MANAGING PERFORMANCE

Generating Success

Many issues are involved with generating good results, such as how well managers and their people are focused on doing the right things to realise the organization’s purpose and achieve its strategic goals.

The complexities of designing a practical approach to managing successful performance outcomes will be well known to you: a process for ensuring everyone has SMART personal objectives and knows what competencies to apply to achieve success. Perhaps most important of all is managers having the confidence and skills to manage performance and give feedback to their people about good and poor performance.

A powerful positive differentiator between organizations is how they develop managers’ skills to manage performance. The confidence to address poor performance effectively and praise and reinforce good performance is an important talent.

Other benefits of consistent and effective performance management are greater respect and trust for managers. These are two of the main drivers of engagement; leading to people ‘going the extra mile’ for the business. On the other hand, we know that poor performance, when not confronted, is one of the most de-motivating things for good performers. Also, it devalues respect for managers, potentially causing an ineffective working culture.

Below we share our expertise and experience about how to establish a consistent approach to practicing effective performance management.

Strategic Business Alignment

Successful managers lead the management of performance as a critical organizational activity. In practice, this means managers organizing work with a clear focus on realising the organization’s strategic purpose and achieving its goals.

Operationally, it also means directing capability to deliver results against business performance measures and demonstrating the values and principles that your organization wants to be known for.

Management Practice

You will want managers at all levels to take a lead in managing the performance of their people. In particular, managers need to have clear accountabilities for managing performance and fulfil effectively the key management activities in the performance management process.

Competency Frameworks

You will know that measures and accountabilities are more likely to be achieved and fulfilled if the right knowledge, skills, behaviours and attitudes are applied to the tasks in hand.

To build effectiveness among your people and develop individual talent, we can help you develop leadership, managerial and specific job-family competency frameworks.

Performance Management Process

Everyone values honesty and fairness in their manager, and you will want a consistent approach from managers in the way that they handle success and non-achievement among their people. Our experience is that a straightforward process, which links management activities with appropriate manager learning and development will provide for effectiveness in managing for results.

The management activities are:

• Agreeing what is expected and setting challenging but realistic objectives
• Agreeing how relevant competencies will be applied to ensure that objectives will be achieved
• Monitoring performance, providing feedback so people can direct their efforts more effectively and address mediocre/ poor performance
• Using performance information for reviewing achievements, leading/coaching high performance and improving ordinary performance
• Enable the development of people’s potential

Developed thoroughly, a performance management process will enable the implementation of business strategy, the achievement of the annual business plan and budget objectives and the building of organizational capability for future success.

Reward Management

You will want to use accurate reward criteria to make sure that your people are rewarded for gaining the right results. Inadequately designed incentives can focus work effort in the wrong direction and undermine the achievement of critical priorities.

Let us help you develop reward factors that will encourage your people to fulfil their accountabilities and achieve their business objectives.

By adding a reward element into the overall performance management process you gain additional impact through demonstrating the value you place on clarity of objectives, managers actively supporting good performance, giving performance feedback and finally, rewarding the achievement of the right results.

Getting Started

We recognise that you will have a process for managing performance and want to improve its effectiveness. To give you a sound basis from which to develop your approach to managing performance, we can help you run a Performance Management Review. This will examine the:

• Current performance management process
• Your managers’ practice in managing performance

The review will enable you to focus on the priorities for attention so as to improve effectiveness and deliver the best returns on investment.

Managing Performance Articles

Developing a Performance Culture, by Richard Nelson and Kate Harrad

Monday 1st February 2010 / 897 views

Focusing on Performance by Richard Nelson

Wednesday 3rd June 2009 / 650 views

Growing Competence, by Richard Nelson

Friday 15th May 2009 / 587 views

More Articles...

You Will Gain

• Managers with clear accountabilities for managing performance
• Managers leading confidently and effectively
• Managers and their people doing the right things to achieve results
• Differentiation founded on performance
• Engaged people ‘going the extra mile’