9.3 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Dealing with Poor Performance

(SHORT NOTES FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Performance Management at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

To figure out what's causing the performance issue, you have to get to the root of the problem.  Because employee performance affects organizational performance, we tend to want to look for a quick fix.  These types of solutions focus largely on the ability of the person performing the job.  Performance, though, is a function of both ability and motivation.

Performance = Ability x Motivation

Where:

Ability is the person's aptitude, as well as the training and resources supplied by the organization.

Motivation is the product of desire and commitment.

Before you can fix poor performance, you have to understand its cause. Does it come from lack of ability or low motivation?  Incorrect diagnoses can lead to lots of problems later on.

Increasing Personal Accountability

Conducting a performance interview and providing feedback are only the start.  It's not enough to simply tell employee what you expect them to do, and then place the sole responsibility for follow-through on their shoulders.  Performance management takes more of a team approach – the person who's doing the work needs to feel supported and encouraged for the duration of the process, just as he or she needs to feel personally held to account for the outcome.

9.2 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Getting Real Results From Performance Reviews

(SHORT NOTES FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Performance Management at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Performance appraisals are a dreaded meeting where you have to tell your people what you really think of them.  People’s performance is critical to an organization's success.  We often fail to monitor their progress on a regular basis.

For most organizations, people genuinely are "their most important assets".  You need to look after your people if you want to get the best from them.

Benefits of conducting regular performance appraisals

Detect and eliminate barriers to effective performance. Pick up dissatisfactions that would otherwise lead people to leave. Focus people's efforts in the right direction. Motivate people to work towards important goals. Help them develop skills and competencies necessary to achieve future objectives. Celebrate their successes.

Purpose of Performance Appraisals

Traditionally, top-down, subjective judgments of an employee's performance

can help to build an open, positive, collaborative relationship between individuals and their managers

provide a useful forum for giving feedback about what has gone well, or not so well

"punctuation points," where you can look back together at progress towards existing goals, discuss and solve any related problems, and celebrate particular achievements

9.1 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Linking Activities to Vision and Strategy

(SHORT NOTES FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Performance Management at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Managers talk a lot about employee performance.  There's constant pressure to achieve performance targets, to reach higher performance levels, and to ensure that people's work supports and furthers the organization's goals.  Performance management is the process used to manage this performance.

Traditionally, managers look for hard data to tell how well an employee has performed his or her duties through performance evaluation process.  The part about making sure that the employee is doing the right thing, however, is missing from this evaluation.  This is where the key performance indicator comes to play.  A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable metric that reflects how well an organization is achieving its stated goals and objectives.

While it is important for organizations to choose the correct KPIs for business performance, it is equally useful if managers and employees define KPIs for members of their teams.  This helps people work in such a way that their activities are aligned with corporate strategy.

What is measured gets done

Part of performance management is setting goals with members of your team.  This may be done within the formal appraisal process.

 

Aligning Objectives With Organizational Goals

We're often reminded about the corporate mission statement, we have strategy meetings where the "big picture" is revealed to us, and we're even invited to participate in some business decisions.  We're also kept aware of how our day-to-day activities contribute to corporate goals.  This type of managing is called Management by Objectives (MBO), a system that seeks to align employees' objectives with the organization's goals.

MBO
Advantages	Disadvantages
team members are clear about their work and how it benefits the whole	can be challenging and lengthy to implement
makes a clear link between individual effort and the organization's mission	needs the organization's full commitment
	needs an underlying system for tracking goals and performance
	goal transmission can be slow