How to Improve Employee Performance in 4 Steps

The performance appraisal. Love it? Hate it? Honestly, when it comes to employee performance there really isn’t any other way to improve the quality of their work. However,there are ways to botch the process if you don’t conduct these vital performance methods correctly. Whether your organization likes formal performance appraisals or prefers a casual, real-time approach, there are ways to make sure your team gets the most out of your feedback. Thorough communication and preparation lay the groundwork to improve employee performance. Here are four ways to get started:

Step #1: Communicate performance expectations

The job description may be a cryptic determinant to employee performance, but employees need to understand what is expected of them from management. Communication before performance problems occur is an indispensable method to creating an environment of development. If leadership purveys the necessary information ahead of time, employees will have a greater understanding as to how they will be evaluated in the future.

Step #2: Follow-up after the performance appraisal

The purpose of conducting a modern performance appraisal is to professionally develop employees. However, 40.1% of supervisors fail to follow-up after the performance reviews to see the progress of their team’s work [1]. Mona Berberich explains,

“If you want to permanently succeed, you need to create and instill a routine. One workout is not going to make you look like Arnold. Schedule regular appointments and follow up with your employees’ performance.” 

Step #3: Prepare yourself     

You expect your employees to come to their performance appraisal ready with questions and input and to receive feedback. The real question is: are you prepared to give it? This is where regular performance reviews or 360 degree reviews come into play. Over half (51%) of employees rank their current performance appraisal system as average [2]. If your organization joins the other 13% of companies that hold performance reviews at least every 6 months combined with good practices, you’ll likely get a better score. 

Step #4: Challenge your employees

Your team wants a break from the mind-numbing day-to-day tasks. These might be important responsibilities, but if employees are expected to do these on a regular basis the tasks can lose their intrigue. Studies show if high potential employees are proposed with challenges (accompanied with support if they need it) that 70% of them will stay with their current company [3]. Liz Wiseman suggests:

“Try giving them higher-stakes work that addresses more complex problems and a more diverse set of stakeholders. For example, it might be time for one employee to take a divisional program to the entire company. Remember to make it hard in the right ways though…. You want to productively expand on the meaningful work they’re already doing.”

Whether you love or hate performance reviews, they are necessary. They don’t, however, have to be something to revile. You can make them productive and meaningful if you follow a few simple steps. Communicate the performance you expect of your employees before it’s time for an appraisal, and neither you or they will be surprised with the results of the review. As a supervisor, you have to be prepared before the performance appraisal and follow-up after the review with consistency or you risk losing the developmental efforts of the performance appraisal.

These few tips along with a challenging project on occasion formulate the foundation for improved performance throughout your team. Take a demo of Reviewsnap to see how we can make performance management easier for you.

Sources:

[1] HR Daily Advisory - Supervisors’ Most Common PA Mistakes (2014 Performance Management Survey)

[2] CEB - High Potential Employees - 55 Percent Set to Leave

[3] HR.BLR.com - Infographic: 2014 employee performance appraisal practices 

Explore Our Related Topics:

●      Is Employee Motivation Increasingly Out of Control?

●      Employee Morale Eroding Like the Grand Canyon

●      Recognizing the Difficult Dual Role Managers Play - Coach and Mentor

Change Your Thinking Re: Performance Management

Employers have a large foothold in the employee development process. Performance reviews are a must for the health of your workforce, but what you do with the results of the performance appraisal makes a bigger impact on employee development. To see positive outcomes from employee performance appraisals, employers have to adjust the way they view the process in the first place. Organizations have to create relationships between the performance reviews and employee development.

Our whitepaper, “Bridge the Gap Between Your Performance Reviews and Employee Development - or Both Are Primed To Fail,” discusses the importance of building that bridge:

“The question becomes even more perplexing when you consider how important performance reviews are to effective employee development. Done correctly, performance reviews inspire greater and greater levels of success. They motivate our people to contribute toward critical business goals to develop their skill sets, and to reach their full potential.”

Let’s delve into this further...

Change Your Performance Appraisal Process

Performance reviews are just a fraction of your performance management system’s capabilities. Many employees expect a performance appraisal, but it doesn’t excite them for the growth that will happen as a result: but for the standard 3% base salary raise [1].

Rather than allowing performance reviews to generate a formulaic stigma, change the way your team thinks about performance appraisals. An astonishing 58% of companies say their current performance management isn’t an effective use of time. That needs to change.

Organizations need to update the way they perpetuate sentiments regarding performance appraisals. Simply stated, employees want to grow. Nearly three-quarters of employees would rather receive corrective feedback [2] than positive affirmation. The problem is that managers are reluctant to give the feedback employees need in order to develop professionally. How can you change this? By making the performance appraisal mean something again. Use the information you have to your employees’ best advantage. Lead them! 

Change Your Performance Management

Employers understand the need to change their performance management systems. Currently, 70% of organizations [3] are evaluating or have recently reviewed and updated their systems. That’s a good start, but the evolution has to be more than systematic. More than 90% of managers aren’t satisfied with their current review systems [4]. Leadership has the ability to turn the thought process around, however.  Supervisors need to be trained on how to give feedback, both negative and positive. Managers want education in how to give feedback; in fact 46% of them want guidance in these sometimes stressful conversations.

A key driver to employee growth after the results of a performance appraisal is how the manager delivers the feedback. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, CEO and President of Zenger/Folkman respectively, said: 

“...We find it telling that the people who find it difficult and stressful to deliver negative feedback also were significantly less willing to receive it themselves. On the other hand, those who rated their managers as highly effective at providing them with honest, straightforward feedback tended to score significantly higher on their preference for receiving corrective feedback.” 

See Results in Your Team

Both manager and employee need to have a hand in career development. Although employee development is largely in their own hands, they can only do so if they have the right tools… feedback is one of these tools. Effective performance management starts with thorough performance appraisals and delivers the direction and support employees need to grow. To see performance results in your employees, BLR recommends managers be trained to [5]:

●      Develop a close working relationship with employees

●      Create continuous opportunities for constructive feedback

●      Be proactive about addressing marginal performance

●      Ensure employees understand company performance standards

While 90% don’t feel performance appraisals actually boost performance [6], they can if they are conducted differently. Start by training managers to give meaningful and regular feedback. Companies that take performance reviews as more than a formality and conduct them more frequently see a 15% lower turnover rate.

Performance appraisals are key to healing your workforce. In order to see a change in the way your employees work, you have to change the stigma attached to performance management in your organization. A large percentage of companies are currently dissatisfied with their performance management systems; to restructure this takes some managerial training and employee performance appraisals that include constructive (not just positive) points. 

Employee feedback should be more than a corporate formality, it should be a route to develop workers. Take a demo of Reviewsnap to see how you can restructure your performance management with the right solution.

Sources:

[1] SHRM - Base Salary Rise of 3% Forecast for 2015

[2] Harvard Business Review - Your Employees Want the Negative Feedback You Hate to Give

[3] Dupress - Performance Management is Broken

[4] Washington Post - Talent Matters: Four ways to get improved performance

[5] HR.BLR.com - Training Issues Among Reasons for Shortfalls in Performance Management

[6] OfficeVibe - 13 Disappointing Performance Appraisals Facts You Really Need to Know (Infographic)

Explore Our Related Topics:

• Now What? Why Continuous Learning Improves Performance
• Calibrating Performance Appraisals
• Performance Reviews as a Roadmap for Success

3 Steps You Should Take Before the Next Round of Performance Reviews

Supervisors need performance appraisals and so do employees, if not for the direct impact to drive business, at least for the professional satisfaction of both parties. In order to better employee performance, they have to know where their shortcomings lay first before they are criticized for underperformance. Performance reviews help to keep this growth system regulated to get the most out of the entire process.

More or less a formality for many organizations, there are clear performance-related indicators that your current method of review doesn't quite live up to expectations. Fewer than 30% of organizations feel their performance management program drives performance at all. That's why there are an overabundance of articles telling companies to scrap the idea of a performance appraisal rather than update a highly antiquated process. What these organizations don't know is that companies who institute regular and frequent performance reviews see a 15% lower turnover rate. The performance appraisal process needs a remodel, but that can't happen unless there's a stepping-stone to start from. So, let me be your stepping stone...

Set the Bar

Preparing for an employee evaluation can mean the difference in the success or failure of the review. One out of 5 employees don’t feel their manager is prepared for the performance review. Part of that preparation is making sure your team understands the review process. Before the performance appraisal, give employees an overview of what they are expected to accomplish and what they will be evaluated on during their review. It is important to delineate the following before the performance appraisal so employees are clearly aware of what the process entails:

●      What are the expectations between appraisals?

●      How will performance be evaluated?

●      What are the ramifications of good and poor performance?

Performance reviews are widely misunderstood by employees. Often seen as the dreaded formality, one of the biggest problems is that they don't know what they are expected to do. It is your job to ensure they understand how not only their work currently affects the organization, but how they will bring value in the future.

Employee Participation

The very basis of a productive work environment and relationship among the team is communication. Performance reviews are not one-sided, or at least they shouldn't be. The dialogue between a supervisor and their employee is invaluable to the successful outcome of a performance appraisal. All too often, it becomes a situation in which management talks at members of their team versus creating a communication-centric atmosphere.

Today's workforce is highly collaborative. Yes, that includes performance. Employees want a role in their performance reviews; they want to work towards a common goal of solving performance issues or communicating why they felt they performed well over the past quarter. Karima Mariama-Arthur (@WSRapport), Founder & CEO of WordSmithRapport said:

"Performance reviews aren't only about identifying blind spots. They also offer an opportunity to highlight excellence. If you don't offer balanced evaluations, you're not maximizing their potential to inspire your team's performance."

Include Technology

While that relationship does form the base of the performance appraisal, that doesn't mean technology can't play a role. Just as it can automate processes in the hiring process, it can also take the mundane tasks off of your plate as a supervisor. A performance management system can help to track employee progress from one appraisal to another. In fact, 30% of HR professionals rank performance management as a top priority in their companies.

Many organizations already use a performance management system, and the software they purchased a decade ago doesn't quite cut it anymore. Companies are beginning to recognize the need to change their current processes in accordance with the changes in the advancing workforce. Larger organizations are especially ready for the change, as a surprising 29% of them have had their performance management system for more than 7 years. With ineffective and outdated systems, it stands to reason that performance reviews would be similarly ineffective and unappreciated.

Tweet This: 29% of large organizations have had their performance management system for more than 7 years.

After all, the goal of the evolving performance appraisal is to have a more meaningful outcome, i.e., better employee performance. For employees to get the most out of their performance appraisal, it's important they have a role in the discussion. Rather than a flat resolution of mere problems, well-rounded and highly effective performance reviews are multidimensional involving successes, issues and employee goal alignment.

You are responsible for defining what the performance appraisal means for your company.

Take the first step with a demo of Reviewsnap.

More from Reviewsnap:

• How to Track Organizational Goals with Performance Management
• For Feedback to Be Effective, Put First Things First
• Understanding the Way Minds Work: Think Like a CLO

Don’t Slam the Door on Exit Interviews

Performance reviews and exit interviews might seem like very different animals but they share an important quality: both are opportunities to gather essential information for the future success of our people and our organizations.

Performance reviews accomplish this when managers ask the right questions—e.g., how their reports feel about their own contributions, their interactions with coworkers, and the growth and development the company is providing. (If you’re interested, you can read more on this topic in past posts, “The Art of Effective Performance Reviews,” and “Meeting Employees’ Needs: Culture Management, Engagement, and Preventable Turnover.”)

Exit interviews, on the other hand, require similar but specialized questions—questions that are appropriate to the fact that an individual is leaving the organization. This type of questioning can pose a significant challenge due to the unique dynamics and emotions involved. For instance, the information we receive can depend heavily on whether or not employees are leaving on good terms, their willingness to share honest opinions (i.e., fear of burning bridges), the specific reasons behind their exit, and the like. How the interviewer goes about her or his work makes all the difference.

The challenges and benefits of exit interviews are highlighted by an article on TLNT.com, “You Need to Stop Going Through the Motions on Exit Interviews,” and by another on the StaffMasters website, “The Importance of an Exit Interview.”

In the TLNT.com article, HR Acuity CEO Deborah Muller urges us to remember that the biggest reason exit interviews end up being ineffective is that most HR people who conduct them don’t really know what they’re doing. “An untrained interviewer might not know how to configure the interview in order to make it relevant to the employee’s role, level and functional area,” she writes. That’s why trained professionals and specialized technology are so crucial to maximizing the value of exit interviews. Muller points out that many companies are outsourcing their exit interviews or training their HR teams to conduct these interviews properly. Others are using secure links to interview modules that enable departing employees to answer questions in relative anonymity (a key to getting honest feedback).

The StaffMasters post offers interviewers a list of helpful questions that range from the basic (What made you decide to leave the company? and What did you find most/least satisfying about working here?) to the complex and potentially touchy (How would you rate the level of support you received to perform your job duties? and What qualities do you think a person should have to succeed in this organization?). The post encourages employers to be consistent in the questions they ask of exiting employees, to maintain an objective listening attitude, and to document all responses so that the feedback can be leveraged to the organization’s benefit.

Interestingly, Jeffrey Sharlach wrote about a different kind of issue in his recent Huffington Post piece, “Are You Learning Too Much at Exit Interviews?” Sharlach is CEO of the international communications firm, JeffreyGroup, and has taught in the MBA Management Communication program at the NYU Stern School of Business. He noted that many organizations only learn about crucial employee experiences and opinions during exit interviews rather than during regular performance reviews when the information could do far greater good. Sharlach remedied this situation at his own organization by retooling the performance review process, making it more of a two-way communication experience.

“We were amazed at what we started to learn from our staff once given the opportunity to talk about themselves,” Sharlach writes. “We began to treat each review session as an interview with a new employee, learning more about the friction points in their current conditions and their goals for future growth.”

Performance reviews and exit interviews may indeed be different animals but the two share a connection that shouldn’t be overlooked. And, as the articles referenced above remind us, both performance reviews and exit interviews can be powerful tools for improving the performance of our people and our companies.

We just need to conduct them properly.

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:
@TLNT_com  

@HRAcuity 

@StaffMasters

@HuffingtonPost

@JeffreyGroup

@NYUStern

Performance Review Beat Down or Blueprint for Improvement?

Perspective makes all the difference.

Take a recent infographic from employee communications firm, GuideSpark, for example. At first glance, it seems to offer a pretty solid beat down of performance reviews:

• 89 percent of individuals GuideSpark surveyed don’t want their performance review feedback to be a surprise.
• 89 percent want their managers to be direct in giving performance feedback.
• 64 percent wish that their employers would focus more on their growth and development as part of their review.
• 60 percent don’t understand how their performance is measured relative to their peers.
• 56 percent say their company’s goal-setting process doesn’t help them prioritize their work.

Before you chuck your performance reviews altogether, however, consider this: these survey respondents aren’t simply grousing about what they dislike. They’re telling us exactly what we can do to improve performance reviews—and improve them in a way that will allow our people do their jobs better, grow into their full potential, and meet our expectations more effectively. These individuals are telling us precisely how we can increase their commitment and engagement levels and motivate them to accomplish more.

In other words, this data is a good thing, shedding light on how we can transform our employees’ revulsion toward performance reviews into rapture. It’s a matter of perspective.

For our money, these individuals aren’t saying, “Do away with performance appraisals.” They’re saying, “Here’s how to do my appraisal right.”

The question is … are we listening?

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:

@GuideSpark  

Negotiating vs. Dictating Performance Goals

Modernizing performance reviews (and performance management at large) is the subject of a recent LinkedIn post by Robert Bacal, CEO at Bacal & Associates.

In his post, Bacal offers 10 ideas to update how organizations manage performance and appraisals, including: individualize expectations even for employees doing the same job; put to bed the myth of objectivity; and realize that the purpose of reviews is improvement.

Sound advice, for sure. But Bacal’s wisest counsel was his plea for managers to negotiate goals and objectives during reviews, not dictate them. “Employees know far more about their jobs than their supervisors,” he writes, “in addition to wanting to be more involved in steering the direction of their jobs. No longer does it make sense for goals and objectives to be dictated by the manager. When employees are active in determining what they need to do to contribute to the company, you'll find higher levels of employee engagement and commitment.”

Some managers might have trouble swallowing the idea of “negotiating” goals and objectives—especially those tied to departmental and organizational targets. However, Bacal correctly points out that employees have a better, more intimate understanding of their roles and responsibilities than their managers. Smart managers put this knowledge to use in the process of managing performance effectively. If the word “negotiate” isn’t quite palatable, ask your managers to “collaborate” more with their teams regarding performance goals and objectives.

One item we take exception to is Bacal’s dismissal of ratings forms, which he flatly calls “terrible and demoralizing.” While that’s true of some ratings tools, not all are categorically terrible. Many organizations have found that modern performance management tools actually help them take a more disciplined approach to holding reviews and extracting real value from them.

For instance, with easy-to-use software in place, both managers and employees are more engaged in the review process, reviewers are more aware and respectful of timing and deadlines, reviews are completed faster, and the communication between reviewers and employees is often greatly improved.

In one of our latest case studies, Roseann Rush, Vice President of HR and Risk at PrimeSource, describes how modernizing her company’s review system improved results across the board, including raising its completion rate for reviews from 65% to 89% … slashing its annual review period by more than 50% … and making significant improvements to its documentation and communication processes. You can read about PrimeSource’s experience here.

Bottom line, for many employers, updating their tools and systems goes hand-in-hand with modernizing their approach to performance management. Doing both together can lead to long-lasting, meaningful change.

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:

@rbacal

It’s Not Just Millennials Who Desire Meaningful Work

Articles about “meaningful work”—and what that phrase means—are cropping up everywhere.

Here’s a small sampling:

·      “4 Tips To Help Millennials Find Meaningful Work,” from Fast Company, tells employers point blank that Millennials “aren’t motivated by money.” Instead, these younger workers are “driven to make the world more compassionate, innovative, and sustainable” through the work they do.

·      In “Millennials Want Meaningful Work,” Hoopla CEO, Michael Smalls, writes that Millennials “prefer to have meaningful jobs that provide opportunities to effect positive change in their communities and the world at large. … A study by The Intelligence Group reports that 64 percent of Millennials would rather earn $40,000 a year at a job they love than $100,000 a year at a job they find unfulfilling.”

·      A Huffington Post infographic tells us “more Americans are pursuing meaning over money at work” and offers this trio of compelling statistics:

·      96% of working Americans agree that being able to apply personal interests in their career would make them happier in general.

·      68% would be willing to take a salary cut to work in jobs that better allowed them to apply personal interests.

·      And 79% are willing to take a pay cut at the start of their careers for jobs that allowed them to focus on meaningful work.

Again, there’s a virtual mountain of articles on this topic and the more of them you read the more one thing stands out: most are written about Millennials. But the fact is older employees want meaningful work as well.

In April, Forbes published an article titled, “What Older Workers Want, But Aren't Getting,” which cites a Sloan Center survey of employees age 50 and older at large companies. When asked about the most important elements for a quality job, the second item on their list was “opportunities for meaningful work.” In this case, older workers defined meaningful work as having their skills and experience valued and used well; making a difference in the world; and opportunities to engage in the things they value personally. Sounds a lot like the definition given by younger workers, doesn’t it?

The article also quotes Elizabeth Fideler, author of the books Men Still at Work and Women Still at Work, who said that the desire for meaningful work is a key reason many professionals over the age of 60 haven’t retired.

It’s pretty clear that most individuals, regardless of their age, want meaningful work. If we hope to reap the substantial rewards of having employees who are truly engaged in what they do, we not only need to come to terms with the power of assigning meaningful work—we need to master it.

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Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:

@FastCompany

@hooplasoftware

@mwsmalls (Hoopla CEO)

@cassandra_daily (The Intelligence Group)

@healthyliving (Huffington Post)

@Forbes

Reskilling and Upskilling Our Workforce Are Essential as Talent Gaps Expand

More than a third of the world’s employers are struggling to find the right talent.

ManpowerGroup’s 2013 Talent Shortage Survey canvassed more than 38,000 employers worldwide, and 35% of them reported “difficulty filling jobs due to lack of available talent.” What’s more, their struggle has been worsening; the 2013 findings were the highest proportion of employers expressing concern about talent shortages since 2007.

Surprisingly, this news comes at a time when talent pools are virtually brimming with people, and when a recent Harris Interactive study shows that 74% of workers would consider taking a new job immediately. With all of this talent available, what’s causing our shortages? The debate around this question has been lively. An aging workforce, unexpected and rapid growth in specific sectors, the sudden need for entirely new types of jobs (in the technology and data niches, for example), poor training and knowledge sharing practices, and even inadequate compensation have all been blamed.

Whatever the cause, we all know the results of unfilled talent gaps: reduced productivity and innovation, greater burdens on the workers we have, lower satisfaction and engagement levels, increased turnover … the list goes on.

The obvious question is … how are employers responding to these talent shortages?

“Nearly eight out of 10 employers surveyed tell us they are taking steps to grow the talent pool and ensure access to the right skills that will help drive business results,” the ManpowerGroup report states. “Yet more than one out of five employers report that they are currently doing nothing to remedy the skills gaps indicating that they may not understand how the talent shortage is putting their business at risk or they simply don’t know how to effectively solve the issue.”

Doing nothing clearly isn’t a viable long-term strategy for most employers but growing talent pools certainly makes sense. However, it’s not the only option we have. We can also reskill and upskill the workers we currently have. But to do so, our vision of these individuals must be crystal clear. We need to know precisely the talents and skills they possess and those they lack—especially those we need to grow and remain competitive. Once we have this clear vision, we must put it to use and implement training and development programs that fill our gaps, disseminating the right knowledge in the right ways. For today’s workforces, this means more mobile and social learning, more interactive and independent learning technologies, more mentoring and peer-to-peer learning, and the like.

We also have to take steps to better understand the specific work our people are most interested in doing, where their natural capabilities and skills lie, and the types of projects they want to work on in the future. Frequent and effective performance reviews are an ideal tool for gathering all of this critical information.

If we want to fill our talent gaps and build workforces capable of successfully carrying us into the future, expanding our talent pools is a terrific idea. But it can’t be our only one.

Performance or Engagement? And the Winner Is …

As with just about every aspect of performance management, opinions are divided on the question of whether managers should focus on the performance or the engagement level of their people.

Those on the performance side of the debate say that performance-oriented managers drive bottom-line benefits such as profitability, market share and competitive dominance by helping their people achieve specific performance goals and remain closely aligned to the company’s/department’s objectives. Those on the engagement side of the debate say that engagement-focused managers help reduce costly turnover and increase employee productivity and loyalty by sustaining high levels of employee motivation and discretionary effort.

Both sides make sense. So what’s the right choice?

Well, a Gallup survey of more than 8,000 employees shows that we really shouldn’t make a choice at all. The best managers focus on both performance and engagement.

According to an article published just weeks ago in the Gallup Business Journal, the most successful managers are “strengths-based, engagement-focused, and performance-oriented. ... Managers who emphasize one approach while ignoring the other risk alienating their team members, lowering engagement, and damaging performance.”

The article goes on to tell managers how to enhance performance by focusing on employee engagement and how to enhance engagement by focusing on performance. “A team will never reach its full potential until it has a manager that is both performance-oriented and engagement-focused,” it states.

Focusing on both performance and engagement will require some managers to rethink their leadership strategies and tactics. For example, they might want to revisit how frequently they meet with employees. As we’ve written in the past, more frequent meetings help managers ensure their teams always perform at a high level by sharing specific, real-time feedback—what they’re doing well, what needs to be improved, and what they can do to advance their careers.

More frequent meetings also pay engagement dividends. As the Gallup article states, “On average, only 15% of employees who work for a manager who does not meet with them regularly are engaged; managers who regularly meet with their employees almost tripled that level of engagement.” These managers always know what their employees enjoy doing, what they’d like to do more or less of, and what they hope to be doing in the future.

Bottom line, when managers focus on both performance and engagement, the winner is … everyone.

Inclusive Leaders Turn Performance Reviews into Gold Mines

Attention managers and team leaders! Here’s great advice from Great Place to Work (Gulf) CEO, Ron Thomas:

“Our workforces have the ability to be a percolator of ideas and solutions if we would just turn the spigots on. Letting our employees know that we are dependent upon their ideas and thoughts has the potential for any organization to break out of the pack and shift power to the people who are closest to the issues. It’s simple: Turn them loose, unleash their powers, and watch things happen.”

Thomas shared this wisdom in a July blog post on TLNT.com, “Leaders Get More Out of People When They Don’t Wear the Crown.” He cautions leaders against buying into the notion that they’re “the ones with all the gold-plated ideas” simply by virtue of the titles and senior roles they hold. Instead, he says, leaders should remember that they’re in a position to provide useful support, guidance, mentoring and coaching—but only by treating others as their equals.

This is inclusive leadership at its finest. (See Karen Higginbottom’s interesting Forbes article on inclusive leadership here.) Indeed, the vast majority (85%) of business executives agree that inclusive leadership is an effective way to improve performance, as reported by Ernst & Young.

One way to be an inclusive leader and unleash the power of your people is to turn performance reviews into gold-mining operations. Ask individuals to bring their “gold-plated ideas” to the table at review time, and don’t end a review without asking what you can do personally to support and ensure the success of your employees’ ideas. Again, this style of leadership is about embracing the notion that you, despite your title and role, don’t have to have all the ideas and answers all the time. Remember, great leaders are great facilitators. Help your people put their knowledge, experience and ideas to good use and they’ll love you for it.

Inclusive leaders also often practice behavior modeling (showing by personal example the actions and behaviors you want from employees). This isn’t done merely to set an example. Behavior modeling delivers actual business results. As we noted in a prior post, research from Catalyst illustrates that employees who observe selfless behavior in their managers are more likely to report feeling included and engaged in their work and their teams. They also report feeling more innovative, suggesting new product ideas, and going beyond the call of duty, among other benefits.

One of the greatest advantages of inclusive leadership is that it unleashes the intelligence and creativity of your entire team. This means you no longer have to be the sole source of great ideas 24/7. And when you’re no longer trying to shoulder that heavy burden alone, you just might find yourself becoming a happier, more effective leader.

The Importance of Discretionary Effort—and How To Inspire It

We sparked some interesting conversation when we mentioned Aubrey Daniels in a recent post about the need for more frequent performance reviews.

You might recall that Daniels was among the first individuals to champion the notion of applying behavioral science to the workplace. As a result, he’s widely known as “the father of performance management.” In discussing our post, some people told us that they’re fans of Daniels’ work. Others said that, while important, his ideas focus too heavily on performance optimization and the bottom line—i.e., wringing the maximum amount of hours and effort out of every single employee.

To be fair, that’s not really true.

It is a fact that Daniels’ company focuses on enabling organizations to capture “discretionary effort” from employees. (Discretionary effort is that which goes above and beyond the minimum level required to a job.) But Daniels’ company doesn’t advise clients to extract greater effort at all costs. In fact, its approach to performance management advocates that employers manage their people with sensitivity and manage performance based on behavioral measurement and analysis, ongoing performance feedback to employees, and positive rewards.

Obviously, Daniels’ behavior analysis-focused approach to performance management will not work for or appeal to every organization. No approach does. In fact, Reviewsnap doesn’t agree with every precept or opinion Daniels and his company espouse. But we do agree with the basic concept that the true heart of great performance management is frequent and ongoing measurement, feedback and positive reinforcement. And we firmly believe that performance reviews can be the vehicle that supports and helps to deliver all of these elements—as long as reviews are conducted properly. We also believe that proper performance reviews are instrumental in capturing discretionary effort.

For those who want a fresh look at Daniels’ approach to performance management, check out an interesting post that appeared in Aubrey’s Blog in July, “Overworked? Could Reducing Workloads be the Key to Improved Results?”

At one point, the post states: “… oftentimes we find that people confuse discretionary effort with increasing the volume of work. Discretionary effort is about outcomes, not hours worked. It is about achieving business results through fluency in critical behaviors. It is about identifying and reducing the behaviors that don’t have business impact and focusing on the behaviors that do.”

Performance management isn’t about squeezing more and more from your employees. It’s about placing them in the right roles, aligning them closely to the company’s goals and mission, and giving them the direction and support they need to reach their full potential. That’s how we get sustained discretionary effort from our people.

One more note on this topic …

In his post, “What Exactly Is Discretionary Effort?”, consultant and speaker, Jason Lauritsen, points out that most of us assume discretionary effort and employee engagement are closely intertwined. After all, an unengaged employee isn’t going to be dishing out a lot of discretionary effort, right? However, Lauritsen suggests, “discretionary effort is less a matter of engagement than it is of performance.” He also calls into question management’s expectations where engagement and discretionary effort are concerned. Bottom line, Lauritsen believes the time has come to redefine our terms.

It’s intriguing stuff. Then again, isn’t everything in the world of performance management?

Recognizing the Difficult Dual Role Managers Play—Coach and Mentor

“All leaders do some coaching. If nothing else, they offer input through performance reviews. But providing feedback once a year just doesn’t cut it. Quarterly formal evaluations work better, but you’ll have greater success with even more frequent feedback, assessment, and mentoring." -- Laura Stack, “The 7 Keys to Great Coaching – and Boosting Employee Productivity;” 6/6/14; TLNT.com.

We agree wholeheartedly, Ms. Stack! Frequent reviews, feedback, assessments and mentoring are all essential to good performance management and boosting employee productivity.

Interestingly, Stack offers ideas on both coaching and mentoring in her astute article but never directly addresses the difference between the two. So … what is the difference? Just Google the phrase “the difference between coaching and mentoring” and you’ll be treated to a dizzying spectrum of opinions, some varying widely and some only by degrees. Generally speaking, though, coaching is concerned with an individual’s performance while mentoring is focused more on a person’s development.

In today’s organizations, a variety of individuals may serve as coaches and mentors to an employee but these individuals typically play just one role—either coach or mentor. Only an employee’s direct manager is expected to play both roles, helping the employee to perform well (coaching) while also helping to nurture her/his development (mentoring). This is one of the demands that make being a good manager so challenging.

The difficulty of playing this dual role can become a little overwhelming at times. In an effort to provide adequate guidance and support, managers sometimes go too far and slip into micromanagement mode. It’s a “classic workplace dilemma that can be difficult to navigate,” as Marcus Erb writes in his recent Entrepreneur article, “How to Stop Micromanaging Your Team.” For managers facing this dilemma, Erb serves up five strategies to overcome it that are well worth considering.

When you think about it, micromanagement is the antithesis of good coaching and mentoring. What’s more, it doesn’t help anyone—not employees and certainly not the managers perpetrating it. Micromanagement actually erodes employees’ self-confidence, motivation and productivity. It also stifles innovation and creativity, two qualities that are proven to drive the success of high-performance organizations. In addition, micromanagement robs leaders of precious time and energy they could be spending on more strategic matters.

Yes, employees want to be managed, coached and mentored. Yes, they want clear direction at the outset of the projects and roles they take on. And yes, they also want a bit of guidance at ongoing intervals to help them stay on course and engaged in their work.

But providing this delicate mix of direction and supervision is no easy feat, not even for seasoned leaders. That’s why coaching and mentoring shouldn’t be reserved for employees alone. Given the difficult dual role managers play, they must be coached and mentored as much as anyone.

Performance Management Should Begin Before We Hire Someone

When most of us hear the term “performance management,” we think of performance appraisals, mentoring, employee learning and development—all of the things that happen well after we hire people into our organizations.

But savvy employers know that truly effective performance management starts before we hire someone. It starts with finding and recruiting the right people.

Who are the right people? Danny Gutknecht, co-founder and CEO of Pathways, offers this insightful definition: “individuals whose attitudes, behaviors, mindsets and goals are closely aligned with those of your organization.” Gutknecht also advises employers aiming to raise the bar on their performance management to get a clear picture of what makes their best people a great fit for the organization, then hire others like them.

The upshot of Gutknecht’s counsel is clear: hire individuals who are closely attuned to your organization and your best people, and their performance will be in sync with your needs, goals and mission. As a result, your performance management won’t require a lot of heavy lifting—i.e., you won’t need to do extensive behavioral and performance modification or costly replacement of these individuals. The performance management you provide will be largely positive and developmental rather than punitive and correctional.

So how do you go about finding people who are closely aligned to your organization and who match up to your best people? For many employers, talent assessment tools are the answer.

There are a multitude of assessment tools available to today’s employers. Gutknecht’s company, for example, conducts Essence MiningTM to uncover the intrinsic nature and key characteristics of an organization and its people. Harrison Assessments and Shadowmatch USA, among others, focus on behavioral tendencies and competencies to predict performance. Still other tools are personality-based.

Finding the right assessment solution for your organization is, of course, a matter of fit. It has to meet your needs and goals but it also has to suit your company culture.

A recent article on the SHRM website, “Testing for Talent: An HR Case Study,” presents an interesting case study of the Barnum Financial Group and its use of an assessment tool to guide its coaching, communications and teamwork initiatives. The article also offers four helpful tips (which we’ve paraphrased below) to anyone searching for the right assessment tool for their organization:

1.     Be precise about what you want to accomplish.

2.     Forge a rough consensus among management about the tool that best fits the culture of your organization.

3.     Complete the assessment yourself to gauge its accuracy.

4.     Keep budget in mind, as you’ll need to make both an initial investment and an ongoing one.

Without question, performance management encompasses all of the activities we engage in after hiring an individual—conducting performance reviews, providing coaching, delivering developmental opportunities, and all the rest. But if we’re wise, we’ll remember that the most effective performance management actually begins before any of these activities take place. It begins with making the right recruiting and hiring decisions.

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To read more about our thoughts on performance management, click here to download our whitepaper, “From Dread to Moving Ahead — Take the Pain Out of Performance Management.”