Tag Archive for: how to create leaders with character

feedback

Managing Employee Performance – Assessing Performance Part 3

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feedback

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. More importantly, they result in employee success and organizational success. The previous two blogs emphasized the importance of ongoing conversations and choosing an approach focused on “landing” the message vs. just sending the message. Managers of employee performance need to commit to providing meaningful and helpful feedback on a regular basis. This feedback must be authentic and clear. This blog will continue the topic of how to assesses performance through ongoing conversations with a focus on how to structure the actual feedback conversation so that it “lands”.

Four Step Framework

I have developed a four-step framework for providing feedback in an effective manner. As a way to remember each step of the process, the four steps are based on the word FEED. Connecting the concept to a story can be a great way to remember the concept, so let’s do that for our feedback framework.

In our story, a young woman with great potential joins an organization and is matched with an experienced executive who is entering the twilight of her career and has been asked to mentor the new employee. When they sit down at their first meeting, the experienced executive asks the young woman “what would you like from me – how can I help?” The young woman remarks that she prefers an environment where people are engaged, care about their work, relationships matter and employee success matters. She continues with an observation that all too often there is an environment where people are indifferent, relationships don’t seem to matter, and management appears to only care about how the company is doing. She then asks, “how do I build an atmosphere where relationships matter, and people feel supported?”

The wise executive answers “Relationships are a like a living being. They are alive and need sustenance. Like any living entity, the one you feed thrives. If the sustenance you deliver provides clarity, builds engagement and supports employee success, that is what will thrive.  Take a few days to think about that, and let’s meet again to talk about what I’ve said and what it means to you.”  With that, the meeting ends.

Feedback Process – FEED

The key concept from the story is “whatever you feed will thrive”. A framework for having great conversations with people is all about your ability to FEED. FEED stands for:

Step 1 – Facts, Focus and Framing

  • Facts – Describe the situation – the specific behaviours and outcomes.
  • Focus – What will be the focus of the conversation? Identify the message that you want to “land”.
  • Frame – How will you frame the conversation at the beginning – what context will be helpful for the message to “land” better?

Step 2 – Expectations

  • Revisit the expectations. Confirm the “target” expectations that have been communicated and discussed in the past.

Step 3 – Effect

  • Discuss the effect of the actions taken. Review the impact of the actions/outcomes. What difference does it make to the recipient of the feedback, to co-workers, to the customer, or to the organization? Connect the impact to outcomes that are important to the recipient (explain an example).

Step 4 – Dialogue

  • Invite the other person to share their perspective. Engage in dialogue – an exchange of thoughts.

If you do a good job FEEDing an employee when assessing their performance, success will grow. In the next blog, we will summarize the key elements of assessing performance.

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.
SMART goals

Managing Employee Performance – Setting Expectations Part 2

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SMART goals

This blog is part of a series of blogs focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. Managing employee performance in the workplace is comprised of all of the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. These interactions and activities result in the achievement of goals and expectations. The previous blog offered a few insights into how to set expectations. This blog will continue the topic of how to set expectations with a review of goal setting.

Motivating Employees Through Goal Setting

It is commonplace for organizations to use the goal setting process. They do this as a means to motivate employees toward the achievement of organizational objectives. However, the process of setting goals must be managed effectively in order for it to be valuable. In a study of organizational behavior theory on goal setting, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the motivational value of goal-setting depends on two things:

  1. Whether the employer has set a goal that is realistically achievable
  2. Whether the employee receives feedback with respect to their progress in achieving the goal.

I will address the second point in a future blog on creating a motivation environment.

SMART Goals

A widely used acronym for setting goals is “SMART”. In order to make expectations clear, the goal should be:

Specific – clear articulation of expectations

Measurable – a means to assess achievement of the goals

Achievable – challenging but not so difficult that they can’t be achieved

Relevant – contributes to the achievement of a department/organisational goal

Time-framed – there is a clear date of completion (milestones can help as well)

An example of a goal that is not SMART would be saying, “let’s reduce costs”. This can be improved by instead saying, “let’s examine the top twelve areas of spending in the operations budget for our departments over the next three months with the goal of reducing year-over-year spending by 5%. This way we can meet the organizations objective of re-directing spending to an increased investment in research and development”.

The “A” in SMART stands for Achievable. Organizations risk undermining the motivation of their employees if the goals they set for employees are not achievable. They also risk other forms of bad behaviour.  Stephen Covey, a noted author on the topic of principled leadership, was quoted as saying “There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.”   

Setting Achievable Goals

So, how does an organization ensure that the goals they set for employees are achievable? I believe that there are two important strategies that organizations should employ in order to develop goals that are achievable.

Involve the Employees in the Process

Managers must strategize to ensure that they involve employees in the goal setting process. Management can start with macro goals and a plan of action for each department; however, they must involve the employees in order to get the employee’s commitment to the goal and to identify any barriers to the achievement of the goals that management may not be fully aware of. Also, having the employee participate in the goal-setting process will give them a much stronger sense of accountability for the goals because they help develop them.

Integrate a Job Duty Review

The second strategy needed for developing achievable goals is to integrate a review of the job duties into the goal-setting process. Organizations should review the expectations outlined in a job description at the same time as a review of time-framed goals. When it comes to thinking about managing employee performance and expectations, the only real difference between a job description and the annual goal-setting exercise is the timeframe.

A job description typically has an indefinite time frame. The expectations outlined in the job description remain in place until there is a significant shift in organizational structure or a change in the employee’s designated role. The expectations outlined in a goal-setting process typically have a start date and an end date. However, they take time to accomplish and should be integrated into the outlined job description of the employee.

Employers should provide an estimate of time time required to complete the goals outlined in the goal setting process. There should also be an acknowledgment of how the time required to achieve the goals will be integrated with the time required to achieve the ongoing expectations of the job. Employers should also acknowledge the time required to achieve the goals Failure to do this can lead to issue such as employee burnout or employees who pursue achievement of short-term goals at the expense of important ongoing job expectations.

Conclusion…

In summary, the first step in effectively managing employee performance is the process of setting expectations. This includes both the ongoing job accountabilities and the time framed goals.

The next few blogs will offer insights on the importance of sharing feedback on the employee’s performance in a manner that has the best chance of being embraced by the employee so that they are able to achieve success.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.
expectations

Managing Employee Performance – Setting Expectations

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expectations

This blog is the third in the series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance” that encompasses the interactions and activities that take place between an employer and an employee. The interactions result in the achievement of goals and expectations. The first two blogs emphasized the need for organizations to choose the most appropriate focus for performance management: the development of a relationship and work environment that enables the employee to achieve success. Many organizations struggle with performance management because the primary emphasis is on other purposes such as tracking performance on forms or establishing compensation. While these can be important benefits of managing performance, the most important objective is employee success. Performance management is not an event, it is an ongoing process.

4 Requirements for Being a Great Manager

Research by the Gallup Organization presented in the book “First Break All the Rules:  What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently”, identified four core activities that are a necessary part of being a great manager:

  • Select a person
  • Set expectations
  • Motivate the person
  • Develop the person

Hiring the Right People

If we assume an employer has hired the right employee with the appropriate set of competencies, the next step is to set expectations. Fixing a hiring mistake should not be the primary focus of performance management. When we start with the assumption that we hired the right person, the process of setting expectations will concentrate on helping the employee succeed by meeting the employer’s expectations, while partnering with the employee to enable them to achieve their won goals. This blog will outline the important elements in developing a solid set of employee expectations.

Job Descriptions for Employee Tasks

Outlining employee expectations involves identifying the tasks that need to be completed in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization. These tasks and accountabilities are most often captured in a job description and should ideally answer the following questions:

  • What is expected and why it is important – an outline of duties and tasks
  • How to meet the expectations – key behaviours
  • Results/outcomes – how success is measured

When establishing job descriptions, organizations often make the mistake of placing too much emphasis on activities and not placing enough emphasis on results/outcomes or boundaries of control. For example, cashiers in a retail store might be given the following duties and tasks as a list of job expectations:

  • Quality customer service
  • Processing customer orders through the point-of-sale cash system
  • Providing refunds

These bullet points provide a good start however, they lack the level of detail and clarity required to help an employee really achieve success. For example, there is no indication of what decision-making authority the employee has with respect to providing refunds. If the employee encounters a situation where customer wants a refund without a receipt for an amount that is less than $10, the employee should be given some guidance as to whether they can make that decision on their own or if they need approval from a supervisor or manager.

This is an important question as it defines the quality of service that the customer will experience. If the employee has to go get approval and delays the customer, this could be viewed as a negative experience. It would not be in line with the expectations of the first bullet point – providing quality customer service. Organizations need to be diligent in providing not only the duties and tasks of the job. They need to include other expectations such as decision-making authority and expected outcomes.

Maintain Your Expectations

It is also important to ensure that there is alignment of expectations at three key points of interaction with employees. The expectations that are outlined in a job posting that was used during the hiring process should be exactly the same as the expectations used during the on-boarding and orientation. They should be exactly the same as the expectations used during ongoing performance discussions and annual performance review meetings. Although this sounds like common sense, there is often a substantial disconnect between these three processes. This can result in significant misunderstanding with respect to what the employee thinks that the employer expects from them. This ambiguity with respect expectations does not help the employee succeed by meeting the employer’s expectations.

The next blog will continue the dialogue on building clear expectations by addressing the issues of how organization’s goal setting processes intersect with their permanent job descriptions and how they are used to help an employee succeed as part of an effective program for managing employee performance.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, ACC is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.
References:
First Break All the Rules: Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman, Simon & Schuster 1999 Page 59.
employee performance evaluation

Managing Employee Performance – It’s Not About the Forms

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employee performance evaluation

This blog is the first in a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance”. This is a hot topic with many organizations because for many organizations, the process often creates more problems than it solves.

Research indicates that many organizations have chosen to abandon what they describe as the “annual performance appraisal” process because of the problems it seems to create. This blog will address some of the key challenges faced by organizations in managing employee performance.

Understand the purpose of managing employee performance

The first step in organization’s need to better manage employee performance is to understand the purpose of the process. The primary purpose should not be focused on filling out forms or creating a perception that a documented, numerical rating is the main driver of compensation. Rather, it should be focused on helping employees succeed in delivering on accountabilities that are aligned with organizational objectives. When the process focuses on the completion of forms, it becomes a paper chase where managers often do not feel responsible or accountable for the process and the potential value it can bring.

Similarly, if the process focuses on compensation, it often devolves into a focus on the “annual performance appraisal” meeting. This is where managers and employees seem to debate a performance rating because it is so closely connected to how much of a pay increase an employee will receive. Even the language of describing the annual meeting as a “performance appraisal” is problematic because managers should not be “appraising” performance on an annual basis. They should be appraising performance on an ongoing basis – every day or at least every week. To get the most value out of a performance management process, organizations need to ensure that it’s not about the forms, it’s about the conversations that help an employee succeed.

Employee Success

The entire performance management process should be focused on helping employees succeed. The definition of employee success combines achievement of the organization’s expectations that have been communicated to them as well as the achievement of the goals and expectations that employees have set for themselves. It is important to note that documentation of performance is important and there is nothing wrong with connecting pay with performance. Having said that, the key is to focus on conversations that help success.

The documentation and compensation are by-products of quality conversations and quality performance assessments as opposed to being the main focus. A key opportunity for many organizations is to shift the internal mindset and the focus of the system and language relating to managing employee performance. For some organizations, the first step in shifting the mindset may be as simple as changing their language from “annual performance appraisals” to “annual performance reviews”. This ensures that managers understand that feedback is an ongoing process and the annual meeting is a review – sort of like a highlight reel – that focuses on performance feedback that has already been shared with the employee.

These review meetings can take place more frequently than once a year, however the purpose is still to review the collective dialogue that is taken place during the performance review period.

It’s Not About the Forms

If an organization focuses its attention on equipping managers to engage in regular dialogue with employees, they will be much more likely to achieve the objective of helping employees succeed. Also, by focusing on regular dialogue, the organization will reinforce that the process is not about the forms.

The forms that organizations use as part of their employee performance management process should assist the manager in capturing an overview of the ongoing performance feedback discussions that the manager has had with the employee. These discussions will focus on the employee achieving their full potential by offering reinforcement of desired behaviours and constructive analysis of what needs to be corrected. The forms can offer a process for capturing performance feedback throughout the year in order to avoid issues such as the recency bias. The forms can also be used to hold managers accountable for their performance assessments in order to reduce or eliminate other forms of rater bias.

Once the organization has embraced that the purpose of managing employee performance is to help employees succeed in meeting their accountabilities, the execution of the process will improve. Subsequent blogs will address each of the component parts of an effective program for managing employee performance.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

David Town, CHRL, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effectively managing conversations involving confrontation or conflict. As well, he provides insights and assessment strategies for integrating character competencies into leadership skills resulting in increased trust and reduced risk for leaders. David is a member of the International Coaching Federation and is President of Your Leadership Matters Inc.

Leadership & Character – Courage

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Courage sign with road background

This blog is part of a series focusing on the attributes that lead to a positive assessment of a leader’s character.  Each of the positive character attributes contribute in their own way to the ability of the leader to make good, character-based decisions with respect to the actions they take as a leader.  The focus for this blog is on courage. Read more

Leadership & Character – Compassion

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compassion word in wood type

The past three blogs have focused on character in leadership based on an assessment of the presence of four universally-accepted moral principles: integrity, responsibility, forgiveness and compassion.  These principles are the foundation of the methodology for assessing character that Fred Kiel introduced in his book entitled “Return on Character”.   This blog will focus on the importance of compassion as it relates to character-based leadership.

In order to understand the role of compassion in a character-based leader, we can turn to Fred Kiel’s book “Return on Character” where he outlines three common behaviors or attributes that constitute compassion in a leader: empathy, attachment and affection.

Let’s start with empathy. Empathy is broadly defined as the ability to understand the feelings of others. It is an important attribute for leaders to have for many reasons. First of all, a person who demonstrates strong empathy skills focuses on the feelings of others and not just their own feelings. Stephen Covey, author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” put “Seek first to understand then to be understood” as habit number five.  I think that Covey believed that to honour this habit a person must be able to demonstrate empathy and strong listening skills. Once they establish a deeper understanding of the other person’s point of view, they will be in a much better position to articulate their own thoughts and feelings.  When a person senses that you understand what they are feeling, the relationship strengthens. Read more

What is Character in Business Leadership?

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character leadershipIn this blog I plan to continue on the theme of understanding the importance of character to leadership. In my last blog, I outlined the importance of good character to leaders.  Leaders want to enable their followers to exercise independent thinking and decision-making that serves the leaders vision and goal. In order for a leader to feel comfortable with delegating independent decision-making, they must have trust in the person and individuals who exemplify positive character traits are very trustworthy.

Read more