Oisin e-Newsletter: April 05 - Performance Management II
 
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Table of Contents
   
Upcoming Workshop: Coaching for Cultural Transformation
News from Oisin: Position Available - Office Manager
Article of the Month: World's Best Performance Management II
Link of the Month: www.gmj.gallup.com
Recommended Reading: Leadership that Matters
   
 
   

Upcoming Workshop: Coaching for Cultural Transformation

On Thursday the 2nd and Friday the 3rd of June 2005, Paula Flynn and Cathy Ulbrick will facilitate our popular Coaching for Cultural Transformation workshop.

Come experience a powerful developmental intervention that has been utilised by leaders in the following organisations to successfully leverage people capability and attain the most critical of organisational objectives: Virgin Blue Airlines, Foster's Group, Kraft Foods, Minter Ellison Lawyers, and many others.

Topics to be Covered in this Two-day Program:

  • Organisational Coaching Trends

  • Coaching in the Business Context

  • Distinguishing between 'Being a Coach' and 'Doing Coaching'

  • Advanced Coaching Skills

  • Building Strategic Organisational Coaching Capability

  • Demonstrating Coaching Agility

  • Constructing Powerful Coaching Conversations

  • Managing the Psychological Framework

  • Developing Ourselves as Coaches

  • Implementing a Transformational Coaching Culture

Where and When: Melbourne 2 and 3 June 2005

Cost: $1175.00 (plus G.S.T.) - *groups of 3 people or more attract a discount

Click Here for More Information or call and speak with us on (03) 9882 9544

   
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News from Oisin: Position Available: Office Manager

Due to Oisin’s ongoing expansion, we are currently recruiting for the role of Office Manager. Key aspects of the position will include financial management, computer management, desktop publishing, marketing and client liaison. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter and a detail-oriented problem solver. Additionally they will possess great people skills, superb communication skills, a strong commitment to customer excellence, an ability to multi-task and a capacity for creativity. For further information please contact Oisin on officemanager@oisinsuccess.com.

   
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Article of the Month: World Best Performance Management - More than a Tool (Part II of II)

In last month’s article we discussed both the essence of effective performance management and the critical elements that successful performance management must address. In this article we continue our investigation of world’s best performance management strategies and their impact on sustaining a high performing organisation; a key focus will be the critical role of the Manager. We will also provide readers with a checklist for assessing their performance management strategies against the world best practice.

The Performance Culture – What it Needs

The Performance Management System (PMS) needs to be supported by a culture that engages team members in a way that encourages them to feel motivated and connected with the organisation’s success. It is vital to have team members willing and engaged to attain more than what is expected. To unleash the discretionary effort of team members and establish an environment characterised by high performance, Senior Leaders need to ensure that there is a clear understanding about the manner in which the organisation wants its people to perform. The systems, processes and culture that are experienced by the team members will have a direct impact on their willingness and commitment to performance.

The Corporate Leadership Council emphasises the importance of developing and encouraging a risk-tolerant culture in driving performance. A risk-tolerant culture will encourage not only discretionary effort, but also stimulate the employee to “pull – push” themselves beyond their current capability level, thus creating greater output.

The Corporate Leadership Council research also confirms that having internal communication processes with strong informational flow in all directions is key to driving performance. Commitment is built by allowing team members to have information they might not otherwise have.

The creation of a high performance culture will not occur if the emphasis of activity is directed at the development of a performance management process or system. The organisation must ensure all critical elements are included in the overall rollout of any PMS, particularly the role of the Managers in operationalising the system across the organisation.

The Most Critical Role in Driving Performance – The Manager

The Manager plays the most critical role in the development of a high performance culture because it is the Manager who facilitates the PMS with each employee and thus is seen to be the driver of the system for the organisation and the employees that report to them. The organisation should ensure that there is sufficient emphasis placed on the capability of Leaders and Managers to drive high performance within their teams. Specifically such Leaders need be able to:

  • Link the day to day work activity with the organisation’s success and strategy

  • Communicate performance expectations

  • Encourage an environment of sustained performance

  • Balance innovation and risk taking within the team

  • Provide a fair and consistent approach to performance management

  • Provide both informal and formal feedback on performance

  • Assist team members to successfully complete their tasks

  • Ensure that team members are enjoying their work

Individuals who demonstrate these capabilities also identify ways to encourage and reward their people in individual ways. Rather than simply utilising the formal reward systems and structures, recognition for performance is delivered frequently and individually using accurate and relevant information about any potential for performance improvement.

The Impact of Feedback

The quality and content of feedback is vital for the creation of high performance cultures. Managers need to be able to structure conversations so that they have a positive impact on employee motivation and performance. This can be accomplished by ensuring there is an emphasis on performance strengths as well as suggestions for performance improvement. Research indicates that employee performance can be negatively impacted by as much as 26% when a Manager focuses on weaknesses in both performance and personality.

It is also important that the Manager utilises a coaching orientation that focuses on the potential of people to achieve, that is, they believe that each individual has the desire and ability to develop and achieve more. Leaders who take this approach successfully unleash the discretionary effort and motivation of employees. This discretionary effort can impact the organisation or team output by as much as 30%.

To facilitate this capability, the organisation needs to not only equip Managers with a performance management system, it must also recognise and reward those behaviours and capabilities in Leaders and Managers that positively enhance the performance culture they seek to create. Leadership development programs should also support and reinforce the development of these capabilities and behaviours.

Checklist for Assessing Your Organisation’s Performance Management Strategies:

(Adapted from ‘Building a High-Performance Workforce’, The Corporate Leadership Council)

The Performance Management System (PMS):

  • Is the performance management system seen as an enabler of performance discussions, and rather than an inhibitor?

    • Are you rewarding the completion of the process or the quality of the performance discussions held?

    • Are Managers and Leaders capable of holding meaningful performance discussions?

    • Is the system difficult to use, cumbersome or time consuming in its recording processes?

  • Is the PMS seen as to be fair and credible?

    • Do employees have a clear understanding of performance expectations?

    • Are the performance standards applied fairly across the organisation?

    • How do you measure this?

    • Are performance expectations linked in a day to day sense to the organisation's success?

    • Is there a 360 degree feedback tool?

    • If yes, is the tool obtaining feedback about the critical performance behaviours?

The Performance Culture:

  • Do you know what you want high performance to look like in your organisation?

    • Have you articulated this?

    • Are these expectations embedded in position descriptions and capability profiles of your people?

    • Is high performance demonstrated at the top levels of your organisation?

  • Is the system seen to be supported by a culture of high performance?

    • Is performance feedback seen to be confined to formal performance discussions or to PMS processes?

    • Are Leaders and Managers expected to provide informal feedback on performance?

  • Do you have reward systems that enhance and support high performance?

  • Is there seen to be a consistent application of the PMS across the organisation?

    • How are you measuring this?

  • Is there a culture of engagement and enjoyment in work activities and job performance across the organisation?

    • How are you measuring this?

  • Is there a risk-tolerant ethos in the organisation?

    • Do senior Managers encourage risk-taking and innovation?

    • How do your measure your risk tolerance?

  • Do you have well developed internal communication processes?

    • Are these ensuring information flows in all directions?

    • Do team members feel they are informed about more than they need to know or must know?

The Management Team:

  • Are you clear about the performance expectations you have of your Managers?

    • Do you encourage and manage innovation and risk taking?

  • Are Managers able to translate and articulate business goals in the context of the operation and day to day activities of their teams?

    • Can Managers distinguish between weak and high performance?

    • Can Managers distinguish between business goals and stretch targets?

  • Are Managers assisting their people to complete work tasks?

  • Are Managers and Leaders competent to provide both the formal and informal discussions?

    • Are Managers provided with development opportunities in relation to performance feedback?

    • Are you measuring the quality of the feedback given by Managers and Leaders in your organisation?
   
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Link of the Month: gmj.gallup.com

http://gmj.gallup.com

The mission of the Gallup Management Journal (GMJ) is to explore the critical business issues that companies face in the 21st century: how to develop highly engaged employees and fiercely loyal customers in a fast, global, Web-linked economy. The GMJ is rooted in rigorous research and use of data to prove results. It is unconventional, provocative, and bottom-line focused. The GMJ's goal is to produce an online business publication that is stimulating, sharp and invaluable to business Leaders and serious management thinkers.

   
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Recommended Reading: Leadership that Matters - The Critical Factors for Making a Difference in People’s Lives and Organisations’ Success

In Leadership that Matters - The Critical Factors for Making a Difference in People’s Lives and Organisations’ Success, the authors Marshall Sashkin and Molly Sashkin, examine transformational leadership - leadership that not only improves productivity and performance but also makes a positive difference in the lives of organisational members. Transformational Leaders achieve superior results because of their ability to transform people from dutiful followers into self-directed Leaders who go beyond simply doing what is expected of them. Drawing on research, the authors explore how transformational leadership can be developed and practiced and provide practical advice for Leaders who want to transform people and organisations.

   
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