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THIS WEEK
Taking responsibility for Performance Management
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
Taking responsibility for Performance Management |
Many of you know my background, but for those who may not, for 20 years I was a Human Resource Manager in a range of different public and private sector companies.
One my niche areas of expertise was performance management. In that time I assisted create and then train all Queensland Public Service employees in the then new Performance Management standards as part of a central agency. I then implemented and improved performance management systems in a number of agencies as well as private sector workplaces.
How I would do that was work with each company to create the system that was right for them and their culture – train managers and their team members on performance reviews, and then sit with each manager as their personal coach during their first round of reviews. That means I have been part of literally many hundreds of reviews over the years and have trained a few thousand people.
Why am I telling you this? Well you could say I have pretty much seen it all when it comes to managing performance for employees. I have seen the full range of managers – from hands on in the trenches managers to ones I swear tried to manage by telepathy as they were so remote.
I have seen managers who saw performance management as something that someone else does on their behalf, some who believe all performance is purely a result of logic and facts and others who were so enmeshed in their teams it is hard to work out where one starts and the other stops.
The biggest thing I have seen is that no manager automatically jumps up and down the first time they are to do their first performance review and says "Hurray – it's performance management time, let's get into it".
Generally the first thing that happens is Managers nod politely through the training, walk knowingly through the forms and then ... not much happens.
When gently asked why, I tended to get the following:
"Yeah, I've been meaning to do it, but I am just not sure how to do step 7 exactly". When talked through step 7, then all of a sudden it is step 4 and then step 3 that's the problem area they need clarified.
Or, "Look I am just so busy, you know how it is. I will get to it when I get a bit of a break in the deadlines". Which is never.
Or, "I give my team feedback all the time. They know exactly where they stand". Yet when you ask the team you get responses from "in his dreams" through to "yes, he does give regular comments, but I would really like to have a one on one longer chat with him about how I can grow".
Or, "I'm just waiting on my boss to do mine. When that happens then I will do my team's". Which turns into – look the boss has taken too long, so we had better wait for the new strategic plan to come out first (and so on).
To be blunt – these are all just excuses, and they are not the real reasons for avoiding reviews.
If I kept on digging and digging and digging, what I would eventually come to is the real reason people don't do performance management – fear. People procrastinate about what they are most afraid of. That is the real reason – they were afraid!
So what are some of the real fears about performance management?
 That someone may cry or get angry; that someone may disagree and take a case against the manager; that the manager won't do it "right" somehow; that they give a great review and their favourite employee decides to go for a promotion somewhere else; or that the manager works hard to give a balanced review and nothing changes in terms of behaviour.
There is also the fear of receiving feedback. This is a BIG one – many managers hate to receive feedback themselves, so don't want to give feedback. The extent of their personal fear of receiving feedback is at the extent same level they will block doing reviews for others.
What I found was once the manager acknowledged their personal fear, only then were they really ready to do performance reviews. It was always like a work out in the gym – they may not have looked forward to it, but they feel great at the end of it.
So what has this to do with responsibility? Every employee deserves your time, where you sit with them and take them through what they do and don't do well, and how to develop the skills that may be a bit lacking.
To do this, you need to take responsibility as a manager for actually taking the time to manage the individual's performance. You need to regularly stop, remove the distractions of the phone and computer and give your employee your undivided attention.
Undivided attention and listening is one of the deepest and most profound things you can share with someone. By giving someone that gift, you are saying they are a worthwhile human being even if they have the odd piece of challenging behaviour. You validate them as a person, and you build trust with them as a result.
In order to allow you to do this, you need to take responsibility for your own fears about reviews and communication, name them and deal with them.
Performance management is a very powerful tool to build trust, productivity and deepen relationships in a workplace. You just need to take responsibility and step up to the plate.
| Copywriting Tip of the Week - Performance Managing your Campaigns |
As this week we are looking at performance management it is timely to look at how you can apply the concepts of performance management to your copywriting and business writing.
Testing and measuring is not limited to people - you easily apply the same principles to testing and measuring your words, to see what adjustments can be made to improve the response.
At the simplest level you want to track how many people visit the page compared to how many people take the action that you want (enter details, buy the product or whatever).
You can test all parts of your campaign from the effect of different headlines, to different offers, different guarantees and so on. Ideally you can use some software to automate this testing for you, but you can do it manually if you like - just by making the changes and tracking your Google Analytic results.
Does it make a difference? Simply adding the letter "s" to a word in a headline has in some cases resulted in an increase by 20% in terms of the page campaign. Changing the offer can double your sales.
Testing and measuring is a core part of writing - which is why our clients often are given a selection of headlines to test on their web copy.
 Over the past 12 months many people have loved our Employee Perfomance Reviews: Tips, Templates and Tactics book, but we have been getting feedback that people would like a bit more help and training with implementing it.
So - I locked myself away and recorded 8 training sessions on a whole range of performance management issues, including:
- Introduction to performance management
- Performance management myths
- Legal context
- Systems and processes - what the most common ones are and how to use them
- Preparation for reviews
- Common management mistakes
- Feedback, coaching & communication
- Dealing with sensitive issues
- Coping with tears & anger
- Probation reviews
- Poor performance
- and lots more tips and ideas
These are pretty cool if I say so myself ... and they now come free with the Employee Performance Reviews: Tips, Templates & Tactics book which is still just $24.97 (AUD) + GST.
PLUS, many people wanted a pile of other free performance review templates and forms. So we found them for them as well.
These are available for FREE plus the first recorded training session just by going to Free Performance Review Templates and entering your details.
So race on over to Free Performance Review Templates, enter your details and you will be sent a link to download your free forms as well as the first training session free.
Please pass on this great free offer to your friends and colleagues - we think it is pretty special!
This is a great video showing the latest developments in how humans can interact with the net from TEDTalks. It certainly stretches the mind to think where we will be in a few years from now.
Just as an aside, this week our blog was named number 7 in the Top 50 Australian writing blogs. Pretty Cool!
Taking Responsibility For Managing Your Online Brand
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog also included posts about April Fools Day - Reality is much funnier and Testing & Measuring Website campaigns.
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended to provide you with general guidelines for your business. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
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