Your overall happiness, satisfaction, and productivity should improve, as you get more familiar—and presumably comfortable—with your organization and colleagues, right?
Wrong. A study of over 1.2 million employees found that most were quite enthusiastic when they joined their new company, but morale sharply declined within six months and continued to downwardly spiral for years thereafter.
If you want change to get traction in your organization—at any level, you can’t afford to let your new or retained team members be part of this statistical norm. This is where performance management plays a key role.
Performance management is the primary tool for strategy deployment. It’s a strong force on an organization’s culture. It reinforces the organization’s values. It tells people at a detailed and personal level what matters. It galvanizes them to initial action and commits them to certain ongoing behaviors. Most importantly, it reveals how serious management is about achieving its business objectives—communicating to all employees and stakeholders that change and progress are required.
Your ability to plan and manage performance is absolutely critical for your organization’s success.
At the beginning of the performance cycle, you should reach a clear understanding with each of your team members of the desired outcomes and developmental objectives that should be accomplished and how these targeted contributions are connected to and aligned with the organization’s goals. Here are a few helpful guidelines:
Effective managers know that an overwhelming majority of people—almost 9 out of 10, want to know how their work contributes to the bottom line.
To the extent possible, have your team members participate in their respective objective setting, explaining how their work product drives and supports team work, as well as how it contributes to the greater good.
Be clear in discussing and outlining expectations around things such as your tolerance for surprises, appropriate risk-taking, office politics, expected communications intervals, and the need to be among the “first to know” regarding key updates.
Variety is the spice of life. You should attempt to provide latitude that includes a variety of tasks, autonomy, an appropriate balance between building relationships with colleagues and working independently, and continuous learning. Keep job descriptions flexible and encourage cross-function cooperation and support.
Provide ownership. In most Walgreens stores, each employee “owns” one aisle and is responsible for customer service, orderly product presentation and tagging, and housekeeping. If it works at Walgreens (and other places), why can’t it work in your workplace?
It has been said, “What gets measured, gets done.” However, be careful what you ask for. Too many or the “wrong” metrics may take you off course.
Some rules of thumb include making sure that the data used to measure progress is objective, readily accessible, reliable, and has clarity of purpose. Be sure that it’s well defined and calculation methods are understood, particularly when cross-functional dependencies exist.
Be SMART. When identifying or adjusting individual performance objectives, be sure they’re
Specific
Objectives must focus on specific results rather than on general or vague outcomes.
Measurable
If an objective cannot be measured (quality, quantity, etc.), it cannot be effectively managed or achieved.
Achievable
The best objectives should be challenging and require some stretch, yet they should be achievable.
Relevant
Objectives must be aligned with and support the organizational strategy and functional tactics.
Time bound
There must be a predefined timeline associated with all objectives.
Integrate values into your performance management system.
Identify learning opportunities and developmental goals.
Unfortunately, many managers take individual development for granted—with a mindset that it will come naturally from on-the-job training or work experience. Worse yet, many managers do little to aid employees in their search for job enlargement or enrichment, as they view this responsibility to fall solely upon the shoulders of the employee.
While employees should assume responsibility for their career management, managers should foster an environment that encourages and allows for individual growth development as mutual benefits may be so derived. And, while economics may not allow for across-the-board formal investment through ongoing training and education, special, if not exceptional, care and nurture should be provided to those who will ultimately bear the responsibility for identifying and executing the future charter of the organization.
See Appendix G, “Types of Organizational Learning,” on the book’s web site for some developmental areas that you may draw goals from.