Making life easier
Imagine a work experience where everyone is interacting in harmony and accomplishing goals by simply understanding expectations within the role they are assigned to play.
While this may seem unachievable, when personal performance is managed with clear communication and the proper tools, it’s not as farfetched as it may seem.
Most of us want to be productive and appreciated for playing our role and accomplishing goals, but if we aren’t aligned with the rest of our team, we may be creating anxiety and stress for others.
If you work alongside people, you’ve probably faced some nagging issue that has made your work life less than idyllic. No workplace is immune to employee relations issues. While the list of employee issues can be extensive, there are several common concerns that left unchecked can be the death of any positive workplace culture. A few examples may be gossip, favoritism, pay inequity, unmanageable workload, or the all-powerful manager skillset…or lack thereof. Recall the timeless saying, “People don’t leave companies; they leave bad managers.”
Most companies provide annual performance reviews, but the data shows that usually isn’t frequent enough. In fact, 96% of employees surveyed in Officevibe’s 2020 Global State of Employee Engagement expressed a desire to receive feedback on a much more regular basis.
Easy as 1-2-3
Utilizing a three-phase approach can increase the opportunity for success. Phase one focuses on planning what success looks like, including metrics and milestones. Phase two is to communicate with all personnel involved how you will change, modify, or improve your current state to establish the culture and environment you all wish to attain. Utilizing an ongoing and formal evaluation process assures your team is on the right track, and helps to identify course corrections. As author Daniel Pink puts it, “There’s no way to get better at something you only hear about once a year.”
It’s also necessary to ensure the right goals are being set to achieve desired outcomes. These are best developed with team participation to ensure goals are scoped appropriately. When facilitated as a collaborative process using a coaching and training model, you can succeed in turning participants into self-motivators.
Presto
Nowadays, with more companies (large and small) utilizing matrixed management roles including project managers, change agents and team leaders, the art of deploying performance management is more important than ever to help individuals succeed.
You want your teams to be engaged, motivated, and successful. You want them to arrive home with a sense of accomplishment and look forward to getting back to the tasks at hand. You can build those teams with deliberate planning, good communication, and consistent follow-up utilizing positive coaching for desired results.
