Managing Employee Performance
If you want to get the most out of people, you have to apply pressure - that's the only thing that any of us really responds to ...
Provocative statement & idea - isn't it!
Creating pressure in an organization - for change, for
improved results, for new directions - requires confrontation. Without
confrontation you're not going to change people's behaviours, attitudes and
actions.
Confrontation doesn't mean putting someone down or
embarrassing them in front of others. It's not until you look people
straight in the eye that you get to the source of their behaviour &
motivation. You need to say to a direct report, "I don't think
you're performing up to your potential; I believe you can do better. It's
in your best interests that you succeed and it's in my best interests that you
succeed."
Once you set that context, you need to be specific &
direct about an individual's failings and tell them the truth about their
performance - face to face.
I'm persuaded that a significant majority of employees have
a common belief that the value of work lies in achievement (doing a good job),
and at the end of the day achievement would be the most important thing they
want to take home with them every day.
You can rely on that fundamental belief (it's true for you
too, isn't it?), and draw on that motivation when planning your
"confrontation" and identifying the areas where improvement is
necessary. One of our clients likes to use the idea of
"carefrontation" when implementing the above initiative - we like
that idea too.
Managing Performance Without Changing Personalities
A business-owner friend of mine once commented, "I'd be
much better at management if I didn't have so many different kinds of people
working for me!"
The "value" of a manager in an organization - any
organization - is their ability to produce results through other people.
An effective manager is one who can produce increasing results through other
people.
Where does one go to learn how to produce increasing results
through other people? This is the challenge, because management is
neither a science nor a profession, neither a function nor a combination of
functions. Management is a
practice - gained through experience and in context.
Management may use science (and I'm going to emphasize that in a moment), but
it is an art combined with science and knowledge. Knowledge is certainly
important (whether it's technical knowledge, business knowledge, or people
knowledge); but wisdom - the
capacity to combine knowledge from different sources and use it judiciously -
is key.
For instance, managing performance with a direct report includes three
primary manager-employee interactions: goal setting, coaching and feedback. In some
organizations managers are taught specific methods & skills for handling
each of these interactions. Often these generic skills (certainly useful)
are based upon a single set of assumptions and fail to take into account the
motivational & psychological differences which exist in the real
world. Not all people feel the same about being measured & evaluated
- and clearly not all people perceive the value & need for goals the same -
or have the same response to feedback.
Effective managers realize they have to modify their behaviours &
actions in each of the three interactions in order to consciously adapt to the
needs & preferences of each employee. For example, take goal
setting. Independent personalities want major control, or at least
significant influence, over the process and can actually resist too much
management involvement. Conversely, more dependent personalities who
function best in a more structured environment need more guidance with setting
their goals, a lesser degree of stretch, and shorter timeframes in which to
reach goals. So the approach that works with one is likely to be less
effective - or a failure - with the other.
Applying different methodologies are just as important in
the other two performance management interactions. A coaching procedure
that successfully helps one personality re-direct his or her behaviours may be
totally ineffective with a different personality.
Concord's clients know that gaining "wisdom" (knowledge, skills & insight) in understanding job personalities and people personalities is an important outcome of our PPS Program (Pro.file Performance System ). Their managers & executives learn how to skillfully apply knowledge of human behaviour & motivation into their selection, management & retention initiatives. It's a very effective way to proactively bring the insights & knowledge of behavioural science right into the space on your management team's hard drives reserved for "people knowledge".
dewaynef@concordconsulting.com
President
This article was used with
permission from Concord Consulting Corporation. Feel free to contact them for additional information.
Telephone: (780) 464-6688
Fax: (780) 464-6299
email@concordconsulting.com
www.concordconsulting.com
www.profileperformancesystem.com