Do you sometimes feel like you're not getting the best performance from team members? Here’s some great techniques for setting goals, tracking progress, and dealing with problems.

Managing the performance of others.  Easy? Well whether you find it a walk in the park or frustratingly challenging what you’ve got here are tips, techniques and models that’ll enable you to have effective performance management meetings, be clear on expectations, agree objectives and ensure clarity regarding next steps. I’ll also briefly explore feedback (There’s a much more detailed blog where I cover feedback in-depth right here, if you’re interested). What behaviours you’re likely to experience as pushback and what’s required to plan for and approach “tough conversations.”   Before I get started though I think it's worth briefly highlighting that in some businesses, hopefully not yours, the term performance management has a somewhat negative connotation.  so I just want to make it completely clear what we're covering here is you as manager / leader, managing the performance of individuals to set them up for success and get the best out of them, we're not talking about performance managing someone out of the business!! :)

1. How do I know what to cover when I’m having a 121 catchup?

Right lets get into this…..From a big picture perspective and in super simple terms your business has goals it wants to achieve, your department will have objectives aligned to those business goals and this cascades down to you and your team members.  You’ll be setting them tasks to work on, the achievement of these will in turn, in some small way, support and impact upon the success of the bigger picture.  How does a business ensure that this happens and everyone is aligned – With an appraisal process. Once again in really general terms, typically what happens in most effective organizations is this.  At the start of the business year,  objectives get set as part of an appraisal, these are reviewed 6 months later, with regular 121’s inbetween…..And that’s what we’ll explore here. Having that objective setting conversation and how best to structure it to ensure your team members are clear on what they’re being tasked to do, and clarity in regards to expectations on results. Clearly these conversations are likely to differ albeit in a subtle way depending upon whether it's a start of the year appraisal or a regular 121 catchup.  The principle remains the same however, you’re going to want to know:

1. What’s happening at the moment?

2. How are they progressing?

3. Do existing objectives remain the same or is there need for new ones?

Putting aside the annual appraisal for one moment, these regular 121 performance management catchups will likely fall into one of three camps…A team member who’s on track, they’re progressing well and meeting their objectives…Fantastic in which case you praise them and where appropriate set some new objectives.

The second scenario is a team member that isn’t meeting their objectives. Now before we leap to conclusions, there may be valid reasons for this…Business changes or influences outside of their control may have impacted upon their ability to achieve in certain areas.  In which case we’re back to understanding what’s going on, how are they progressing with those objectives not impacted and agreement on some new revised objectives. 

Of course the other scenario is they’re not hitting their objectives and it’s a performance issue, this requires a whole different type of conversation. If the under-performance is unusual and out of character, it’s entirely possible there could be personal challenges going on, so it’s important to be sensitive, ask questions with a view to better understand circumstances.  Then set in place a support mechanism to enable this person to get back on track. 

If however the performance issue is an on-going one, then at the early stages we’re again back to understanding the current situation and underlying cause, the difference here is, because objectives are not being met, a conversation needs to happen regarding expectations and what if any support is required. Maybe it’s a temporary revision of some objectives or timeframes involved.  From a management perspective, this situation is likely to require you to schedule more regular catchups, simply to keep a track of progress and prevent further slips in performance.  However even the best management can’t always prevent some from lacking the work ethic required to try their very best and in such cases you’re going to need to be mindful that should such a situation materialise, with performance continuing to slip for no other reason than lack of engagement, and assuming you can look yourself in the mirror and say you’ve done all you can, tough conversations will likely need to take place and where appropriate HR involvement. 

2. Don’t be put off by SMART objectives, they’re not always complicated and time consuming

Right…..Lets switch gears and zero in on a standard objective setting conversation.  I’ll introduce you to a couple of models you can set yourself up, ready, for your next 121 with one of your team members.  Ever heard of SMART objectives?  Don’t groan!! :). It stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timebound.  I ask if you’ve ever heard of it because it’s a widely used acrynm for goal setting and many organisations use it – so it’s possibly something you’re already familiar with? Either way I’m going to talk through it, so if you’re already familiar with it, treat it as a refresher, I’m confident you’ll get value from this, and if you’re not, great here’s something that has the potential to save you time and make your 121’s far more effective. 

Side note….I think its important to add here, given SMART’s wide spread use, I often get push back from others saying it’s overly complicated, and time consuming to use and having used it myself I can totally understand why views like these are expressed…..However there’s a way to use SMART that’s neither complicated or time consuming and that’s what I’ll share here…

OK here we go….The mistake many make when using SMART is trying to create an objective by literally going letter by letter and trying to word something that sounds something like an objective.  The thing is you can get caught up in the weeds and spend forever trying to word something that sounds right.  You’re far better off formulating an objective, by initially forgetting about SMART, and just writing out what it is that needs to be done and by when….and then you use SMART as a template.  What I mean by that is to take your objective, lets say for example it’s “by the end of July, complete all course work and pass the exam for x” and ask yourself…is this specific? – Is it clearly defined, when you read it do you know what needs to be done?  In this example absolutely you do.  Next can you measure it?...Again that’s a yes.  You haven’t passed the exam yet but if you’ve passed it come the end of July…it’s measurable.  Is it achievable? And is it realistic?  Now at times these get confused as being the same, when in reality they’re not. 

Now between you and me, the A and R in SMART can be considered as prompts for you as a manager to take a moment to pause and consider are your expectations in relation to the objective you’re creating within the realms of reality?  For example, Lets imagine you manage a telesales environment and you’re setting an objective for a telesales operator.  You might set an objective for them to complete 50 calls a day.  Now is that achievable?  Probably, anyone could pick up a phone and speak to 50 people in a day. So it’s potentially achievable. HOWEVER, if the quality of the call will likely be shocking because the telesales operator is now focused on call quantity rather than call quality, then this objective clearly needs revision.  Add to this, if other telesales operators only do 35 quality calls a day, then one could argue that asking someone to do 50 calls a day is not really very realistic.  

Ok lets go back to the earlier example… we agree its specific and measurable, achievable and realistic – so the final element is it timebound - do we know when it needs to be done by….again yes, the end of July.  So we can say this example is definitely a SMART objective. So have a think about objectives you need to set members of YOUR team and go make them SMART.  Remember, just create the objective….and use SMART to simply sense check it. If however you're STILL not a fan, let me throw another acronym your way - T M T, task, measure, time, it’s very similar to smart, just simplifies things even further. What's the task that needs to be done. How are you going to measure that task? And when’s it to be completed by? So if you don’t like SMART, use T M T instead. OK, before I wrap this session up and begin exploring the theme of feedback – one final thought… How many times as part of a 121 catchup, have you sat down with a member of your team asked them to update you on progress and the response you’ve received has been frustratingly absent on detail and specifics?

This is where the setting of SMART objectives really comes into their own.  Think about it, when you initially formulate a SMART objectives with your team member, you’ve both agreed on expectations, with measures and timescales in place.  Now all your 121 catchups have a primary focus…How are they progressing in line with timescales and what evidence is there from a measurement perspective - simple :)

 

3. How to approach and deliver feedback professionally and respectfully

Obviously a huge part of managing performance is providing quality, well structured feedback. So what’s the best approach to giving feedback? How do we structure feedback? How do we handle those people that don't respond well to feedback?

OK, lets start here..How about this work place experience…Ever had the following, or something similar delivered to you by your boss, an out of the blue, totally unexpected “can I have a quick word with you in my office?” Assuming you have, was that a mini “fist-pump” moment?  Did you find yourself instantly filled with excitement eager to hear what they had to say?  Or was it – an instant moment of dread with heart palpitations and your mind now racing at a million miles per hour, trying desperately to work out what the hell you’d unknowingly messed up on?  It’s interesting isn’t it, the impact such a short sentence delivered at a random moment, can have upon us – The ambiguity as to what it’s about, combined with the uncertainty as to what you’re about to walk into creates a potential turbulent mix of emotions. Is this how a competent leader would act?  What would they do differently?  Would they be more self-aware? Perhaps approach a similar situation with greater emotional intelligence. While that scenario won’t always be about a manager sharing feedback – The principle of approaching something of importance in a mindful fashion, understanding how your actions affect others is an important one, especially when feedback is involved.

It’s reasonable to suggest not all of us are as open to feedback as others, be that positive or developmental in nature, so sharpening up on those leadership skills empathy, sensitivity, listening, assertiveness and planning, isn’t ever going to be time wasted – Delivering structured, timely, well thought through feedback, be that positive or negative in tone is an art, and one that can garner you a great deal of respect.  Let me throw another scenario out there…imagine for one moment you’re within your work place walking down a corridor and somebody senior, whom you’ve a great deal of respect for, and as far as you’re aware have no idea who you are, pass by one another…They stop, call you out by name and say,  “just wanted to mention, I heard about that project you were leading on, incredible result, I know there were challenges at times, you really delivered, keep up the great work.” How would that make you feel?  I’m assuming pretty good?  Now the point I’m making here isn’t to go randomly wandering the halls of your workplace giving out unsolicited feedback lol, but to highlight, how little time and effort it can take, to make a huge impact on anothers motivation. 

Lets briefly pick up on the theme of motivation and apply it to feedback.  Now this won’t be hard, take a moment and imagine you’ve just delivered on a huge project, you made it come in ahead of time, under budget and the end result has exceeded expectations.  Now just image you were to receive feedback on this incredible achievement  - How would you prefer it’s delivered?  Privately, 121, or a big announcement in front of the team, dept, hell make it the whole business? :).  It doesn’t matter which one you chose, the point here is we’re all different, just because you want your praise sung from the hill-tops, doesn’t mean members of your team do.  I mean If I was to take this example to extremes, the last thing you’d want is for someone to under-perform purely because they fear how they’ll be rewarded / recognised, but the potentials there, so it's something to be mindful of. 

4. What’s the easiest but most effective feedback model to use?

Right, time to introduce a feedback model.  It’s called SAID, it stands for:

Situation

Action

Impact

Development. 

What’s great about the model is it can be used for both praise and developmental feedback but something else that’s powerful is the way the model’s structured. It assists you in separating the behaviour from the person.  What I mean by that, is when you’re feeding back in the workplace the focus is on behaviour not personality…Taking this out of the workplace for a moment - For example if you were with a child and they were having a tantrum in a shopping mall, it would be like you saying to the child…”I love you, I don’t love your behaviour.”  The same approach can be applied at work, it’s not about decimating anothers character, it’s about highlighting inappropriate behaviour, so there’s an awareness of some changes that are necessary…so for example it would sound like “you’re a valued and highly regarded member of the team…the way you acted in front of that client earlier however, wasn’t in keeping with your normal high standards” – you’re distancing the person from the behaviour. 

Going back to the SAID model, I’ll briefly talk you through each letter of SAID and how best to use it to structure feedback.

1. The S stands for Situation, the purpose here is for you to make what you share indisputable, “I was there, you were there, this was the situation – you’re basically describing what’s happened” next is…

2. The A which stands for action, “this is where you spell-out what the person did, their behaviours – maybe didn’t listen, talked a lot, ignored people, lacked attention to detail”

3. The I is for Impact, so at this stage you’re describing how the behaviours/actions impacted upon other people/the team/the business/a client…The final element to SAID is…

4. The D and it stands for development. And here you’re simply generating accountability – through the asking of open questions, for example “what will you do differently next time?”  Or in the case of praise, “how might you apply this same great work ethic to X?”  Basically what you’re looking for here is to elicit a commitment to which they can be held accountable, while there’ll always be a time and place to “tell” people what to do, it’s far from developmental and rarely empowering.  

Of course feedback isn’t always received well. No matter how artful we become at delivering it! Think back to when you’ve delivered developmental feedback in the past and someones been less than responsive, how would you describe what you experienced?  Were they in denial? Super angry?  Or were they just utterly shocked?  How about a scenario where they’re desperate to move on, so they just accept everything you say? Or perhaps they rationalised everything with a….”yeah, but that happened because.” 9 times out of 10, you’ll have a good handle on the likely response - But there’s definitely no harm in a little consideration and definitely some preparation, should the unexpected happen. 

5. What if I need to have a “tough conversation” with someone to create some awareness and potentially create a little motivation?

Of course part of managing performance may entail you having to have “tough conversations.” They’re not necessarily easy things for some managers to do and there’s great risk if not approached elegantly for things to go pear-shaped very quickly. So what’s the advice? We explored earlier not to leap to conclusions, sometimes people under-perform because they’ve challenges going on you’d never know about - So ALWAYS be mindful of that. Assuming you have. Here’s an approach that works:

1. Ask yourself why are you having this conversation? What’s the purpose and what’s the outcome you’re looking for?

2. Be mindful that in the work place some people have “reputations” so have a little self-awareness and be mindful of your judgements and assumptions as to this person and how they may respond.

3. Emotions have the potential to run high. If you know certain things trigger you - what are you going to do to ensure that doesn’t happen or at the very least be able to keep your emotions in check?

4. Take time to put yourself into their shoes. What’s going on in their world? Are they aware of their “under-performing” situation? Is this a pattern or completely out of character?

So that’s the planning stage done. Now you’re going to have to have the conversation. So how’s that best structured?

1. “Seek first to understand before being understood” - Ask them what’s going on? LISTEN! Don’t interrupt. Let them finish.

2. Acknowledge what they’ve shared. That’s NOT agreeing with them. It’s demonstrating you’ve heard them and it shows you’ve understood. (it provides them the opportunity to correct you too)

3. Now share your position, how YOU “see” things from your perspective. Be mindful NOT to minimise their point of view however.

4. Seek solutions. Encourage ideas. If things get heated - Pause. Return to once again, “understanding” the source of the frustration. Listen. Acknowledge. Don’t make the assumption others see things the way you do!

5. If things do get heated take time out. DO NOT cancel. Agree to regroup in say 15 mins.

6. Remain mindful of your purpose and desired outcome. Use this as a guide should the conversation take a detour! Get back on point.

7. I’ve always remembered this A, B, C: Accurate - Deliver your message unwaveringly and to the point. Brief - Keep it short professional and respectful. Clear - No ambiguity, the facts as you see them.

Good luck. These are definitely NOT the easiest or most comfortable conversations to have in the workplace! But on a positive it’s definitely an opportunity for you to cut your teeth and develop your skills as a quality manager. All the best. I really hope this has provided valued guidance for you…