Who’s Afraid of Performance Management?

I’d like to draw your attention to the article “Fire your duds” by Jim McElgunn on the Canadian Business Magazine website: http://www.canadianbusiness.com/entrepreneur/human_resources/article.jsp?content=20050524_090427_3508

Mr. McElgunn’s article does a great job of laying out why it is so important to set expectations for your team, and making it clear that they need to live up to them. To back up a few steps from the termination procedures that he focuses on, where many organizations go wrong in the Performance Management process is that they fail to adequately execute the process itself.

“Performance Management” is an ominous sounding term that inevitably conjures up grim visions, whether of unpleasant disciplinary reviews, or of odious micro managing. In reality, having a clear policy and a recognized process for conducting performance management, and executing that process in a timely manner is a critical task for any managers who want to do more than just pretend that their organization is focused on success.

Step One: Have standards, and communicate them. Every person that reports to you needs to receive a written set of the company’s expectations regarding how they carry out their duties. If you or your human resources department don’t have or can’t find your organization’s Job Descriptions, then you need to get your act together. Don’t use the excuse that job descriptions are only for employees of large corporations either. I know several small independent entrepreneurs who utilize detailed job descriptions for their staff. Especially in a small operation, it is critical that every team member understands how their performance affects the entire business, and buys in to the understanding that each one of them is entirely responsible for contributing to a successful enterprise. For that matter, it doesn’t hurt if business units in a larger organization buy in to the same mindset.

Step Two: Schedule regular evaluations, and do them on time. This is where most organizations lose their way. Time commitments, deadlines, and scheduling make many managers downgrade the priority that they assign to performance evaluations. I have observed this pattern time and again: a New Performance Management Initiative is created. The managers, full of zeal, conduct regular evaluations of their people. Then they start to get busy with other priorities, and start putting off the evaluations. The devolution slides rapidly from monthly reviews to quarterly, then annually, then not at all. Some organizations even manage to leapfrog from monthly to not-at-all in a single bound, although this is usually symptomatic of other, more serious problems with the management team. Regular evaluations have two key functions: they allow you to paint a clear picture for yourself of what each member of your team is producing, and most importantly, it allows your people to have a clear idea of what you think of their work, and to provide them with coaching to help them work towards a higher level of performance.

Schedule evaluations according to whatever time frame makes sense, according to the tempo of your particular business or industry. Monthly evaluations are, in my opinion, a bare minimum. For some strongly sales-focused businesses such as car dealerships, bi-weekly might be better. For almost all industries, having regular monthly, quarterly, and annual evaluations works best. Only doing an “annual” or “year-end” evaluation is a shameless cop-out that is barely better than not doing them at all. It is impossible to give significance to a team member’s projects completed, projects delayed, deals made, and deals lost many months later. If it takes you a year to get around to handing out tummy rubs or rebukes, your people are likely to think that you don’t really know or care what they do all day. If that is the case, they’re probably right.

Step Three: Coaching, which is the whole point. This is the reason why you are making the time to sit down with a member of your team and conduct a formal evaluation. As a manager, you are (in theory) entirely responsible for the results produced by your team. It is your job not only to recognize good performance, but also to draw attention to areas that need improvement, and to provide constructive solutions that will bring those areas up to standard.

Everyone, regardless of how well they perform, has areas that are opportunities for improvement. Just as an under-performing employee needs to be shown the steps they need to take to deliver an acceptable performance, your superstars need to be coached on what they need to work on to go from “Good” to “Great” or from “Great” to “Exceptional.” From my experience as both a “top performer” and a manger of top performers, these individuals thrive on feedback and recognition. They enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that comes from getting a great evaluation, but the most highly motivated of them will also actively seek coaching tips that will help them get to the next level. This is why it is so important for managers to break out of the mindset that Performance Management is solely a tool to move non-performers out the door. When applied regularly and correctly, evaluations help you coach everyone on your team to produce results at a higher level than they are doing now. And that is what you (and your boss) want, right?

At this point, you need to set targets, and set timelines. Now that you have clearly explained to your team member how their performance rates, and what you want to see them change, you need to set a timetable for when you want to see demonstrable examples of the development opportunities that you have discussed. Not only does this begin to provide you with the documentation that you will require when the time comes to dismiss a non-performer, it creates a sense of urgency for the team member who wants to deliver a higher caliber performance, and this in turn helps instill in them a commitment to change. Except for the most severe cases, you should refrain from phrasing this portion of the evaluation in Doom & Gloom: expressions like the venerable “your performance will be reviewed in 30 days. If in that time an appreciable improvement is not noted, further action will be initiated” are better off saved for progressive discipline letters. Rather, you should express the need for improvement in terms that build consensus. If someone is under-performing, the evaluation is your opportunity to make sure there is no misunderstanding between the two of you about how they measure up, and what they need to deliver by the time their next evaluation comes around.

There you have it, in three steps. Actually, there is a fourth step: Do it again. Just as you can’t embark on a long road trip without a map and a clear idea of where you want to go, you can’t expect to execute a business plan without knowing where your performance is now, where you want your performance to be at the end of a set time, and what steps you will need to take to achieve that objective. And if you don’t have a clear picture of what that objective and the required steps are, then you can hardly expect your people to figure it out all on their own. That’s your job, and if you want to be good at it (and get compensated as well as you think you should be), then you need to exhibit the leadership necessary to deliver the performance that is expected of you and your team.

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