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PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN SIX STEPS
Sometimes people do not
achieve the results expected. This can
be annoying. In many organisations the
standard technique for handling this
situation is known colloquially as “a
bollocking”. The manager seeks to remedy
the problem by making the person feel
guilty, or just wants to vent their
feelings of anger and frustration.
Beware of this approach.
Most people who have screwed up feel
guilty enough already. A further dose of
bad feelings is only going to generate
resentment. Resentful staff can be very
inventive.
There are, in fact, only
three reasons why a person does not
achieve the expected results:
1. They don’t know how
to.
2. They don’t
want to.
3. They want
to, and know how to, but something
prevents them.
The purpose of this
interaction is to identify which of
these reasons applies and to rectify the
problem.
Bear in mind, before you
set out on this route, that one
potential outcome of the
performance-management (or
behaviour-management, see next section)
process is a disciplinary procedure or
even dismissal. You have to decide
before you start whether the problem is
one that you can live with, or one that
you must do something about.
However, dismissals are
quite rare, and the intention is to
resolve the problem long before it gets
close to discipline. People vary as to
how far they need to be taken before
they recognise and resolve their
problems.
Treat this as an
opportunity for problem-solving, not for
allocating blame. Often, this type of
discussion is your best method of
finding out how people work, how they
interact with each other, and what
motivates or de-motivates them.
1. Describe specifically
the problem (documented evidence, not
feelings)
2. Probe for causes. Note
answers. Summarise to check completeness
and understanding.
3. Ask the person for
help to solve the problem.
4. Ask for and note
possible solutions. Evaluate
suggestions.
5. Decide and note
specific actions. Set timings.
6. Set date and time for
next meeting.
1. Describe specifically
the problem (documented evidence, not
feelings)
At the beginning you know
that something has gone wrong, but not
necessarily the reason. Simply stating
what the problem is, gives the person
the message that this is a
problem-solving session, not a blame
session, and will make them more
positive in suggesting remedies.
Deal only with the
problem, not the person. Do not belittle
the person. Do not assume that poor
performance is due to incompetence or
laziness.
It is important to be
specific about the detail of the
problem.
General statements of
dissatisfaction will only prompt the
other person to start asking questions.
They then have control of the
interaction.
Compare:
“I’m not happy about the
way you are doing these reports.”
“Why? What’s wrong with
them?
“I am concerned that your
last two reports have not included
details on the current spend for the
project.”
2. Probe for causes. Note
answers. Summarise to check completeness
and understanding.
It is important at this
stage simply to generate a full list of
causes; not to start analysing them, or
worse, disputing them.
However, if you think
that there is a need for more detail,
use further probing questions to elicit
this.
Phrases like these are
useful, and set the right tone:
“How do you mean...?”
“What impact does that
have...?”
“How many times did you
try...?”
"What do you think is the
reason this is happening?"
Do bear in mind that
while most people are reluctant to tell
their manager an outright lie, many
people distort the truth in some way.
Don’t worry. The strange
thing about this process is that it
still works even when the person is not
giving the right information.
If they omit telling you
the real reason for what is happening,
it is because they know the real reason
and don’t want to tell you because they
think they can work it out without your
involvement.
The fact that you are
writing down their answers will tend to
keep this to a minimum (it is difficult
to keep a coherent fiction running when
somebody is taking notes and asking
probing questions).
However, the point of
this exercise is not to prove them a
liar, it is to establish their
accountability for resolving the
performance problem.
(Very occasionally you
may encounter a bizarre situation in
which you know that the other person has
identified a spurious cause of the
problem, and they know that you know.
Just keep going with the process. Don’t
worry about the truth. They will either
sort it out privately, or they will come
clean at a later stage.)
When you believe that
this step has brought out all the
information you need, simply check with
the other person before you go to step
3.
“So, am I right in saying
that you’ve had problems getting the
figures in time from Ralph, even though
you have sent him an email two days in
advance.
3. Ask the person for
help to solve the problem.
You may know how to solve
the problem; or think you do. The
quickest way forward would be to simply
tell the person what to do.
The consequences of doing
that are:
1. The person
loses confidence in their own ability.
2. They don’t
think it’s the right solution, so they
will make sure it fails.
3. You increase their
tendency to look to you as a
problem-solver, thus increasing your
workload.
The point of this
exercise is to increase self-confidence
and empowerment, so that the person
resolves the problem themselves.
So a phrase such as:
"I need your help to
solve this problem,” boosts their
self-esteem and maximises their
likelihood of coming up with some good
suggestions, some of which you may not
have thought of.
4. Ask for and note
possible solutions. Evaluate
suggestions.
Through your earlier use
of probing questions you will know what
the person has tried so far. You can
steer this a little:
“So, if Ralph is not
picking up his emails on time, can you
think of any other way of getting the
data you need?”
With prompting, the
person is likely to come up with a range
of possible solutions
Leave the evaluating
until all possible solutions have come
out.
If the employee can not
suggest anything, use phrases like "Have
you considered...?"
Write down all the
suggested solutions as they come. Don’t
start discussing them until you have
elicited a reasonable set of options.
Writing them down gives you a chance to
think and evaluate.
Some of the solutions
suggested may involve passing tasks back
to you. Gently pass them back unless
they genuinely are beyond the ability of
the person.
Use self-esteem to help
this along:
“I think you’re right
that it needs a face to face meeting
with Ralph to clarify what you need. I
want you to organise that.”
5. Decide and note
specific actions. Set timings.
This is where you set the
parameters for performance and gain the
person’s commitment.
"So you need to phone
Ralph tomorrow to find out his schedule.
Will you do that?”
Seek specific commitment
from the employee.
Do not accept "I will
try", because this really means "I'm
warning you now that I will probably
fail"
6. Set date and time for
next meeting.
"Thanks for your help.
I'd like us to meet again at 9.00 on
Friday, to see how you are getting on".
This set of steps need
not take very long, and is infinitely
more effective at identifying and
resolving problems than the
bullying/blaming approach, which only
demoralises staff.
Exercise:
On the last two occasions
when one of your staff has undertaken a
task for you they gave an estimated
completion time. Both times the person
took twice as long to complete the task
as they said they would need.
You now have a task to
delegate which must have a guaranteed
deadline, yet to be determined.
Using this set of steps,
write out the questions and phrases you
would use to find out what is causing
the performance problem and how you
would get the person to resolve it.
Identify areas where you could use the
general people-management skills to help
the process along.
Alternatively/additionally, think back
to any performance related interaction
you have had with your manager. How
closely did it resemble this format? How
did you feel? |
