To be effective at managing performance with employees, excellence in leadership is required. Here, we have crafted some important insights that every manager should know before they conduct management reviews.
- Believe the best and review the facts
Many leaders who climb the ranks into management do so because they were great at doing their jobs. However, they may not have proper HR training or understand how to address employee performance issues. Often, new leaders may make assumptions about an employee’s intent in respect to their performance, or even ascribe laziness or a blatant disregard for the job requirements. - Don’t Take it Personal
Take yourself and your ego out of the equation during these conversations and focus on your employee. Sure, you may be frustrated that their performance is not better and this issue may be affecting the larger team. But, letting yourself take it to heart will not help you get to a satisfactory outcome in any performance conversation. It will only heighten emotion and potentially lead to placing blame. - Seek to Understand
Once you have stated the issue, ask the employee if there is anything that you need to know in order to help them be successful. Your job as an HR or business leader in these conversations is to remove barriers so that your employee can do their work.
Choose your words carefully during these conversations. Pointed questions such as “why were you late?” “Where have you been?” “Or Why is it so hard for you to learn this?” can create defensiveness or be perceived as prying into the employee’s personal life. Sometimes there are factors at play that may fall under a protected class or legal regulations such as a need for protected leave or accommodation (which may necessitate a different conversation).
Focus on the Future for Performance Management Success
- Shift the conversation as soon as it makes sense to focus on the desired future state.
- Set clear expectations for your employee’s behavior or performance using the appropriate company policies and/or their job description and take what you have learned so far in your conversations to build a plan for them to achieve success.
- Work with your employee to help them overcome the barrier to their performance
- During this conversation, ask yourself and your employee if the plan is achievable?
- Does change require a complete overnight shift? A complete overnight shift would mean that the behavior or action cannot continue, and changes need to be made immediately.
Can this behavior be scaled up to reach the ideal state? Scaling up to a changed circumstance might involve incremental changes with milestones to achieve this result. - If work quality improvement is needed, consider training for additional skills or experiences to support that employee’s goals over a period of time.
Keep the Dialogue Open and Plan for Change
At this point, it is up to your employee to determine if and how they are going to improve their performance. However, that does not mean that your job is done as a leader.
- Outline and document what you are doing as an HR or business leader to support their success in making the necessary changes.
- At the end of the conversation, ask if the employee foresees any barriers to achieving the expectations laid out as you will both be accountable for the plan created.
After the Performance Review
Conversations: Follow the Plan with Support and Follow-Up
Create a plan with scheduled follow up meetings or other actions that you and your employee agreed to.
Many times, the follow up is overlooked or goes by the wayside when the poor performance or behavior disappears. However, this is your chance to ensure that you are being accountable and establishing credibility as a leader. Be sure to hold up your end of the agreement and give every opportunity for your employee to do so as well.
Document the Process
Document all of your observations, performance and coaching conversations and any written warnings.
Keep them together in an employee file according to your company’s documentation process and procedures. If it’s not documented, it never happened.
Note: It is important to ensure that any medical information is kept separately in an employee medical file.
Your are a Guide
At the end of the day, you cannot control how your employee behaves or whether they choose to hold themselves accountable when faced with these kinds of conversations. But, you can show them the path to accountability and ensure that they are prepared with the skills, tools, and knowledge to walk that path successfully.
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