Managing Underperformance & Appraising Your Staff

Here are some useful tips to help you appraise your staff and manage any under performance! Follow these simple tips and find out just how easy it is to effectively manage your staff! Praise and positive reinforcement go a long way when it comes to motivating an under performing staff.

¨       Tackle underperformance as soon as you see it – not at the end of year appraisal.
At some point, you are most certainly going to have to discuss the sensitive issues of underperformance with some of your staff. Clearly, this cannot continue – and as part of their development, the issues will need to be addressed.

Deal with underperformance promptly – and don’t link the conversation with anything else. Seek to understand what may be underlying the underperformance, and work with the employee to agree a plan of action to help improve the situation, with timelines and measures also agreed.

¨       Meet with your staff on a 1-1 basis regularly throughout the year
Develop a routine which allows you to meet with each of your staff on a regular basis – whether that’s 20 minutes every month, or once a quarter.
This meeting is an opportunity to quickly review the last quarter, then move on to chat about their goals, plans, what they are enjoying doing and how things could be structured to enable them to do more of those things. Ask them what you could do to help.

Note: This is not an appraisal. There should be no form filling, or focus on weaknesses, or links with any formal development process. This is about “touching base” with your people, showing an interest, and genuinely looking for ways in which you can support their talents and interests.

¨       Praise five times more than you criticise
Study after study shows we should praise more than we criticise. Learn how to give regular, and specific positive feedback as regularly as you can, then when you need to raise an issue of underperformance the recipient doesn’t feel like all you focus on is weaknesses.

¨       Encourage the employee to keep track of his/her own performance and learning.
Recent research into adult learning reveals students stay in school longer and learn more if they are expected to direct and record their progress.

Effective managers apply this with their employees.

Next time you have time with an individual try asking them the following:
- What do you like best about your job?
- What would make your job more satisfying?
- What are your aspirations for the future?
- What do you see yourself doing in five years?
- What do you definitely not want to see yourself doing in five years?

Listen! Then consider how you might be able to support them.

———————————————————————

For more information to help you with the people side of management,
including how to improve employee motivation and get the best out of your team, take a look at these great resources:

———————————————————————

Can You Develop Anyone?

Ever heard the saying "hire for attitude: you can teach the rest?"

The rest, of course, is "skills and knowledge" which CAN indeed be acquired and developed.

Those who know me know I'm a huge fan of the Gallup research and their fascinating book "Now discover your strengths" would suggest you might hire for something else other than attitude: talent.

Gallup suggests that where you already have latent talent, learning that knowledge and practising those skills will be enjoyable and relatively easy for you. You will get better, faster – and your performance is more likely to become a “strength” – ie near-perfect performance.

Gallup argues talent CANNOT be acquired. You either have it or you don’t and that forcing people to develop a “non-talent” is doomed to failure, de-motivation, frustration and mediocre performance.

As someone who has spent years in eduation and management, I'd wholeheartedly agree! And yet our performance management systems often focus on people's weaknesses when it comes to offering them development, and we also expect people to be "well-rounded".

Well, research is showing, that if you want excellence, developing "all rounders" is NOT the way forward. Here's what Gallup found outstanding managers do.

GREAT MANAGERS REJECT......

* Development is about making people “well-rounded”.

* You focus on fixing weaknesses

* If the individual fails to fix the weakness, then the fault lies with them.

* If you are persistent you will overcome your weaknesses.

GREAT MANAGERS BELIEVE.....

* Focusing on weaknesses sets people up to fail

* Focusing on weaknesses de-motivates people

* It’s MUCH easier to improve existing talent, and a far better place to be persistent.

* Casting is everything: they understand it’s about putting square pegs in square holes wherever possible, and managing round people’s weaknesses where possible

* In spending MOST time with their best people

Want to learn more? I'd heartily recommend you read their book! It gives you access to their online personal questionnaire, the "Strengths Finder" too, which can help you identify your own top 5 strengths. I've used it - not only to find my own, but with my clients to great effect. Definitely worth a look!

———————————————————————

For more information to help you with the people side of management,
including how to improve employee motivation and get the best out of your team, take a look at these great resources:

———————————————————————

5 Steps to effectively develop your people!

1. Develop your talent spotting muscle
   Look at each person who works for you or that you are recruiting with the next three jobs in mind.

2. Know your people’s aspirations
   If you don’t know your staff well enough to know what their ambitions and desires are, then how can you spot opportunities as they arise?

3. Build you manager network
   Even if you’re not a keen networker yourself, try to keep in touch with other managers on a regular basis so you are aware of possibilities elsewhere in the organisation.

4. Expect the best
   This is where your ability to coach comes in very handy! When you spot talent, and you know the person is “up for it”, you need to be able to drive, push, cajole, support and believe in them so they can reach their potential.
   No matter how much innate talent someone has, developing this into “near-perfect performance” will mean there are a few hiccups along the way! You need to be aware of this – and help support them.

5. Celebrate with them when they achieve.
   The best managers don’t play politics. They don’t hold someone back because they don’t want to lose them. They are wise enough to know, long term, this will breed resentment and poor performance anyhow.
   They are also courageous: they expect there will be players on their team who will be better than they are.
   They enjoy the success of developing others and seeing them succeed.

Managers who take these steps to develop their people and play to their strengths will not only have a high performing team, they’ll have a queue of willing workers waiting to work with them! And you know what? It doesn't actually take any more time - it's about a few simple tweaks to the way you do things, but the positive impact can be massive! 

———————————————————————

You'll find lots more information about coaching, developing and inspiring employees  in our comprehensive on-line library. Simply click on the link below and you can find out more about how to join and access this highly valuable resource.

And for more information to help you with the people side of management,
including how to improve employee motivation and get the best out of your team, take a look at these other great resources:

———————————————————————

The 2 last management styles you seriously want to avoid

If you’ve been following this series of 4 blog posts – you’ll know I’ve been sharing the research by Robert Kaplan, who studied the effects of damaging behaviours by managers in senior positions. In an intensive study of 40 senior executives whose drive to excel was actually damaging their performance  and prospects, Robert  Kaplan identified 8 behaviour styles  which were threatening to derail their teams.

These managers were unaware of the negative impact they were having on their teams: something psychologists often refer to as “blind spots.”

In the last 3 blog posts we looked at the first 6 negative behaviours: in this, the final post of this series we learn about the final two potentially damaging styles.

Blind spot/management style 7: Preoccupied with appearances
This manager needs to look good at all costs. He or she is overly concerned with appearances and public image, and makes decisions more on the basis of how it will “look” rather than what is best for the organisation or the team. They crave the material trappings of prestige.
Blind spot/management style 8: Need to seem perfect
The last style in this series is the manager who becomes enraged by or rejects out of hand, any form of criticism, even if it is realistic. They have a tendency to blame others for their failures and find it impossible to admit mistakes or personal weaknesses.

Recognise either of these?

The truth is, we can all fall prey sometimes to blind spots about ourselves – but it is when we are closed to feedback, defensive or even aggressive about any kind of feedback which makes us feel vulnerable, that we can find ourselves in hot water.

The irony is all the 8 “blind spots” we have discussed in the last few posts can actually motivate people to avoid self-awareness – because by acknowledging themselves they would have to admit to failings they cannot bear to acknowledge.

This need to deny often makes such managers resistant to any or all feedback. Moreover, it makes them a nightmare to work for! I’m not dealing with how to manage such characters here – but watch out for future articles or blog posts on the subject!

Organisations who understand just how critical it is to get management styles right if they are to achieve their goals, will do what they can to help build the emotional intelligence and people skills of those they promote to management positions, because they know, with certainty, the damage a manager with these potential blind spots can cause.

Want to learn much more about how to develop your emotional intelligence as a manager and a host of other skills to improve your effectiveness as a leader, so you don’t fall into any of these blind spot traps?

Our next VIP programme: “How to be an Outstanding Manager” begins in October, and is specifically designed to help managers increase this core skill, as well as some other core people management skills. This highly practical and action oriented programme is designed to enable mangers to work, over a number of weeks, on honing these most critical skills, for the benefit of their teams, themselves and the organisation.

To find out more click here.

And if you missed the previous posts with the other 6 “blind spots” go to: http://increasingmanagerialsuccess.com/bblog/

When the need for power or recognition can cause problems for a manager

In this the third of my series of 4 blogs about the dangers of “blind spots” in managers, we look at two further potentially problematic styles of management: managers who are power hungry, or whose need for recognition  is insatiable.

In an intensive study of 40 senior executives whose drive to excel was actually damaging their performance  and prospects, Robert  Kaplan identified behaviours  which were threatening to derail teams. In his book “Beyond Ambition”, he describes these behaviours, and sets out to show how personality traits can be  changed so people can achieve more effective performance as leaders.

We’ve already looked at 4 of the 8 problematic styles. Let’s look at the next 2:

Blind spot/management style 5:  Power hungry
This style of management is characterised by someone who constantly seeks power for his or her own interests, rather than the organisation’s. They push their own, personal agenda regardless of others and are often exploitative.

Blind spot/management style 6: Insatiable need for recognition
This manager is addicted to glory. He or she takes credit for others’ efforts but is also quick to blame them if they make mistakes!  They will also sacrifice follow-through in pursuit of the next victory.

Recognise these at all? Ever been managed by either of these styles? How did it feel? What impact did it have on you, or others around you?

Of course, if you’re a manager, you’d never display any of these behaviours – would you?

Want to learn much more about how to develop your emotional intelligence as a manager and a host of other skills to improve your effectiveness as a leader?

Our next VIP programme: “How to be an Outstanding Manager” begins in October, and is specifically designed to help managers increase this core skill, as well as some other core people management skills.

To find out more click here.

And if you want to make sure you find out what the final 2 unhelpful management styles are look out for the next blog post!

If you’re a member you’ll get it automatically – if not, why not sign up to basic membership here. It’s free, gives you access to lots of free articles and resources and puts you on our mailing list so you won’t miss any of this blog series.

Next Page »