domains, such as the workplace and manager development.  During her time in the program, Juliana fine-tuned her theoretical orientation to performance excellence and how she approaches performance barriers in a professional setting.   

What is Performance Psychology? 

Performance psychology studies the various psychological factors that contribute to optimal human performance.  “Established principles of performance psychology are employed to assist professionals at the top of their game, produce superior results often under pressure of competition, role or spectator expectation” (Maguire).  These principles are also used to help performers become more motivated, engaged, and open to learning, increasing one’s productivity and quality of their output.  With psychological skills training, communication can be enhanced, self-efficacy can be strengthened, and leadership traits can be developed.  Performance psychology helps us to understand how we can help our individual team members become the best performers that they can be.  

What is the difference between Performance Psychology and I/O Psychology? 

Industrial and Organizational psychology is the study of human behavior in organizations and the workplace (APA).  With a focus on principles of individual, group, and organizational behaviors, I/O psychology seeks to apply these principles in a way that solves most workplace problems from a top-down approach.  This top-down approach means that I/O psychology works to develop programs and strategies across an organization with the goal to create behavior change on an individual level.  Performance psychology, on the other hand, seeks to create change on the individual level, leading to overall organizational growth.   

Blending Perspectives in Truvelop 

With Truvelop, our team is able to blend the two perspectives, helping organizations from both fronts.  When Truvelop is implemented in an organization, it is typically a major culture shift from the typical annual review that most organizations have been seeing in the past.  Instead, Managers are now evaluating their Team Members on a more frequent cadence, leading to more development conversations and a clearer picture of their talent landscape.  This is a major organizational change that leads to better individual performance and development.   

In addition to the actual platform, we are helping our users from an individualized perspective.  With our Manager Resource Center, Lunch and Learns, and Truvelop Tips, our Managers are being trained to better coach their Team Members, helping their organization thrive.  By training the trainers, we are giving our users the tools and skills to be effective leaders and help their teams become the best performers that they can be.      

“When I [Juliana] joined Truvelop, I had no idea just how perfectly my academic background would translate to my day-to-day role.  Between content creation and talking strategy with our users, I’ve been able to leverage my talents in a way that leaves me feeling excited and fulfilled.  I am so proud of the work that we’re doing at Truvelop and can’t wait to see what is to come in the second half of the year.”   

Truvelop aims to increase meaningful touchpoints between Managers and Team Members, helping organizations to grow and develop from all sides.  Contact us today to learn more about our modern approach to performance management and development that actually improves the manager and employee relationship. Don’t just take our word for it, see what our Customers have to say.