High Performance Management

"So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work."
Peter Drucker, Management Guru
1909 - 2005

High-Performance Management: A Five-Step Process for Winning

Would you like to increase the performance of your teams?

Desire alone does not create high-performance management or organizations.
The following five steps are part of the copyrighted Management System that we install in organizations to maximize business performance.

As with most process systems, to create consistency and accomplishment you must be prepared and organized.

The Expectation Management Model TM

Step One: Written Expectations

You cannot effectively have, hold, and even consider high-performance results without first writing down your expectations. For the purposes of this Management Model, anything that is not in writing does not exist!

The written requisites go beyond traditional job descriptions. Expectations must clearly outline seven items.
1. List traditional roles and responsibilities.
2. List primary tasks and activities. ISO requires this as part of their protocol; it ensures consistency.
3. List acceptable and unacceptable staff behaviors.
4. Give authority with responsibility.
5. List specific desired results and outcomes -- not just activities.
6. List the positive and negative consequences of certain related actions.
7. Get agreement and signatures.

Step One should include a Personal Style and Job Style Compatibility process. Our experience has shown that when the style nature of the person does not reflect the style requirements of the position, there is little you can do to increase or even maintain performance. This strategy reduces the chance of the square-peg-in-the-round-hole syndrome.

Step Two: Work Readiness

1. Organizational Support
One client required that the phones be answered within 3 rings. With three staff people and two phones, that was quite a challenge. The business was not supporting the staff with the necessary resources to achieve the expectation that management had set.

Another company wanted to expedite the cashier process, but was unwilling to add another phone line to separate the fax from the Visa-authorization line. When a fax was being received or sent, Visas could not be processed. The choice? Support the staff or remove the expectations.

2. Ability
Suppose you require brain surgery. Because we here at CRG are very motivated and like to try new things, we offer to perform your operation.
Note: No matter how enthusiastic we are, we simply do not have the training or the ability to do that job.

A quick way to determine if a person has the ability to fulfill certain tasks/responsibilities is to ask yourself one question: in the past, has this individual demonstrated the skills and abilities necessary to fulfill this responsibility? If the answer is No, why expect miracles now?

3. Desire
When a person is not motivated to do a specific work task, find out why. (That's more useful than simply criticizing the individual.) It is the responsibility of the manager to determine what is affecting the performance of the individual, because performance links to the company’s Expectation Management Model. The manager must become involved to help resolve the unproductive situation.

If a person is in any role of supervision or leadership, you can confirm his or her abilities (skills) and desire (attitude) to lead others by using the Leadership Skills Inventory--Self. The LSI--Self will outline 60 critical leadership skills and establish benchmarks for a leadership development plan for each person.

Note: If you are interested, there is also an LSI--Others version, to collect 360º feedback from work colleagues

Step Three: Accountability

There can be no fair accountability unless expectations have been documented -- in writing -- and agreed. Team members can be blindsided by a manager who is upset by lack of performance; staff may be quite unaware of the manager’s unwritten expectation -- or at least confused about what he wants from them.

Consequence and accountability protocols must be determined in advance; otherwise, inconsistencies will be rampant. One of the fastest ways to lower team performance is to let something go one day -- with no consequences -- then lower the hammer the next day for the same behavior.

Either you have an accountability process in your business or you don't. Everyone must be held equally accountable. Being easy on one person and tough on another for the same carelessness is folly for morale. That's showing favoritism. If you are willing to tolerate poor behavior from one person, you must also accept it from others. If you want to make an exception, you must build an "exception" into the written expectations so that everyone can act the same way.

Step Four: Feedback

Two forms of feedback fail: criticism and silence.

Having employees "live in fear of verbal attack" has never been a successful part of long-term high-performance management. We do not believe in "constructive criticism."

Silence can be worse than abusive criticism. In the long term, silence leads to the reduced performance of your team members. They do not have a measure for the success their work and may start to second-guess themselves -- or even become paranoid.

Correct feedback has three components.

1. Praise
Affirm that the conduct of the individual was/is equal to, or greater than, your expectations.

2. Advise
Make it behavior-specific. "Good job, well done," is not feedback. Advice is clear -- and linked to the written expectations.

3. Coach
Model the behavior you want others to exhibit and lead the team through the process. " Show me -- don’t talk about it." Performance research indicates that the most effective way to improve, correct, or change behaviors is through on-the-job, real-life immediate feedback, as soon as possible after the event and as respectfully as you can.

Step Five: Rewards and Recognition

A few months ago, we wrote about creating high-performance pay plans. Rewards are for above-average performance. Typically, monetary or prize-based rewards must be linked to your written expectations and to above-average performance. We have seen reward systems produce behaviors that are totally opposite to the anticipated response.

Not everyone is motivated by cash. Because some team members will be motivated by other rewards, make various rewards part of the mix.

Your organization should predetermine your Rewards and Recognition processes well in advance, so that staff members know exactly where the goalposts are.

Recognition is different from feedback or rewards. Recognition is the emotional side of the workplace; it tends to be more public. These are all recognition items: employee of the month, special parking spot, invitation to the president's home BBQ, picture in the paper, etc. People need recognition to maximize their performance.

The high-performance Expectation Management Model TM establishes steps to help you create your high-performance team.

Ken Keis, MBA, CPC, is an internationally known author, speaker, and consultant. He is President and CEO of CRG Consulting Resource Group International, Inc., Many professionals herald CRG as the Number One global resource center for Personal and Professional Development.

For information on CRG Resources, please visit crgleader.com

For information on Ken’s Training and Speaking Programs, please visit kenkeis.com

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