Focusing Performance Efforts on Midlevel Managers

Middle management has been stuck between a rock and a hard place for the last several years. The tough financial times after 2008 might have stripped many of the jobs in the middle for the sake of a leaner organization. As things perk up, there’s more pressure to attract and retain young millennial workers. A middle manager might one day say, “I’m tired of being stuck in the middle.”

Before that happens, make sure you’re targeting midlevel managers in your performance process. They’re the people who have to bridge the gap between strategic thinking and everyday logistics. They bring experience that millennials haven’t yet acquired. And they’ve learned how to do a lot more with less as organizations pushed lean to a new extreme.

First, set clear performance expectations. When a middle manager has strategic and tactical responsibilities, performance management for his level is likely to be vague. Utilize tools like cascading goals to identify which responsibilities have strategic components and what tactical activities will help accomplish those goals.

Next, communicate frequently. One Huffington Post article noted that digital communication tools are removing some of the good communication habits that make successful managers. These middle managers need to maintain those skills, but executives should be exhibiting the same direct communication behavior. Disseminate information in an effective manner so middle managers are informed. They can then make the right decisions for their teams because they have all the information. Sharing frequent updates will make sure their performance is aligned with executive expectations.  

Finally, be ready to make a shift when necessary. Goals for middle managers can sometimes remain stagnant, especially if they’re not clearly linked to overall strategic initiatives. Instead, when new priorities arise, revisit goals for middle management. Which ones need to be updated, which ones need to be dropped, and which ones need to be added?

Performance management is important for all levels of the organization, but middle management is still where strategic vision comes to life. Make sure you’re setting your organization up for success by creating a targeted performance management plan for this critical group.

More On Benefits-Based Performance Management

Our proprietary benefits-based performance management approach to performance reviews focuses on clearly communicating the benefits that can accrue to the employee if they elevate their performance. It represents making a subtle change or addition to the performance review process. Our recent white paper provides more detail on what this approach entails. Click here to download your free copy of that document.

The white paper focuses primarily on the impact on employees and doesn't really address in any detail the impact benefits-based performance management has on managers. Managers are sometimes reluctant or apprehensive about completing performance reviews because in many cases low ratings or negative performance comments have to be included and then discussed. We all know that some managers don't like to deliver bad news.

What benefits-based performance management allows the manager to do is reframe comments normally viewed as negative into more positive statements. Those statements are intended to convey to the employee how making performance improvements related to specific competencies will benefit them directly. This alone allows the manager more freedom to put a more positive spin on the behavioral changes required to enhance performance.

Of course, this doesn't relieve the manager of clearly and concisely communicating to the employee what the performance issues may be. But it does provide managers a tool that will help them feel that they are coaching the employee at a more compassionate and thorough level through their ongoing feedback and the formal performance review processes.

It gives the manager a stronger comfort level and makes them more at ease because they understand that they can consistently display a level of concern about the employee generally absent during coaching involving performance issues. Let's look at a quick example.

Suppose the manager is faced with dealing with an issue regarding an employee's ability to work well with others. A comment on the employee's performance review relative to the competency cooperation might look something like this:

"Jim has had a difficult time relating positively and appropriately with co-workers. This has been a relatively recent development. During his first year with the company he appeared to be a positive team player and cooperated well with his team. During roughly the first 9 months of this year he continued this same level of cooperation. However, over the past several months, there have been instances when Jim has had outbursts of frustration and anger during team meetings and other members of the team have reported that Jim has been making negative comments about the team and the company in general. Specifically, during a meeting on July 25th, Jim raised his voice and told a team member that her idea was "idiotic and short-sighted". And again on August 1st during a project update meeting, he sat silent during the meeting and made repeated negative non-verbal gestures such as eye rolls and shaking his head in disagreement. Jim has not come forward to address any specific concerns he might have. In fact, in a conversation with me on August 11th, he was asked if anything might be bothering him and he indicated that 'everything was fine...no problems'. It is imperative that Jim correct this negativity and work hard to become a true team player who displays a high level of cooperation on a consistent basis."

This is typically where a manager would leave things lie in terms of written comments. But benefits-based performance management encourages and creates a framework for offering specific statements about how the employee will benefit from changing work behavior. In this case, some possible additional statements might look like this:

"Increasing your level of team-orientation and cooperation will help your fellow team members begin to embrace you as a part of the team again. Having their support is important to your success."
"Being highly cooperative and supportive of others and the company will better position you as a leader and as someone who understands that teamwork is important to advancing the team and its work. Good leaders dislay cooperation and support even when they do not necessarily agree with certain things. They voice their disagreement in a professional and positive manner."
"Making your interactions with fellow employees more pleasant and more productive will help diffuse talk about your negativity and, over time, will help position you as someone who can assume more responsibility."

The list of possible benefits is much longer, but these few examples provide an idea as to how adding these statements to review comments allows the manager to reframe the negative into more positive final comments. This helps leave the employee with a more positive feeling about the comments and the ratings they support, but equally important is the fact that the manager can share positive outcomes of enhanced performance. It gives the manager a way to coach in a manner that is more comprehensive as well. Not only is the employee getting the information about what is wrong, but he is getting the information about what is in it for him if he improves. This approach makes both the employee and manager feel better about the entire process.

Yes, this approach seems logical and a matter of common sense doesn't it? Some would suggest that many managers already do this. We would argue that most don't and, in fact, many struggle with what to write as general comments to support ratings. Assistive features such as our comment suggestion tool and the benefits-based statements generator are just two of the tools that ReviewSNAP is providing to managers to create more fruitful performance reviews and to provide more effective coaching.

Objectivity Can Be Hard To Come By

Have you ever sat down to do a certain employee's performance review and felt the urge to blast them in terms of ratings even though they do a pretty darned good job? Or how about the employee you seem to have a special place in your heart for? Do you feel compelled to give them better ratings than they really deserve because you like them?

These aren't necessarily uncommon occurrences in the world of conducting employee evaluations. Human nature being what it is, it can be tough at times to maintain a reasonable level of objectivity. The employee who is less likable, at least from your vantage point, can get cheated out of accurate ratings simply because your negative bias creeps into the process. On the other hand, that employee who may be a great diplomat and, well let's just say it, butt kisser, might garner more positive ratings than warranted.

So how do we avoid falling into the trap of being overly subjective in reviewing employees? The first step is to focus on the employee's positive work attributes. Do they do their jobs well? Do they bring certain skills to the team that are important to overall success? Are there skill or behavioral deficiencies that need to be enhanced? If so, specifically what are they?

Think in terms of the work they do and the workplace behavior for each employee being reviewed and focus less on whether the employee is cool or funny or geeky or socially awkward. Without question, if coaching to be a more effective communicator, for example, is needed, don't avoid going there. But don't let your perception of their personality traits influence your ratings of the employee in a more dramatic manner than necessary.

Now we all understand that there are the obnoxious or arrogant or irritating employees among us at times. The key with those people is trying to coach them to minimize those "behaviors" and make them less overt in the workplace. The more effective you are in coaching those "behaviors" out of the employee over time, the less they will subconsciouly creep into your perception and, therefore, evaluation of their work.

In short, take a step back when looking at how employees truly perform. Try your best to put those personal biases aside and maintain as much fairness as possible. Sometimes that is easier said than done, but your own credibility is at stake. Discounting the notion that you could be introducing undue bias into the process is potentially harmful to your reputation as an effective manager.

It's Here! Download ReviewSNAP's Benefits-Based Performance Management White Paper

ReviewSNAP has developed an innovative approach to conducting performance reviews and ongoing feedback in a way that clearly conveys to the employee the benefits that accrue to them when they embrace workplace behavioral changes. This new, innovative approach is called Benefits-Based Performance Management™ (BBPM™). We have created a white paper on BBPM and you can now download that white paper by clicking on the image below. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this approach or performance management in general please don't hesitate to contact us at 800-516-5849 or email us at info@reviewsnap.com

ReviewSNAP Introducing a New, Innovative Benefits-Based Performance Management™ Approach to Performance Appraisals

ReviewSNAP™ announced today that it will roll out its benefits-based performance management enhancement in the fourth quarter of 2011. Benefits-Based Performance Management™ (BBPM™) is an innovative approach to conducting performance reviews and ongoing feedback in a way that clearly conveys to the employee the benefits that accrue to them when they embrace workplace behavioral changes.

ReviewSNAP has developed this enhancement to the performance review process because it has found employees often do not understand completely why they should take seriously some of the ratings, comments and suggestions offered as part of their performance review. They may hear what they believe is a concern about their performance, but often fail to make the connection between how taking those concerns seriously and then making a conscious and focused effort on changing work-related behavior will benefit them in any material manner.

This approach does not have to represent a major departure from standard performance review processes. But it does provide the reviewer with additional tools to add verbiage to the reviews and to their discussions with employees that is intended to deliver more impact for employees as to why they should make important changes in their work approach.

According to Dave Arringdale, ReviewSNAP President, “Employees sometimes walk away from a coaching or review session wondering how they will truly benefit if they make behavioral changes to improve their performance in a particular area. Benefits-Based Performance Management™ helps embed into the entire feedback process a sense of partnering between the manager and employee and provides a clearer target for the employee to shoot for to help them become more successful. It’s really about what’s in it for me?”

This concept has been under development for some time. ReviewSNAP, in conjunction with its parent company, Applied Training Systems, Inc., has been conducting research for some time on the various ways performance reviews affect employee behavior and performance. That research uncovered a significant finding in that using a benefits-based approach seemed to outperform a more standard approach to conducting reviews and giving ongoing feedback.

“Whether we want to believe it or not, people are selfish by nature,” said Arringdale. “While they generally want the employer to believe they are eager to do a great job, they are not always that eager to modify their work behavior enough unless they feel there is a real payoff of some sort for them.”

ReviewSNAP has developed a comprehensive library of benefits statements that can be integrated into the actual performance review if desired. This library will soon be integrated within its Web-based performance management system. The addition of the library and the benefits section of the review templates are expected to take place by mid-fourth quarter of this year. The use of this feature will be optional within the system.