Performance or Preference?

 

 

Performance or preference

Which should come first?

Some say it doesn’t matter

I disagree of course.

 

Track record is vital

It’s important to take note,

What you see is what you get

Is a Flip Wilson joke.

 

Has he done what he said?

And how much of it?

This should inform preference

Whenever we sit.

 

Looking good and doing good

Are two different things,

Besides her good looks

Tell me what else she brings.

 

 

Performance before preference

Is being on the right track,

If he has nothing to show

Then that’s a real set back.

 

“But I like how he moves

It doesn’t matter what he does”

Here of late in decision making

This seems to be the buzz.

 

And “she talks really well

We should give her a chance.”

Sweet talk is for lovers

She should be in France.

 

 

Performance is premiere

Is he a man of his word?

Or, are you simply satisfied

With the rhetoric you have heard?

  

What is her claim to fame?

What has she built?

Is there gold in her stream

Or is there only silt?

 

“But she promises a lot

And she is incredibly smart,

She even puts a time-frame on it

And that’s great for a start.”

 

“I know he is new

But he comes highly qualified.”

However, papers in hand

Is not performance applied.

 

 

What has he done?

For me it comes right down to this,

Preference without performance

Is a colossal miss.

 

Performance is a track record

Preference is a like,

Unless they work hand in hand

We’ll never get it right.

 

Stewart Russell © November 14, 2020