Performance Management Training Best Practice Blog

Expect Performance Congruency between Managers and Reports

2011-11-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

If a manager’s primary role is to help their people succeed in the organization, they should be held accountable if their reports are not being successful. Simple performance management – right?

The problem with holding employees themselves solely responsible for their performance is that there are many factors over which employees have little control.

Managers’ and their direct reports’ goals should correlate. If managers are hitting their performance objectives but they have direct reports who are not, or if the manager’s direct reports are hitting their goals but the manager is not, the performance system is not functioning properly.

A CEO’s greatest concern about Performance Management is that it will be too complex. Use congruency to keep thing simple and focused on what matters most – the performance of your people.

Create the Performance Management Systems for Performers, not Managers.

2011-11-10T13:52:00.000-08:00

If you want employees to buy into Performance Management, provide them with systems, approaches, and tools that are of value to them in improving performance.

If an employee has clear expectations and standards for their work and access to a real-time performance metrics and qualitative 360 feedback, Performance Appraisals would only be needed on an exception basis.

That should be the goal of a Performance Management system. The goal of the Manager is to have their people value the time they have with their manager because it is truly useful. The Manager’s role should be to facilitate and support individual and group performance improvement, individual development, and pursue cross-organizational performance opportunities.

Train Managers to Manage and Employees to Participate—Don’t Skip Basic Management Practices

2011-10-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

Research Performance Management best practices and you will find an abundance of performance management practices described as:

 “setting effective goals and aligning goals with corporate strategy”
 “holding periodic performance conversations”
 “giving objective feedback”

Though these may be called “Performance Management Practices,” they are just basic, good management, communication, and interpersonal skills. While these management practices are certainly a prerequisite for effective performance management and coaching, organizations can realize a significant increase in performance simply by applying sound management practices independent of any performance management system.

In addition to basic, good management practices, specialized management frameworks and tools should be used to expand a manager’s options for addressing more complex individual and systemic performance issues. When management training, frameworks, and performance tools are institutionalized, employees can more clearly identify and communicate what they need to succeed.

Eliminate Performance Appraisals, Reviews, and the “Coach” Moniker—Focus on the Performance Management Conversations

2011-10-20T13:45:00.000-07:00

The irony of formal Performance Appraisals is that they consume significant resources, produce little value, and impede the kind of collaborative working relationship managers and employees need to improve performance. By design, the traditional process tends to place managers and employees in a confrontational setting. In that setting, trust—one of the most significant factors influencing employee engagement and performance—is undermined.

Even when companies try to create more effective performance management roles for managers as coaches, the legacy of the old, judgmental, and confrontational dynamics often pollutes the process. A recent study found that despite significant investments in training managers to coach, less than 1 in 4 respondents said that coaching had significantly affected their job performance; and ten percent said coaching had made them less satisfied with their job. There was, however, a strong correlation between performance improvement, job satisfaction, and a positive employee / manager relationship.

This points to the single most critical element of a coaching or facilitative relationship—trust.

Trust must be built for managers to have influence with their people.

1. The first step is to eliminate performance appraisals and reviews. This type of bold move is needed to send a message to employees that real change is happening within the organization, not just a “re-labeling” of what managers are currently doing.

2. The second step is to fundamentally shift how managers see their role. A disabling factor in coaching programs sited above was that, despite receiving training on coaching, managers did not fundamentally change how they behaved.

A powerful focus of our development programs for managers is that they learn to "help (their) people succeed within the organization.” This is the essence of talent management, succession planning, and building management bench strength. When managers help their people succeed, managers also succeed. They don’t need to be a “coach” to do this, but they do need to be capable of providing real value to their direct reports.

Emphasize Intrinsic Motivation and Deemphasize Compensation and Reward

2011-10-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

An extensive body of research on Motivation theory shows that people who are intrinsically motivated consistently perform at higher and more sustained levels than when they are externally motivated.

Yet, most managers’ perspectives on motivation can be characterized by the “carrot and stick.” Unfortunately, this approach does not create a high performance environment.

While most performance management systems are fueled by reward and punishment, few managers understand what really motivates people or the long-term consequences of external incentives and rewards.

Managers who are skilled in effective motivation practices will generate what more and more organizations and executives recognize as the Holy Grail of performance--employee engagement, discretionary effort, and “passion--because their employees perform at significantly higher levels.

Are you doing what it takes to drive performance?

Performance Culture - Linking Customer Support to Revenue Growth

2011-03-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

In a recent performance management & culture quarterly poll, a large % of supervisors stated that "ensuring the best customer service experience possible" was keeping them up at night.

A 5% increase in customer service loyalty can boost profits by as much as 25% to 85%. Research has shown that satisfied customers lead to greater profitability and growth.

Read more about some of the best performance management, practices and make the link between industry leading sales and service...

Performance Management - Keys to Success?

2011-03-28T05:48:00.000-07:00

Much is said and written about, mostly negative I might add, about the difficulties organizations face in their attempts at making performance management work. It seems there are a few keys success, thinking about your organization, are your managers capable of embracing the following keys:

• Foster strong win-win relationships with their teams?
• Conduct thoughtful and consistent coaching sessions?
• Tailor their performance management and style to each employee?

Search for the Right Performance Management Resource. Right Now.

2010-12-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Introducing a powerful new Search Tool to help you track down the right Performance Management Training & Best Practice Resource right now. Search this blog and the vast collection of corporate training communities and related best practice blogs with a single click.

Step 1 - Locate the Search Tool to the right of this post

Step 2 - Type your keyword search phrase. eg. Performance Culture

Step 3 - Click Search

Step 4 - Review the results, sorted by:

This Blog | Sites Linked to this Blog | Recommended Blogs

See illustration below. Enjoy.

Performance Management Research Study Results

2010-09-29T08:23:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the past 12 months, we conducted an online research study where visitors to our website were anonymously surveyed across an area of topics related driving performance through investments in human capital. In particular, one such survey asked respondents the following question:

Have you identified the top two actions that will have the biggest impact on organizational performance in your company?

Here are the results for your viewing pleasure.

Yes--15%
No--69%
I do not know--15%

How would you answer the above question regarding organizational development best practices and performance management training etc.?

Can performance management & coaching practices impact sales revenue growth?

2010-08-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

A great question - we hear this from time to time. Especially during the past 18 months as budgets have tightened and their is increasing pressure to perform. The answer depends on numerous factors eg culture, resources, reinforcement etc. Each company in unique. Each team is unique. Still though, all things being equal, we believe a sales manager committed to sales coaching best practices and proven performance management best practices can wield noticeable influence on sales growth and margin across their team.

For additional information, you may want to check out the insights and perspectives contained in the white paper The Impact of Sales Coaching - Do Sales Managers Really Make a Difference?

Are You Building a High Performance Environment?

2010-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

It is the Leader’s challenge to create the circumstances that stimulate improved performance and execution from the people within their organization. The key question for business leaders is not “why” high performance but rather “how”?

Read the white paper Are You Building a High Performance Environment: The Keys to Success to find out:

The 2 Keys to building a high performance management environment
The 6 steps required to make performance management happen within their culture

Download this Building a High Performance Environment white paper

Performance Management & Coaching Case Study

2009-11-02T13:12:00.000-08:00

Increasing performance management bench strength, and employee engagement continue to be top priorities to succeed in today’s economy. Most companies understand that developing performance management best practices and executive coaching capabilities is an essential ingredient in achieving those results.

What many companies don’t seem to realize is that few coaching initiatives will reach their potential because of a distinct lack of a supporting infrastructure that will make coaches and the coaching process much more successful.

Read the Performance Management & Coaching Case Study

Case Study Background

An industry leader in the real estate investment market was looking for an innovative approach to improve performance, engage employees, and reinforce the unique culture it had built over the last decade. The company felt that the discipline of coaching exemplified the approaches, perspectives, and behaviors they wanted, their managers and executives to demonstrate in their employee interactions. The overall goal was to create a company-wide coaching environment and to implement effective performance management systems that would be embraced and consistently used by employees,managers and executives.

5 Keys to Successful Performance Management

2009-05-01T11:19:00.000-07:00

If you want better performance from your employees, the following four statements may surprise you:

Forget about making managers' lives easier
Dump your performance appraisal and "coach" moniker
Shift accountability away from employees
Stop paying them off

While these statements may seem to contradict what you have heard about successful performance management practices, we have found that the following five practices break away from conventional thinking to help solve the age old problem of the cumbersome, ineffective, and often ridiculed performance management practices.

Read the 5 Keys to Performance Management...

Truly Managing Performance

2009-04-01T06:00:00.001-07:00

Performance Management is a hot and confusing topic these days.

First of all, the term has different meanings for different people.

Secondly, business leaders who plan to introduce a Performance Management initiative have a variety of important concerns that they are trying to address:

Inability to execute key strategic goals
Need to reduce overall costs and increase productivity
Retention of top performers in key positions
Lack of bench strength and succession risk
Desire to formalize and actively develop cultural philosophies and values.

Just as concerns vary, so do Performance Management implementation strategies, practices, and tools. Whether the initiative is focused on aligning goals, integrating systems, or performance coaching, the underlying objective is to positively influence and align individual performance.

Yet, most PM initiatives are still founded on the initial premises and assumptions of traditional Performance Management approaches.

Learn more about how to manage performance...