Performance Management

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Do the words Performance Management strike fear in your heart? Have you the shakes when the very words are mentioned?

Well, here is a few clues about how you can make it not just painless, but easy and positive experience - for all involved! The time has come!

Top Ten Things About Performance Management

The best at Performance Management...

1. Make it Natural
   Whilst they are respectful of any required process and of the individual, they make the experience a comfort-zone. To be enjoyed, not feared; a carrot to dangle, not a stick to beat with.
   
2. Focus on Success
   Those best at Performance Management have realised that their people are great; that they are already successful individuals. They help them create more success and celebrate the wins.
   
3. Recognise Talents
   They recognise that each individual is very, very special. That they have exceptional talents and ask them to exploit those more. They work hard to avoid focusing on weak spots - everybody has them! But to find ways to get past them for the qualities they are bringing to the party, not wasting time focusing their shortcomings.
   
4. Facilitate Growth
   Top managers of performance work in many ways to help people grow - they have the keys to turn their people on! And within this encouraging, stretching, challenging environment, there is a security in the culture which gives them confidence to takes risks, try new things and evolve to the next level.
   
5. Have No Surprises
   There is no value in a Performance Management process being an ambush (ever been there?). During the natural and informal, day to day conversations they have with their people, minor issues are raised; small parts of bigger issues are tackled, in the moment. If the formal process is a big scary, rare event and unpleasant, it's more about the boss!
   
6. Are Consistent
   In the treatment of each individual; in the way they carry out any Performance Management process; in their timings and frequency, the best at managing the performance of their people are consistent. Everyone gets the same, personalised, easily understood treatment.
   
7. Make Time
   When the moment comes to the agreed timetable of performance reviews, our experts are careful to honour that person. Performance Management can be scary, however nice the people, so they make enough time available; they stop interruptions; they give their full attention.
   
8. Create Do-able Goals
   Between them, those involved agree next steps which are SMART. They focus on what has gone well, on their best relationships in the workplace and what the reviewee wants to focus on in the next time period, based on their role; for growth; for fun; to build their skills and consequently their self-confidence!
   
9. Are Supportive
   And if they need help, the best support with one-to-one coaching; resources; time etc.
   
10. Model Self-Development
    Those great at Performance Management 'walk their talk'. They take on their personal growth and development with a zeal - and, what's more, they share their own development goals!
    

Ten Ways to be Better at Performance Management

1. Talk to Your People Often
   By building a great relationship with your people you will bring trust, honesty and information. This gives you a head start in any Performance Management areas.
   
2. Build Feedback In
   And ongoing two-way feedback processes (see Feedback) gets rid of the nasty surprises that gives Performance Management such a bad name. By building it in as a natural activity, you take the edge away.
   
3. Be Honest
   By being frank and honest, which the preparation work in building a great relationship has afforded you, both parties treat each other with respect and see each other as working for each others benefit.
   
4. Notice Great Performance
   When you see good stuff, shout about it! Let people know. Celebrate successes and filter this into formal processes.
   
5. Have a System
   Performance Management is a process and needs some formality - especially for good personnel practice and record. This need not be complicated, but it needs to be organised and have timescales.
   
6. Keep it Simple
   But do keep it simple. If you have a relationship with your people that is strong anyway, you already know what they are about. Formal discussions can be almost 'informal'.
   
7. Be Very Positive
   Celebrate great performance - focus on this. It's about success an building on their strengths, not spending ages on their weaknesses - that serves no-one. Go with the positives!
   
8. Achieve Their Needs
   Remember that we all have needs that we want fulfilling. By working wth your people to create outcomes that will do this, you will strengthen your relationships and channel effort in a constructive direction.
   
9. Tackle Discipline
   Whilst it often happens, Performance Management is not about Discipline. That has to be managed in a different way (see Staff Discipline). By setting clear standards in your business that everyone understands and signs up to, discipline becomes much, much easier.
   
10. Learn from Mistakes
    As part of regular on-the-job and informal review, mistakes will come to light; things will go wrong. By using the learning style described in Feedback, growth occurs and it becomes natural.
    

5 Simple Actions You Can Take Today!

• Develop and communicate a process with your team for Performance Management and stick to it.
  
• Set up a planned timescale for your Performance Management year and communicate it.
  
• Start talking! Just build relationships with all of your people by getting into conversation - that's all business is about - Loads of talking and especially listening!
  
• Bring Feedback into your vocabulary - do it now, do it often and have fun with it.
  
• Recognise and comment on great performance from now on. Praise is the best manager of performance.
  
• A sixth! - Start noticing talent now and work with the grain. Get people doing more of what they do really, really well.

"Now, Discover Your Strengths" - Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton
"The Tools of Leadership" - Max Landsberg
"The Fifth Discipline Workbook" - Peter Senge

If you ever wanted a book that contains almost everything you would ever want to develop your management skills, this is it. A book to take on a desert island with you to enjoy.

This is a different iteration of the original book 'The Fifth Discipline', (both are by Peter Senge) - itself a breakthough book.

The work Senge created in the Fieldbook version is practical and do-able, with the focus on individual exercises in as wide a range of management applications as you could need. I think it's a leap ahead of the original for that reason.

That being said, there are some more up to date areas that have evolved, such as, for example, Succession Planning, but with the vast array of components in this book, many of these will be covered off anyway.

For anyone who wants both a dip-in workbook as well as a groundbreaking comprehensive manual, this book must be in your library, it will serve you well for the whole of your management career.

By the way, if you buy it on Amazon, don't be put off by the number of pages. If you buy it (after trying to pick it up!) in a bookshop, don't be put off by it's weight!

If you take it a 'module' at a time, you will find it remarkably readable and fun - but I wouldn't attempt to read the whole thing in one go - just take your time.

Enjoy meandering around it, it's a truly fascinating read!

"The One Minute Manager" (to keep it very, very simple and very, very effective) - Ken Blanchard & Spencer Johnson

Delivering great employee performance is quite a skill, some might say an art. You could do far worse than to invest in this great little book, which is a delightful read.

In this early book from Ken Blanchard, he is able, through a very precise focus on what makes leaders (and, I think in this case, managers), get the very best from those they employ, to describe a simple process for success.

For many, 'The One Minute Manager' is a revelation and I have no doubt that it works. In my long management career, I was able to achieve this goal eventually, but it is, inevitably, easier to read than deliver.

This is because, like most things, it requires practice and focus. And if any manager were able to do these things easily, they would be already.

That being said, it's a great aspirational (and inspirational) book, focused on delivering, through people, great success in business and organisations.

Rather than trying to do it all yourself and either failing, or burning yourself out in the process (tried it myself - once!). Because of that, it is a very useful read for anyone who wants to make management a career.

I especially like the simplicity of 'The One Minute Manager', a feature I have included often in the ideas and tips on this website.

'Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name - however, it only grinned a little wider.

'Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on. 'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where...' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

'...so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `If you only walk long enough...'

So remember the importance of SMART Goals!

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