Leadership and Management

2 Comments

A New Paradigm of Leadership and Management Development – redirected

By Christina Lattimer • July 25, 2013 - 4:18 pm Miscellaneous

To give clarity to my paradigm on leadership and management, I set out below my leadership development model which gives on overview of my own philosophy.

I fell into the leadership and management field really. When I left school at 16, with no expectations other than eventually to get married and start a family I had no clue what I wanted to do. Taking the first job I could, in an office, I eventually became a manager at the tender age of 22. Being the youngest in the office and the manager meant I had to learn quickly, and I did. After decades now of leading and managing teams I made every mistake in the book. Much of my career whilst successful in many respects was born of trying one thing, and when it didn’t work, trying something else. I think I probably need to apologise to my many team members and colleagues over the years, because life with me as a leader wasn’t always easy!

The years of leading and managing though always felt right, even when everything was going wrong, and it quite often did. What I did over that long path of time, was to learn. I realised early on that life was about learning. First of all I had to learn about other people, then myself, and ultimately that real learning which only occurs around relationships.

In the early days, I wanted to learn to become a better person, and often failed miserably. Although I needed to take in information and learn the tools of my trade, I realised these were mere props. Eventually I realised that learning is actually about bringing out of one self. The word “Education” actually derives from the verb educe, which meant “to draw forth from within”.

Having dedicated myself to a path of self-learning over the years, I would contend that the most satisfying purpose in life is to learn and uncover one’s own real self. In this respect, I now know that learning about one’s self is not to make a better person. But rather to uncover the person which was always there. That is true for all of us.

What I also discovered on my learning journey was that as my self-awareness grew and where my leadership development model came into being, so did my understanding and ability as a leader and manager. For someone who hasn’t undertaken a path of self-learning it might sound self-centred and egocentric. But it isn’t. What I have learned is that as self-awareness grows, so does your regard, concern and respect and understanding of and for others. I also believe a true leader does not lead per sae, but brings out the best in others, consciously or unconsciously helping them to unwrap their own true selves.

Sometime last year I spent some time with MBA Students and we were talking about modern leadership. We looked at the many problems with the world, with politics, and with business. We examined the many crises leaders must be tasked with. They are enormous tasks which need great leadership and vision. When I asked them what skills leaders needed across the board to cope with what was to come. This is what they said.

Our leaders need “Integrity: Credibility: Wisdom: Courage: Consistency: Social Intelligence: Charisma: Vision: Communication: Appreciation: Decision making: Fairness: Justice: Rational: Creativity: Honesty: Open-mindedness”

There are many leadership models, hundreds of thousands of leadership books, underlying the many perspectives out there. But at the core of all us there is a commonality. “A knowing” when things are right, and what is needed. I believe many of the attributes most people want their leaders to have are contained in that list articulated by the students.

Below is my leadership model based on this commonality and knowing. This is, I believe, the new paradigm, so sorely needed right now. Many are already there, many on the journey, and many still to undertake it. But it is open for anyone to choose to do so at any time.

THE PEOPLE DISCOVERY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODEL

The Model is based on a number of characteristics which are available to anyone. The characteristics of the Model are:

Connected to Higher Self

1. An ability to connect to ones higher self. Some people call this Right mind or Right brain, or Spirit, Love, Intuition, a Guardian Angel, or some other Inner Guide. And so they are Inner Directed, Discerning and Confident.

Unity Consciousness

2. An understanding that the higher self is who we really are; the main characteristics of which are unity consciousness and love. And so they are Positively Value Based and Value Others Equally.

Self- Awareness

3. Well-honed visionary, thinking and emotional intelligence skills which are used with the purpose of making a real difference and so they are Creative, Self-Aware and Purposeful

Inspiring Others

4. Understand others and therefore know how to communicate, engage, create an environment which encourages enthusiasm, commitment and motivation, and as a result get the best out of their team. And so they are Accepting, Non-judgmental and Inspirational

Motivate Inspire Lead Engage

Leaders who develop the characteristics of the model are able to create the conditions to self-motivate, inspire, lead and engage their people.

If this resonates with you, then come and see our great new community and get involved

If you are a leader, you are continually developing and "Sharpening the Saw". If you lead and manage teams, then you must read about our Inspirational New Leadership Programme. Sign up now to find out more details when we launch in July 2014. There is no obligation to undertake the programme, if you sign up today, you will simply be sent more information about the programme. You can unsubscribe at any time! Click below to register for further information.

2 Comments

How to Make Managing Poor Performance Easy

By Christina Lattimer • June 6, 2013 - 1:46 pm Miscellaneous

Managing poor performance can be one of the most stressful parts of managing a team.

The problem is of course; good managers know that the vast majority of employees want to come to work to do a good job. When an employee is not performing, more often than not it is either because:a) They are in the wrong job) They have problems outside of work) They simply need more knowledge or information or understanding.

It takes a skilled and experienced manager to be expert and slick when it comes to raising poor performance. Often teams become less than enchanted with their manager when the manager fails to address poor performance, even when the impact isn’t extreme. One of the most frustrating experiences for a team is when they feel they are carrying a member who is not pulling their weight, frustration can turn to stress when the manager simply does nothing about it

Poor performance can appear at any stage in the employment life-cycle. Managers need to be extra vigilant in any trial period. I have seen managers give new employees the benefit of the doubt and live to rue the day they confirmed a permanent appointment, when they had experienced niggling doubts during that time and failed to listen to their intuition.

What follows are some simple ways to help both prevent problems and when they do occur, what to do about them.

Don’t

Miss the telling signs in the trial period. Follow up on any issues which arise during that time.
Wait until the next performance review. Deal with any emerging problems as soon as they become apparent.
Develop an attitude or fixed view of the employee, there may be many reasons for under-performance
Ignore what other people are saying about someone’s under-performance; subtly check it out, if you don’t at first agree
Wait until a major incident or disaster occurs
Wait until everyone else in the workplace is totally fed up because of the under-performance.
Confuse a performance issue with a conduct problem. Misconduct of course impacts on performance, but they are two totally different issues.
Wait until the under-performer goes off on sick leave.

Have a fair and equitable way of measuring performance for all employees
Use your internal policies and procedures for managing under-performance. Your policies should be designed to assist you to get it right. If your policies hinder the process, they need to be rewritten.
Identify the precise areas of under-performance. Exactly what element of performance is the employee not achieving? Performance can be lack of productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, or an under developed skill set for example.
Gather clear examples and facts which demonstrate the level of performance. Do not rely on hearsay, because your boss told you to do it, or niggling doubts.
Keep an open mind about the reasons for under-performance. You do not know what is going on in the employee’s life. Don’t assume they are under-performing and they just can’t hack it.
Talk to the under-performer as soon as possible, and listen to what they have to say. Let them know you are concerned, not accusing.
Ask them about external factors, their own views about their performance, and what they think the expectations of them are. Ask them about training and skill sets.
Develop a clear and SMART action plan. The outcomes of the action plan must actually prove to you that the employee is capable and willing to bridge the performance gap, and be able to sustain it without constant supervision.
Be clear about the time-scale in which you require the performance to improve and for how long before you relax monitoring.
Meet regularly and give honest accurate feedback about their progress. Listen to them and amend the action plan if there are credible reasons for lack of progress, but stick to your agreed time-scale except if there are exceptional circumstances.
Give them every support in terms of training, mentoring, materials and guidance they might need.
Be kind. The majority of people want to do well at work and it can be a nightmare experience for them if for some reason their performance isn’t up to scratch. Genuinely wish them well and hope that they succeed.
Be confident. You know how you want your team to work. Don’t settle for anything less, and expect great not mediocre results for your team.

If you manage poor performance well and manage to raise performance, then this not only instils a sense of achievement for the employee, but also gives a great message out to other staff that you are fair and tuned in to what is happening. Your team might not know when poor performance is being tackled. But they certainly do know if it is not being addressed at all.

3 Leadership Skills To Inspire Team Success

By Christina Lattimer • March 21, 2013 - 10:57 pm Employee Development

3 Leadership skills

Leaders usually have a balancing act to perform, especially around how much they allow their team to contribute to organisational success, or how much they take upon their own shoulders. How well they harness the commitment, effort, skills and effectiveness of their team and how well they are able to let go and allow their team to take up the challenge and deliver, depends on how well they are able to set healthy parameters.

One of the most difficult dilemmas for a leader can be determining when they should let go and allow employees to either float their boat, or sink.

In order to do this well, leaders need to have three skills

A reciprocal and healthy balance of giving and taking
An ability to communicate their own boundaries and have a healthy respect for the boundaries of team members.
The courage to take and manage calculated risk.

Being able to apply boundaries in working relationships is essential for good decision making, although for many reasons some find difficult to do so. A mismatch of boundaries can, and does, create disharmony, distrust and demotivation inside and outside the team.

I remember a story about a CEO who was committed to a life changing cause and was respected by peers and stakeholders. He got good results mostly and where he didn’t, had a great handle on problems. What he didn’t realise of course was 75% of his team were slowly sliding off the deck, while the remainder were standing at his back cheering him on, watching him steer the boat.

This great man had such an extended sense of responsibility, he couldn’t see that by trying to control the whole ship, he was systematically dis-empowering his team one by one. He was wary of taking risks, giving over control or allowing his team to take some of the responsibility from him. His people skills left a lot to be desired.

There are many variations on this theme and it’s not a perfect art, so few people get it completely right. There have been many times I’ve dis-empowered my kids by making decisions for them. In a work situation, when the risk seemed too great I have been known to take over and override an employee’s decision; although I tried to do it kindly, it was not always perceived that way.

Sometimes a leader has to take a calculated risk, and this can mean letting people fall and suffer the consequences of that fall, in order to learn and grow. Those situations can be a tough call for a leader.

I heard from a team who had big problems because their leader “overdid” delegation. He was so focussed on what others should or must be responsible for, he left himself out of the equation. He didn’t gain the respect of his team, as they often felt overburdened and were wary of asking for help because the signals he was giving indicated he didn’t really want to be involved, although that wasn’t the case at all.

One of the most difficult issues is respecting role boundaries. Of course roles are meant to be fluid and let’s face it, we all must cross over role boundaries in order to get the job done. But there are times when crossing over such boundaries either masks poor performance, or muddies the water so much that account-abilities are confused. Good role boundaries are essential, with a suitable degree of flexibility, to fit different situations.

When to let go and when to keep steering can seem daunting. Much depends on a leader’s inner confidence and maturity. I have rarely worked with or for a leader who gets risk, responsibility and boundaries completely right. Being aware, checking understanding and exploring where boundaries lie is essential.

No comments

7 Essential Steps To Create A Winning People Strategy

By Christina Lattimer • March 14, 2013 - 8:31 pm Leadership and Management

A people strategy is essential if a business wants to drive up performance and get the best out of their people.

Underpinning business outcomes with a people strategy can be a pretty smart move. Too often, business plans, aims and goals are set without any corresponding detail describing how people will help to deliver and achieve what the business has set out to do.

Developing a people strategy mustn’t be confused with an HR strategy. Lack of understanding about terminology can make or break the success of a strategy, particularly around your people. Too often an HR strategy is focussed on transactional and policy functions and this dilutes the emphasis about developing strategies to make sure the right people in the right roles deliver the right outcomes, in the right time.

In reality though it matters not what the strategy is called, except that it must be about people and not HR processes or transactions. Making sure everyone is on the same page in respect of terminology being used when developing strategy is absolutely crucial. A great people strategy will not only increase the odds of, but also accelerate the speed of, success.

Following these seven steps will help to maintain focus on what is needed to develop a great people strategy.

1. Horizon scans internally and externally

Horizon scanning should not be a one-off event which is carried out to inform a proposed strategy, but an on-going knowledge/news bank preserved within a pre-determined framework to make sure new factors are identified at the earliest opportunity. Organisations benefit from ensuring future scanning is a cultural norm.

There are a variety of horizon scanning models, used to pull external information together. It is worth researching to find the best fit, but STEEP (PEST) is one of the most commonly used formats.

2. Understand the business and its people

It is crucial the organisation’s business objectives, priorities and constraints are understood inside out. If the people strategy is being developed through the HR Department, then it’s essential that HR are involved in the formation and decision making of overall business strategy. This is because HR will understand the capacity, capabilities and current potential of the people and such insights can temper and shape expectations around outcomes and any timelines being worked to.

3. Establish the top five priorities

Establishing the top five people priorities is a key step, as they will contribute directly to help deliver on desired business outcomes and priorities. Required cultural changes should not be sidestepped. Quite often “the way we do things round here” can sabotage the most exacting and thought out outcome based people strategy. Being tempted to include more than five priorities can be counterproductive, and using a Pareto Principle approach is more effective. Too much detail dilutes efforts, while a vital few things will create the biggest impact.

4. Involve others and share widely to gain maximum input at all stages

If HR is developing the strategy, make sure it is not perceived as being “owned” by HR. The business must own the people strategy. The name must be carefully chosen, so it represents inclusion of everyone in the organisation. Call it, the “people plan” or the “people element of the business plan”.

Involving as many people as possible is crucial to the success right at the formative stage. Using focus groups made up of a cross-section of employees, employee representatives and external customers is an effective way to capture ideas and feedback. Take constructive suggestions on board and if you don’t act on them, explain why.

5. Benchmark across both industry specific and Non-specific companies

Identifying innovative and emerging people practices across a range of industries can help develop great ideas and create achievable standards and benchmarks. Finding out about success stories in alternative industries can invoke creative and “out of the box” thinking and can lead to fresh parameters around best practice or introduce new processes.

6. Monitor and measure progress

Setting specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and timely (SMART) criteria is essential to measure success. Put in place a credible, simple and easy-to-compile measurement system to track progress in hitting specific goals. Link any people outcomes clearly with business outcomes Monitor results using measureable milestones.

7. Produce a user friendly working document in simple language

Present the final strategy in employee-friendly language so that everyone both inside and outside of the organisation can understand it. If it doesn’t fit on two sides of A4 paper at most, it’s too long and so will be put in a drawer and forgotten about. A teenager should be able to understand it. Check it against the Flesch–Kincaid readability test which gives some ideas about how plain the English should be.

No comments

7 Principles To Get An Immediate Return On Your Learning Investment

By Christina Lattimer • February 1, 2013 - 7:28 am Miscellaneous

There are many evaluation models and cost/benefit frameworks which attempt to determine the “worth” of learning and development in the workplace. Depending on the type of learning required, some models and frameworks are easier to apply than others. Sometimes even when applied, the expected outcomes and improvements have either not materialised or they have taken far longer than expected.

Even when the learning programme is excellent, it doesn’t always deliver results

A number of years ago, I worked with an organisation who had invested a great deal of employee time and financial resource into a learning and development programme, with frustratingly little result. A professional business consultancy had evaluated before and after, calculated a ROI which was a persuasive driver to buy in the proposed programme, but 18 months later, the expected benefits had simply not accrued.

The MD was totally frustrated; as the learning programme was polished, expert and inspirational. Employees were enthused, and bought into the concepts and the benefits of working in a different way. The formalised feedback on the training event was excellent. The business consultancy had done an amazing job. So what had gone wrong?

Improving knowledge, skills and behaviours doesn’t always mean better results

In another example, lack of effective leadership skills and behaviours had been identified as a big problem for this national organisation. It was decided to re-design the leadership skills framework and to develop a programme for all senior leaders. A set of behavioural standards were developed, and a methodology to measure changes was put in place. A coaching and mentoring framework was agreed along with monthly action learning meetings.

There was a new spring in the step of leaders across the organisation. They gave positive and enthusiastic feedback for the coaching and development programme.

When the 2^nd annual employee feedback survey showed less than a 1% improvement in perceptions of employees, alongside results with marginal improvements, they were dumbfounded.

Great learning programmes don’t always result in improvements, but they should

Those examples are simply two of hundreds I have seen, when learning and development has been brought into an organisation; the learning has been evaluated and the content and application has been faultless. The organisation is absolutely clear about the improvements they want to see. But yet, still, the expected results did not materialise.

Why is this? As you know there are many factors which impel or motivate people to change the way they do things, and learning new skills, behaviours, knowledge or even raising awareness is just one part of the equation.

When your business is buying in development interventions, you want to be able to see a real return on investment, otherwise why would you use precious financial resources on it? No one can completely guarantee a return on investment, but the chances of a return can be greatly improved, and more importantly you can pinpoint exactly why the return hasn’t been realised by introducing the following principles.

When I was asked to do some work for the organisation in the first example, the MD was frustrated that the learning he had bought in had not realised the outcomes he required, even though the learning providers had delivered the learning they had promised.

Seven simple principles

My first step was to establish the following 7 principles if I were going to take on the task of getting results:

A learning and development provider will facilitate a real return on investment in partnership with the commissioning organisation.
Learning must enable a measurable improvement or change by the learner.
The improvement or change must contribute to the overall outcomes for the organisation.
Each learner must develop a “call to action, or objective” where they are accountable for achieving the measurable improvement or change.
The organisation must enforce accountability, usually through their performance management system.
The achievement collectively of “calls to action, or objectives” will result in a measured outcome for the organisation.
“If it is not possible to set individuals a call to action or objective which aligns with overall business objectives, following learning then the commissioning organisation should consider whether development is actually needed.

I agreed to deliver a short refresher programme, with a pragmatic design. I explained unless the training included an accountable call to action for each employee, it would likely be unsuccessful once more, and so secured his agreement to establish accountability for achievement within the organisation.

We agreed at the end of the event, each employee would identify a work based objective to improve, abandon or shorten a process and to quantify the savings.

Improve customer service or increase customer satisfaction, with a measurable difference
Reduce the number and type of complaints
Create a measurable increase in quality

In a 6 month period, 95% of employees met objectives, outcomes were recorded and collectively it was calculated that almost £1 million had been saved up to that point as a direct result of achievement of the outcomes or objectives.

Not only were amazing results achieved, employees felt an increased sense of ownership of the success of the initiative. They had tangible evidence of their contribution and saw a real difference.

Incidentally, these principles will also work for individuals if you are thinking of buying in your own self-development programme. For the majority of learning, unless it translates into accountable action, then it might be a “nice to have” but not necessarily an activity which will create significant change

3 Comments

The Secret Ingredient Of Brilliant Leaders And Managers

By Christina Lattimer • November 29, 2012 - 5:59 pm Leadership Development

I have only come across a handful of brilliant leaders and managers in my working career.

The ingredient these people shared was, they were intrinsically drawn to “doing the right thing”. The “right thing” for these leaders and managers wasn’t always popular. The act of choosing for them was sometimes personally agonising, but they still made those decisions.

When questioned, many leaders and managers know what “doing the right thing” is, but quite often, mysteriously, they just don’t make that decision. Thus, opportunities are lost, credibility is questioned and results are lower than expected.

Sometimes leaders and managers don’t “do the right thing” because they:

Take the least line of resistance
Are swayed and intimidated by counter opinion
Don’t have the confidence to make difficult decisions
Don’t believe or are not in touch with their intuition
Are simply not brave enough
Are blinkered to values which are inclusive, caring and fair

Let’s face it if everyone “did the right thing” we would have little need for in the way in which we have it now.

We would never unfairly dismiss or discriminate against people. We would never allow disrespectful behaviour. We would naturally want to consult with people whose very livelihood was affected by possible redundancy. We would want people to have appropriate work/life balance. Wouldn’t we?

Businesses frequently find statute and regulation to be prohibitive and frustrating. In the worst scenario, employers may see regulation as a barrier to getting what they want and employees may use regulation to beat the employer about the head when they are unjustifiably disgruntled.

I’m not advocating we shouldn’t have any regulation, or guidance or indeed laws about employing people. Safeguards need to be in place, and expectations need to be clarified. Both employers and employees need to have in place a certain amount of protection. I’m just saying if you are a brilliant leader or manager, you don’t need them in order to know what the right thing to do is, in most situations.

A brilliant leader and manager will rarely have to buy in expert employment law advice or instigate formal procedures for the sake of it. Instead, they regularly and routinely take consistent action and use guiding principles such as:

Draw up simple and helpful guidelines and policies
Have standards for everything they do which are accessible and simple to execute
Understand people have a life outside of the business, but expect people to work to the best of their ability when they are there.
Have the best interests of their employees at heart because they know a happy workforce serves their customers better
Know how to manage difference and still find a common thread to unite people
Believe the difference is beneficial to the company in a myriad of ways
Helps the business to survive and thrive knowing this is in the best interests of employees. As a result, they always know the bottom line and act on it.
Are open, honest and transparent and have nothing to hide
Treat people fairly giving them the benefit of the doubt whilst being firm about boundaries.
Use regulation or guidance positively to help shape recruitment and management expertise

When leaders and managers don’t understand how to manage difference whether it is psychological, cultural, or an equality issue, or are more concerned about speedy outcomes at the expense of the people they employ, then there is a danger unhelpful decisions will be made.

Employees who don’t respect the contractual terms and goodwill, by which the employment contract is meant to be carried out by them, can cause endless headaches for businesses, especially those struggling to survive. Employees who don’t understand businesses have to make tough decisions, to survive or thrive, can derail a business by being resistant to change. These are the people who can waste precious energy and costs for employers and brilliant leaders and managers are skilled at nipping this kind of attitude and behaviour in the bud.

Employers need to make sure they don’t complain about regulation to paper over the inadequacies of their leaders and managers. Employees need to understand that businesses expect them to be an asset, not a drain: Do the best they can and fulfill the requirements of their contract to the best of their ability.

The employment contract should be a two-way, win-win contract. If you are a leader or manager, and you want to be a brilliant one, then it’s simple “Do the right thing”.

No comments

The Many Faces of Performance Management

By Guest Post • October 17, 2012 - 1:42 am Personal Development

The Many Faces of Performance Management – By Julie Gordon

I’m really pleased to introduce a guest post from Julie Gordon. I have known and worked with Julie for a number of years. Julie was my tutor and mentor when I was taking my PAC qualification with CIPD. I was and am still grateful for her help and support during that time. Many times I wanted to give it all up (it was hard work!) and in her calm and positive way she managed to persuade me not to do so. Julie’s experience in HR is vast and with her team at cHRysos, is committed to making the learning experience for students an enjoyable and productive one. You can learn more about Julie below.

Reviewing performance and the performance management process takes on many shapes and forms in different organisations.

I had a look at what the Management Study Guide http://www.managementstudyguide.com/performance-management.htm and Armstrong and Baron say about performance management and some of the key points they make are:

It’s a strategic and integrated approach to delivering results by improving the performance and capability of teams and individuals;
It should include a focus on performance improvement, development and managing behaviour;
It’s part of an on-going communication process;
Continuous and cyclical in nature.
It establishes a platform for rewarding excellence.

That seems to make sense to me and is the kind of structure we are familiar with in the world of performance management.

A couple of points I hadn’t necessarily thought of though, are some of the activities identified as being part of the performance management system, such as:

Making sure we have a robust selection process in place – if we select the right person for the role in the first place, there is a greater chance of high level performance.
Carrying out exit interviews – for example, if we identify the cause of someone leaving as a performance issue with a manager, team or individual we can address this within the performance management process.

I think, as MSG suggest, that performance management should be a proactive process, but it often seems that this isn’t the case in organisations because they don’t see performance management as anything wider than the appraisal system.

These are worth a read:

http://www.cipd.co.uk/hr-resources/factsheets/performance-management-overview.aspx

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2927

cHRysos HR Solutions Ltd. offer professional qualifications in HR, Management and Leadership and Coaching and Mentoring as well as providing a HR and Business Consultancy Service. Find out more at www.chrysos.org.uk
[message type="custom" width="100%" start_color="#FFFCB5" end_color="#F4CBCB" border="#BBBBBB" color="#333333"]Julie Gordon heads up the team at cHRysos HR Solutions, an organisation specialising in the delivery of HR and Leadership-related training, professional qualifications, as well as HR and business consultancy services. With over 20 years’ experience in learning and development within the private and public sector, Julie’s key strengths are now in the management of the learning and development process and in work-based learning. As well as working in industry, Julie has held various academic teaching posts and has published journal papers in the field of learning and development[/message]

No comments

Managers – Is Your Performance Appraisal Regime Credible?

By Christina Lattimer • October 16, 2012 - 9:05 am Leadership and Management

Managers who operate a credible performance appraisal regime will achieve the best results

Whether your performance appraisal system is newly introduced or has been operating for some years, a common issue for many organisations is whether or not it is credible with employees, stakeholders and customers.

Gaining credibility is absolutely vital if your performance system is linked to pay and reward particularly. The following 7 steps set out how you can gain the trust and confidence of all.

1. Your system is clear about the elements of performance to be reviewed and those elements which count towards a performance rating.

Not all performance will count towards a rating. Managers might be required to evaluate a number of different aspects of performance such as giving an individual feedback on their skill set, their ability to apply knowledge, or how they do their work.

A performance rating, on the other hand, will likely be based on employee contribution usually measured against whether they have achieved pre-determined objectives or specific tasks that are linked to business objectives.

2. Feedback is grounded in facts and expressed impersonally

The review is likely to include both objective and subjective feedback. Objective feedback is about facts, data and evidenced information. Subjective feedback is likely to be relational and can be skewed by individual opinion. It is important that managers understand when giving subjective feedback they deal with behaviours, not personalities. So for example. “You are rude and it upsets the customers”, would be better expressed “What you said upset the customer and it resulted in a formal complaint”.

Some performance appraisal systems lose credibility because managers rate their employees based on subjective criteria. Some poor behaviours can be clear cut, but more subtle problems can be subjective, for example in the above situation, one customer might have simply taken something said in all innocence the wrong way.

3. Understand different personalities have different needs

Managers benefit from being aware of their own and others’ different personality types. Understanding type is easy and an essential skill in a manager’s toolkit. Simple understanding can save much conflict, resistance and misunderstanding, as people respond differently to differing styles of giving and receiving feedback depending on their individual needs.

4. Focus on conflict resolution

Unless you have a team made in heaven, inevitably, giving performance feedback has the potential to create conflict. If managers understand their own conflict resolution style they can identify those likely situations and understand the best way to prevent, identify and resolve conflicts.

5. Ensure effective quality control

A credible quality control system is essential if performance pay is linked to performance review. This might include for example:

Ensuring that HR or third party managers undertake independent reviews of findings
Introducing focus groups that can anonymously challenge results and ratings on behalf of both teams and/or individuals.

While some of these ideas may be time-consuming, they will prove worthwhile if individual or legal challenges are eliminated.

6. Sell the benefits

Sell the benefits of measuring and rewarding performance, eliminate the impression it is a “tick box” activity. Celebrate success when the system works, making it clear the objective is to help get the best out of people, give them credit for work done well, as well as boosting performance and results.

Conversely, be careful not to let the system become identified with a hire-and-fire mentality. If you have big performance issues, sort them out separately and immediately, not through the performance management system. The performance management system should be seen as a tool to improve performance rather than to exit people.

7. Provide clear guidance

Make sure that your guidance, policies and procedures are simple and transparent so that everyone can understand and sign up to them.

No comments

Managing Performance Is An Emotional Business – Isn’t It? – Emotional Intelligence

By Christina Lattimer • September 4, 2012 - 2:37 pm Leadership and Management

Great Leaders Have Emotional Intelligence:

One of the most important but underrated skills leaders and managers need to be able to manage performance well is emotional intelligence. If you are predominately a thinking leader then you may well be sceptical about emotional intelligence, but please bear with me.

Three categories of performance management

If you are like most organisations the hierarchy of performance management falls into three broad categories:

People who:

a) Underperform

b) Perform averagely/competently

c) Perform over and above requirements

A number of organisations give more focus to under-performance and over-performance. Why? Because unchecked under-performance permeates the rest of the organisation and multiplies as it impacts on every member of the team. Over-performance cries out to be recognised. Quite often organisations depend on and excel because of star performers, and with a mixture of gratitude and desire to keep performance at that level, reward systems are introduced.

The Employment Practices report by Xperthr which can be found shows for nearly 70% of people surveyed, action for poor performance was taken for less than 5% of employees. Although I don’t particularly subscribe to bell curve comparisons, some latest models advocate average rates of over-performance equate to some 16% of total workforce. If you add both together then you are talking about 21% of your employees. If you do the maths, there is a possibility that up to 79% of your employees are average or competent performers.

So yes, the figures are fairly subjective, but my guess is unless you are a top performer in your industry it’s likely that the majority of your people fall under the “average or competent performance” criteria.

As a performance manager you have distinct functions for each category of performer. And you need to performance manage all of your people, not just extreme performers. You will be more effective in achieving results if you use emotional intelligence techniques to enhance your management of each category.

Under-performance and emotional intelligence

Your aim is to either get your employee to perform to standard or to leave the organisation. Whilst being very clear about your expectations in performing to standard; in order to avoid conflict and be effective, you need to be able to display at least two emotional skills:

a) Detachment from the outcome. In order to give your employee the best chance, you need to distance yourself from pre-empting the result. If you do this, your employee will be able to self-select whether they are able to raise their game, or they will voluntarily leave as they know themselves they are in the wrong job.

b) Put aside your feelings. Quite often, poor performers cause you headaches and it’s common to assume an attitude about them. Or conversely you worry about the consequences for them and this inhibits being assertive. It is understandable, because under-performers increase stress levels, and utilise effort which could be directed elsewhere. The majority of people who under-perform are just as horrified about the situation as you. By putting aside your feelings and being impersonal and practical, you are in a position to listen and make sound win/win decisions.

Average performance and emotional intelligence

Managing is a stressful business and you have a multitude of tasks and issues to deal with; many decisions to make, planning to be done, well you don’t need me to tell you how busy it is. The problem is, the majority of your people who don’t cause you problems, and get the work done are working in their comfort zone and it’s hard to find the time to raise the bar for them. Your main task for this category is to use their talent, time and goodwill to drive up performance. You can do this in a number of ways, but setting stretching objectives designed to drive up pockets of performance across the board is the key. The EI skills needed to do this are:

a) Put aside your limiting beliefs about your employees. The biggest mistake is holding the belief that people have reached a limit of capability and capacity. Often leaders make assumptions that people can’t or won’t do better. But more often than not, if you genuinely believe in someone, and give them the right encouragement and support, they will rise to the challenge.

b) Be patient about results. We are creatures of habits. When you raise expectations of your people, then it will take them a little while to change the way they have always done things. If you are patient and encouraging and restate your belief in their ability to do better they will eventually get there and your business will benefit from all of that renewed effort.

Over-performance and emotional intelligence

I don’t know about you, but I have often nearly been on my knees with gratitude when self-starters have driven through tricky situations, or taken initiative and made my life easier, gotten great results and done a great job. Given the choice wouldn’t we all like to have these people in our midst? But while you need to hold the vibe of gratitude you need to remember your function for these people, and in this situation it is two-fold. You need to reward great performance and you need to help these great performers get where they need to be. Hopefully that will be in a career in your company, but if it isn’t you still need to help them. In order to achieve this effectively there are two attitudes you must hold and it takes some emotional maturity to achieve:

a) Letting go. Your star performers will more than likely move on. One of the most emotionally intelligent stances you can achieve is recognising when someone you manage will likely progress their career further than yours. Even trickier is realising that your star performer will move onto another business. It’s easy to fall into the trap of limiting the help you give, or the development you make available to star performers, because they may leave taking all your investment with them. But investment is never lost. They will appreciate and give you accolades for the helping hand they received and your reputation as an employer of choice will grow.

b) Understand each has their own path and guidance to follow. I remember losing a star performer and thinking they were making a big mistake. I also thought they were leaving for the wrong reasons. I would like to say I used my emotional intelligence and gave them my blessing to leave, but I didn’t. I told them I thought they were making a mistake. No much emotional intelligence there! Did they change their mind? No. They left and although a rocky road; they went on to even bigger and better things and leveraged change they might not have been able to had they stayed working for my company. Respecting others’ own choices is key to great performance management, and in the long run your company will benefit, because your employees will know you have their best interests at heart.

2 Comments

Lead Yourself First – The Impressive Impact of Relationship

By Christina Lattimer • August 30, 2012 - 12:22 pm Miscellaneous

In my view, money doesn’t make the world go around, relationships do.

We are in relationship with everyone we meet, because we are always swapping energy. Even the guy reading the paper in the adjacent seat on the train might leave an impression as you form an opinion about or sense his energy. Ok, it’s not much of a relationship, but it is important to know we can actually impact everyone we meet at some level.

If we have even a slight impact with a complete stranger think about the impact we have on our nearest and dearest, our work colleagues, teams or customers. Human relationships whether they are romantic, work-based, friendship or family based are successful or not because of a number of common factors.

Forging successful relationships is essential for a successful life. Whether at home or at work, creating successful relationships is being able to identify what needs to be in place, and being able to understand ways your relationships work by heightening your understanding of the relationship. The following are components and factors which can be applied to our relationships and the reason why we form them.

Purpose

If you are friends with Ted because you like going to the pub every Friday, and he is in there every time you go for a pint, then that’s the relationship you have. If Ted stops going to the pub on a Friday, then it’s unlikely you will continue with your relationship. If you went and knocked on Ted’s door, he would likely be gobsmacked. Where relationships can fall down, is when one person in the relationship wants to take it further than the purpose of the relationship. Understanding and being honest about the purpose of any relationship can prevent many misunderstandings and conflicts.

Reciprocity

A relationship can only be successful if both people want to be in it. If you’ve ever been friends with someone and you’re making all the calls or trying to make arrangements to meet, then you are probably more invested in the relationship than the other person. If a customer simply isn’t interested in your product, or your employee is looking for another job, then you don’t have a reciprocal relationship.

Energy

Sometimes we have the best relationships with people who have contrasting energy. Someone who is reserved and quiet may enjoy being in relationship with another who is exuberant and loud. Alternatively such a relationship might be a complete recipe for disaster. I remember being on an interview panel with a candidate who was enthusiastic and proactive. While I admired her energy, the other panel member felt drained by it. If matching energy is experienced, then people may feel extremely comfortable or very bored.

Values

Shared values usually create relationship success. If you are struggling in a relationship, examining each other’s values is a good place to start. If for example you value expensive things and a luxurious lifestyle and someone else values basic and simplistic living, then you will either come to terms with the differences or the relationship will not exist for any length of time. Likewise a caring, sharing colleague might form a close working relationship with a tough hard-headed business type, but more than likely won’t.

Expectations

Expectations can be centred on your own and/or other’s needs and wants. If you expect your employees to contribute a decent day’s work for a fair wage and that doesn’t happen, then the chances are you have relationship problems. Likewise with personal relationships, problems may well occur if you feel let down or expect something different than that which is on offer

Communication

How we communicate can determine the success or not of a relationship. Communication differences can ruin a relationship if there is a lack of understanding about different communication styles. For example conflicts can arise between people who communicate kinaesthetically and those who are auditory. I remember a long drawn out conflict between a manager and one of his team because the language he used was logical and factual and didn’t fit with her needs which were words of caring, feeling and empathy.

Attitude

Your beliefs, thoughts and conclusions can determine your attitude about people in your personal and work life. If you work for an employer and you believe you don’t count, then your belief is going to colour the relationship with your manager or team. Your attitude will seep out whenever you speak to others about work. Likewise, if someone has let you down badly in your personal life, if you are unable to forgive them, then your relationship will be affected forever by your attitude to them.

Commitment

Relationships require commitment, even if it’s to give someone your full attention for just a day. If you decide to work for someone and only plan to stay for a few months and they expect you to stay for the long haul, then your commitment to each other is mismatched and will affect your relationship. Most of us enter into marriage as a lifelong commitment. However, when that commitment wanes, the relationship could be in big trouble without a re-examination and re-connection of why you committed in the first place.

Boundaries

Boundaries exist physically, emotionally and mentally. Part of building good relationships is about identifying and respecting your own and other people’s boundaries. Boundaries signify how much you are able to or want to allow someone into your life, or how much of yourself you want to give. Pre-nuptial agreements set clear boundaries. I want to spend my life with you, but if anything goes wrong, I’m not prepared to give you my money. At work, contracts of employment set out the boundaries of the relationship. Trouble can occur when you’ve signed up for 40 hours a week, and the company with a long hours culture actually expects a lot more.

Timeliness

Relationships happen at the right time. If the timing is wrong, then it’s unlikely the relationship will satisfy any or some of the factors listed above. If you meet the man of your dreams and you need to go to college halfway around the world, then the timing may be wrong to get together at that point. Likewise, if your customer doesn’t want to buy quite at that point, or your employees don’t buy into your vision, it may well be that the time is just not quite right. Unless of course there is a permanent mis-match of any of the above and there will never be a right time.

Tag Archives: performance management

A New Paradigm of Leadership and Management Development – redirected

To give clarity to my paradigm on leadership and management, I set out below my leadership development model which gives on overview of my own philosophy.

How to Make Managing Poor Performance Easy

Managing poor performance can be one of the most stressful parts of managing a team.

3 Leadership Skills To Inspire Team Success

3 Leadership skills

7 Essential Steps To Create A Winning People Strategy

A people strategy is essential if a business wants to drive up performance and get the best out of their people.

7 Principles To Get An Immediate Return On Your Learning Investment

The Secret Ingredient Of Brilliant Leaders And Managers

I have only come across a handful of brilliant leaders and managers in my working career.

The Many Faces of Performance Management

The Many Faces of Performance Management – By Julie Gordon

Managers – Is Your Performance Appraisal Regime Credible?

Managers who operate a credible performance appraisal regime will achieve the best results

Managing Performance Is An Emotional Business – Isn’t It? – Emotional Intelligence

Great Leaders Have Emotional Intelligence:

Lead Yourself First – The Impressive Impact of Relationship

In my view, money doesn’t make the world go around, relationships do.

Inspirational New Leadership

Join Us On Our Amazing Journey!

AS FEATURED ON

Follow me on Twitter

Find Specific Articles