What Others Are Saying

I coordinate a youth leadership group in Simpson County, MS. This group is compiled of 30 Juniors from our local schools. This group is required to meet many qualifications to be a part of this program. We hire Rob to spend a weekend with our kids to kick off each year of a new program. The results have been amazing. Rob is very talented and he makes the weekend very productive. He shows them confidence, teamwork, and most importantly, he shows them how to be good people. From all of us invoved in this program, Thank you Rob!

Chris Dunn, Simpson County Youth Leadership

Performance FeedBack, part I

Employee Accountability - There's a Lot YOU Can Do

I own my behavior and my results. While I might work in less-than-optimal circumstances, with less-than-perfect people, the "buck" for my performance stops with me. This is what I will do to raise performance and meet or exceed expectations ...

How many of us would like to hear this from our employees? How many believe this to be impossible, akin to the flying pig? This sentiment is the winning atttitude. Not only is it possible, it is shared, in one version or another, by every successful performer, in every field of endeavor. It recognizes that ultimately, only the individual can determine his or her performance. While systems can (and should) be arranged that are more supportive of success, these systems must support an employee who has determined that he or she will accept responsibility for his or her own actions and the results that flow from those actions.

The good news: most people WANT to do a good job. Have you, or has anyone you've known, EVER awakened with the thought "Today is the day that I will fail"?

Thanks. How does that help me with my "problem performer?"

Understanding a) that each individual determines his or her own results, and b) that people want to do good work simplifies your task. Your job is to help your "problem performer" realize both of these truths. And it's all done through FeedBack.

FeedBack: A Crucial Part of the Performance System

While many leaders intuitively know that the giving and receiving of honest FeedBack is necessary to improve performance, many frequently avoid confronting poor performance. Performance discussions are either not held in a timely fashion, are sidetracked, or become confrontational. What was intended to be a positive conversation focused on performance improvement frequently becomes an unproductive energy drain. From that point forward, the supervisor and the employee tend to avoid regular, meaningful performance conversations, relegating them to the once a year, so called "Performance Review."

How do you avoid this scenario and have your employee take accountability for his or her behavior? First, realize that:

• Feedback is NOT a verbal “whack up ‘side the head.” Contrary to how it is frequently approached, FeedBack should most frequently be used to recognize and thus sustain good performance. While the “hard facts” should not be avoided, they must be placed in perspective. Unless you are dealing with a policy issue such as safety, harassment or attendance, discipline (negative consequences for poor performance), should it come to that, should be the last of your performance conversations.
• FeedBack does NOT equal the once a year performance review. A supervisor cannot adequately cover an employee’s entire performance for the year in a single conversation. Important incidents and details are lost, consciously avoided or forgotten. (Frankly, if a once-a-year performance review is all you do, you may be much better off without it, from a pure performance standpoint.)
• Performance improvement FeedBack involves measurement. There must be a clear gap between your established expectations and the employee’s Accomplishments. The behavior which your FeedBack addresses must be specific, observable, measurable and results oriented. This implies that you have clearly established and communicated your expectations AND have a system in place to gather accurate, timely, observation-based information upon which to base your FeedBack.

Second, understand that Performance FeedBack involves:

• Speaking Up – that is, the supervisor or other responsible party makes a conscious choice to approach the employee and begin a conversation;
• Upon Observed Behavior – Effective Coaching and FeedBack deals with specific behavior (whether Desired or Undesired) which has been actually witnessed, not with generalities like “bad attitude” or based upon hearsay;
• Providing “real time” information – Coaching and FeedBack must be timely to have any effect (other than resentment) on employee behaviors;
• Addressing one behavior or “behavioral set” – in order for the employee to really think about change (a prelude to any change in behavior), he or she must be able to focus on ONE behavior at a time;
• Targeted towards Employee Accountability & Commitment – the only outcome which justifies the conversation at all is for the employee to accept responsibility for his or her behaviors and the resulting Accomplishments and to commit to changing (or, in the case of Positive FeedBack, continuing or expanding) those behaviors. For a Performance Conversation to be successful, any part of the conversation that does not work towards these ends must be modified so it does or deleted.

As noted earlier, many Performance Conversations go poorly, with the net result that the employee’s (and hence the organization’s) performance doesn’t improve. On the other hand, organizations with whom we’ve worked have seen dramatic improvements when employees are trained in how to use Performance Coaching and FeedBack processes and are actively supported by upper management in the use of these skills. To name just two examples:

• One organization in the Oil industry improved its safety record from average to best in the industry when the Coaching and FeedBack was focused on removing at-risk behaviors.
• A service division of a large telecommunications company improved its customer service rating, while, at the same time, dramatically reducing its “first contact” to “issue resolution” time.

In part II, we’ll present the first of three proven tools for structuring performance FeedBack conversations with your employees. The Performance Coaching Process is simple to understand, easy to use, and works (i.e., gets understanding and commitment to change) with employees across the Performance range.