Step 5
of
Managing Performance

Evaluate Performance

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
John Wooden

As you read the steps in this process, I know you recognize that it’s not a rigid, lockstep progression – you’ve always got to deal with the unexpected with your team members – they have personal and professional emergencies that must be handled – those may through you off your stride!

But what everyone is looking at is whether you are fair, unbiased, willing to balance personal and business demands. It all comes down to your process and recognition that you practice in a consistent, but fair manner.

It not’s about treating everyone the same – we’re none of us exactly the same anyway are we? It’s about being fair…and why you did such a thorough job of setting expectations – those give you the basis for making decisions and judgments about each team member as an individual.

Evaluation – once a year? Oh no. You’re making evals all year long and they may or may not come down to a performance appraisal, they may be quarterly or monthly summaries you provide; they may be on-the-fly evals, but they’re all based on those fair judgments you’ve be making as you observe preface, right?

Think about these recommendations:

Performance should be evaluated against the established expectations.

Guidelines for fairly evaluating include:

• Provide honest, objective evaluation of team member performance as measured against expectations.
• Substantiate evaluation with specific examples of behaviors and results - positive and negative.
• Separate the delivery of praise and criticism, supporting each with descriptive statements, not impressions or hearsay.
• Include no surprise information. Positive or negative news should be discussed with the team member prior to putting it in an evaluative format.
  
  Now take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re
  

Satisfied with your own performance or
Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I compare individual results against mutually agreed-upon established expectations.
• I do not compare one individual against another - I hold each accountable to his / her own established expectations.
• I do not allow one overwhelming event - positive or negative -- to influence my evaluation.
• I spring no surprises during an evaluation. The good or bad news has previously been discussed with the employee.
• I cite specific examples and observations in my evaluations.
• I am honest in my evaluations.
• I comment on the positives as well as the negatives.
• I do not allow my own moods, stylistic differences and personal feelings to impact my ability to evaluate fairly
  
  

In your own survey above, items checked as Not Satisfied in this step could lead to many problems organizationally: without the foundation of setting expectations, observation of the work and the behavior, providing timely feedback and effectively coaching people, the evaluation step is generally ineffective.

Most studies conducted on people who have quit their jobs reveal a fairly common thread. People generally do not leave their jobs because of pay; they leave their jobs because of how they are treated and whether they feel valued. They leave their boss!

Think about the environment created within your organization by the existing performance management practices. Are people treated well and do they feel valued? Is your process fair and consistent for all?

If I asked your team members, would THEY say you were fair and consistent? That’s the ultimate test.

Remember, this process doesn’t mean treating everyone the SAME, but having a simple set of behaiors that allow you to provide the guidance and support for each team member according to the expectations you two have negotiated.

That fairness also allows you to deal with totally unexpected emergencies that occur for everyone – you avoid the charges of favoritism and people know they can depend on you to balance the business demands with the personal demands each of us must face.

Coaching Performance - How Are You Doing?

Step 4
of
Managing Performance

Coach Performance

The man who believes he can do anything is probably right,
and so is the man who believes he can't.

Coach the People You Care About - a free download (check the box for Two Free EBooks)


Many of us never expected to be teachers when we took over as a team leader, but that’s just what we became!

Our team members look to us for guidance, answers and solutions – but the smartest teachers know that the learning comes from fostering self-discovery. That means NOT TELLING everything we need people to learn, but having a conversation that includes questions and developing solutions – it’s the most effective way to coach in the work environment.

As a coach you’re really holding up a mirror to people to help them see that many answers to their issues reside within themselves. Effective coaching techniques minimize the telling of how something should be done and maximize the questioning -- helping someone see that he / she can do something.

Asking open-ended, thought provoking questions to stimulate awareness moves the "coachee" from receiving data and information from the coach to development of knowledge, which escalates to understanding and finally becomes wisdom about a situation or problem.

What one discovers through an effective questioning process leaves a greater impression and is longer-lasting than what the coach "tells" from his/her own base of knowledge.

So many great resources are available on coaching – it’s one of the critical competencies any team leader can master – I’ll offer several resources below for you to access.


Now take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.

• I coach others in the development of their skills.


• I take advantage of “coaching moments”.


• I require learning and development.


• I know when to supervise and coach people and when to leave them on their own.


• I stimulate others to make changes and improvements.


• I provide time for people development needs.


• I provide challenging assignments to facilitate individual development.


• I review developmental plans regularly.


• I listen effectively - I really hear what is said.
  
  

Coaching is a critical skill for managers to build effective and motivated employees. If you have questions identified as Not Satisfied, there might be one or a combination of skills that could be improved. The technique that managers use in coaching can be effective or ineffective in influencing performance improvement.

Many managers tell the employee what to do rather than to engage the employee in problem solving to gain their ownership and commitment to agree upon solutions for changed behavior or improved performance – find a better way:

Here are resources that can improve your ability to Coach Performance

Developing and Coaching Others (online or classroom course)

Coaching - An Online Course

Coaching Job Skills (online or classroom course)

Personal Listening Profile - When the coach really hears what people are saying in response to those questions, the coach can stimulate learning and reaching greater depths of understanding. Our most-used, least-taught communication skill - listening - is an attribute people genuinely appreciate. Improve your own listening skills - really hearing what people are saying - by recognizing how you hear. Assess your own approach to listening with the Personal Listening Profile.

Time Mastery Profile - Help people identify and understand their time-management strengths and growth areas.
• Understand the roots of undesirable habits
• Recognize the most important liabilities in work habits
• Understand how your time is currently spent and misspent
• Develop a new perspective for organizing thoughts about time management

Coaching may highlight interpersonal differences within the organization. Those differences and difficulties may stem from deeper issues than a mere conflict in personality style. The diverse workforce requires that every employee be a contributor to a productive work environment - learn how to achieve that effect...

We recommend the:

Everything DiSC Management Profile - to maximize your effectiveness with team members

Everything DiSC Management - focuses on five vital areas

1. Your DiSC Management Style


2. Directing and Delegating


3. Motivation


4. Developing Others


5. Working with Your Manager
   
   Participants learn how to read the styles of the people they manage. The result is managers who adapt their styles to manage with better results - they become productive coaches.

Remember...it's about the effectiveness of relationships you create.

Observe Performance - Do You Do This?

Step 2 of Managing Performance:
Observe Performance

Remember, you’re a team leader and your mantra really needs to become
Good results without a consistent process may just be good luck!

You’re working to develop a consistent and fundamental process for managing performance can yield...
• Improved business results
• Higher morale and satisfied employees
• Motivated employees
• Increased productivity
• Developing, growing employees
• More effective leaders

Everyday life is not as rigid as this process, but through the course of your management of team members, you want to be sure these six steps are practiced.

So, having Established Expectations, you’re ready to see what’s going on in the workplace. You may be able to physically observe, you may have to pick up on what you hear virtually, in meetings, in client visits and with other team members. But you are mentally observing all the time whether you know it or not – now you just need to become conscious of it and put your observations to work.


Be in the now, be present.
James Autry

Be aware of what is going on - observe the actions, activities, interactions and results of your employees - come out of the office and see for yourself. The best way to provide feedback is to give information based on factual observation.

Begin to assist employees in understanding their own performance by holding up a mirror they can look into -- a mirror that leads them to self-discovery and knowledge about themselves.

Take a look at your own practices based on the statements below – determine whether you’re

• Satisfied with your own performance or
• Not Satisfied with the effort you’re making here

Also decide the Importance of each practice to your success and to your team members’ success.


1. I look for opportunities to observe people so I can have an informed outlook on performance.
2. I ask questions and listen actively.
3. I test assumptions I may have developed.
4. I make note of observations soon after the fact to keep the details fresh in my mind.
5. I note direct information (observations) and indirect information (reports, work completed, feedback from others, meeting behaviors).
6. I make note of observations relating to job knowledge and job skills including those that pertain to interpersonal effectiveness


Resources that can help after you Observe Performance

Everything DiSC Workplace Profile
The Everything DiSC Workplace Profile makes us aware of different styles of behavior in the workplace. From DiSC we learn how people tend to behave most naturally, what their strongest characteristics tend to be, what their "weakness" in behavior might be, how they are best motivated, what characteristics add value to the workplace, how they complement a team environment and more. Understanding basic style differences can make our observations more comprehensive, can offer us, as managers, the language for discussing our observations with employees

ProStar Coach – your virtual gym

Resolving Conflict (online or classroom course)

Communicating Up (online or classroom course)

Managing Complaints (online or classroom course)

Improving Work Habits (online or classroom course)

We all commonly make errors while we're observing team members - you'll be surprised at the ease with which our judgments can be clouded! Then we base our feedback and evaluations on these error-based judgments. Check here for the list of common assessment errors.

Now it's time to give some feedback - if you've done a good job being aware of what's happening with team members, you'll be equipped to give helpful feedback. That's the next step.