OK – that’s a little out of line…
If you are running some form of Performance Management for your staff, then you’re not likely to be doing it wrong or likely not doing all 10 things wrong… but very likely you are making one or more of these common and often critical errors…
And I’m going to guess your manager did it this way, so you picked up many of their bad habits too…
How do I know? Well I made all of these mistakes (and I’m sure others that I have erased from memory). And I was taught to do it that way by a raft of managers , as were they I guess, and so on. And I’m going to guess your manager did it this way, so you picked up many of their bad habits too.
Think about it… How can you truly ‘manage’ someone’s ‘performance’? How can that be effective?
So here’s my list of 10 things for you to check your staff review practices against…. See if you do better than your past managers!
# 1) The name! Straight off the bat – Performance Management as a name for this process is laced with an expectation of conflict, and for the recipients, causes considerable angst…
When thinking of that term, how can you truly (and permanently) ‘manage’ someone’s ‘performance’? If managing performance is all you are doing, what happens when you turn off the surveillance of ‘managing that performance’..?
The alternative – Install a Personal Development approach – Not a Performance Management System (keep reading to learn more!)
If it is indeed the employee’s review, shouldn’t they be doing most of the talking?
# 2) Regardless of the name you give your process, your staff may seeing that process as their annual ‘sit down – be quiet – nod at the appropriate times and get told what I’m not doing well, what I am doing doing well and what I need to improve’ session – (or the short version – ‘my annual ass-kicking session’)
The alternative – Changing this perception takes a few steps in a different direction and some evidence that this is indeed a process of personal development … and yes, please keep reading!
# 3) Managers being confused about whose review it is… –
If managers are the ones doing the vast majority of the talking, whose review is it really?…. If it is indeed the employee’s review, shouldn’t they be doing most of the talking?
The alternative – Lead with questions – not with answers! Ask them how they rate themselves – ask why they rate that way – For the stuff that’s going well, ask how they will keep it going, or when gaps in results are identified, how they feel it would be best improved. Now, this approach doesn’t stop you from adding your bits – but you’ll be doing just that… adding your bits, to their plan – not giving them your plan.
use a simple yet incredibly effective ‘Start Doing – Stop Doing – Keep Doing’ approach to Personal Development
# 4) Using the same generic content for every employee…
If you are serious about conducting Personal Develop, then how can you successfully use generic content – and perhaps even the same content year in and year out?
The alternative – Through our consultancy, we help our clients use a simple yet incredibly effective ‘Start Doing – Stop Doing – Keep Doing’ approach to Personal Development – and you can too… It takes just a handful of minutes to bash down the answers to – What would I like ‘Mike’ to Start Doing – Stop Doing & Keep Doing? and by doing so, virtually no two reviews will be the same… It’s a truly ‘Personal’ Development approach – in a matter of minutes per person!
Better still – using this approach you’ll also limit the review content to between 4 and 7 items for discussion (which, by the way, fixes what should be common error number 11 – having waaaay too much content to remember, let alone actually implement) – and that small amount of content is more than enough to have a deep and highly engaged personal development discussion.
# 5) The manager and the employee assessing different things…
Certainly they would be reading the same thing, but how they interpret its actual meaning can be staggeringly differently – which often leads to conflict because one person thinks they are reaching the required standard (or their interpretation of it), and the other clearly does not…
The Alternative – Add this simple question to your repertoire before any discussion about ‘how are you going?’ takes place… ‘How do you interpret that…? Can you put it into your own words..?’ If they explain it the same (or suitably similar) to you, then you are confident you are assessing the same thing. If not, clear up the misinterpretation before proceeding.
you’ll find the discussion will be centred around reaching or maintaining the standard, and not a debate about what was and wasn’t expected
# 6) The content they are being assessed against being somewhat unfamiliar…
If you have ever had an employee during a review say something like ‘I wasn’t aware of that…’ or ‘You never told me that…’ or ‘That’s not in my job description…’ then you’ve fallen foul of number 6.
The alternative – Don’t have the only discussion each year around company and individual Standards – Values – Polices – KPIs etc. when reviews take place. As frequently as you have team / tool box meetings, put small sections of your ‘written game plan’ on the agenda and ask ‘Is that still correct? (and) Are we still doing that?’
Do this well and frequently enough and you’ll see that when it comes to reviews, the content will NOT be unfamiliar and you’ll find the discussion will be centred around reaching or maintaining the standard, and not a debate about what was and was not expected. (Note: ensure the content for the review is an extract of this frequently tabled and discussed content!)
if it truly isn’t a big deal (aka It’s not that Important), then why have it in the review?!
# 7) Either being too aggressive, or more commonly, too passive in the delivery of a review.
I think we have all (mostly) figured out that slamming the table and shouting demands for improvement is on a highway to fast failure. However, the opposite is far more prevalent and often, equally as unsuccessful in instigating a path of change and lasting improvement.
Have you ever, in the midst of discussing an improvement area, found yourself saying something like ‘…look it’s not a big deal..’ in an attempt to ‘soften’ the blow?
The Alternative – Firstly, if it truly isn’t a big deal (aka it’s not that Important), then why have it in the review in the first place?! But my guess is that it is important, so don’t undersell the importance by softening it. Furthermore – you should only be compelled to soften the blow if you plan on belting someone! – But with a ‘Hard on Problems – Not on People’ approach there won’t be any belting!
Remember that in someway, you have played some part in the gap
# 8) Not providing sufficient or safe opportunity for employees to discuss the part they need you to play in closing identified gaps in their results. The discussion is exclusively around what they need to do better or differently.
The Alternative – Remember that in someway, you have played some part in the gap – even if it is as ‘innocent’ as not raising the concern with the staff member sooner. Make it a habit for each point of development to ask, ‘What do you need from me to help close this gap?’
‘Is there any reason why this great result might slip in the future’?
# 9) Giving vastly disproportionate time and attention to those who are not reaching company requirements
Sort of like bad account payers versus the excellent payers – who gets all your attention? Who should be getting equal attention?? The only thing worse that having your non performers continue to not perform, would be having your star performers stop performing!
The Alternative – Give your star performers just as much time, attention and levels of importance to Personal Development. If the entire discussion is centred on these 3 things – a) Acknowledging how important it is that they do these things so well – b) Genuinely thanking them for their commitment – and c) Asking (and this is the kicker) ‘Is there any reason why this great result might slip in the future’? – then that is an outstanding use of Personal Development time.
10) Having an excellent Personal Development discussion that avoids all of the above pitfalls – but then not following up and doing the 3 things that you MUST do in the days and weeks after a review.
The Alternative – Do these 3 things! a) Do the things you said you would do – b) Catch them doing the things they said they would do and acknowledge it – 3) Catch them NOT doing the things they committed to do and ask them ‘What happened? – isn’t this what we agreed?’
And that would easily have been my biggest failing in my early days of people development – Not doing those 3 follow up things.
So here’s my easy litmus test for you as you head into your next employee review… Read the content in their review and ask yourself – if there was little or no improvement in these areas, would I follow it up i.e. – Would I hold them accountable? – and if you are not 100% certain that you would, then take it out of their review because it clearly can’t be important enough to spend time discussing in the first place…
But my guess is – it’s super important because it almost certainly in one way or another impacts ultimately on your customers…
The Best of Success with your next round of Personal Development reviews!
Jeff Austin
The Print Shop Bunbury
Actual to Ideal
jeff@actualtoideal.com.au
http://ift.tt/2aQIg3s
from The Print Shop Bunbury | Offset Digital Commercial Printing http://ift.tt/2aSrioS
from The Print Shop Bunbury http://ift.tt/2aSw2dY
No comments:
Post a Comment