It's time to rethink, reimagine leadership for a new generation. As an executive advisor, I help leaders improve their effectiveness by helping them understand how human behavior - the human experience - affects their leadership impact and the results they want to achieve. | Learn more www.joanncorley.com
Hey that may sound like a silly question, but it's legit! Here's why…
I know that performance management, particularly for managers, can be challenging and without some basic knowledge to navigate its terrain, it feels like you're stumbling in the woods, can't see where you're going and don't know how to get out...and wish you'd never entered it in the first place.
That's why @LinkedIn Learning asked me to create a course written specifically for managers on how to Manage Employee Performance Problems. Don't let the "course" word deter you from checking it out. My approach and mantra is to keep it real and keep it simple. You'll get helpful tips, insights and strategies.
I have a fierce conviction about that mantra because I think a lot of processes and tools we use in business, particularly related to human resource management just overcomplicatesmanagement and the employee experience, wasting time and money.
Focus: Team Management, Performance Management, Management Success
Audio lesson: 3 mins. 20 secs.
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The 3 Esteems of Highly Productive Teams
Transcript - print now
Wc: 535
Read time: 2 mins.
Here’s a useful concept to know as a manager or supervisor to understand what it takes to have a highly productive team. I’ve coined this The Three Esteems.
As I traveled across the country working with teams, nurturing and developing managers and leaders, it’s been very apparent to me that one of the things we talk about a lot is self esteem. We know people as individuals need to have it to be a happy and functioning.
So what about “esteem” as it relates to teams being happy and functional? I’d like to add a couple of other esteems that need to be present to be able to have high functioning teams. I’ve coined these The Three Esteems. I believe there needs to be three esteems in place in order for a team to function at a high performance level.
First: every team member needs to have their own strong healthy self esteem: that means they like themselves - they feel comfortable in their own skin.
Number two: every team member needs to have good work esteem. What’s work esteem? Work esteem is how someone feels in the context of their role and their job. It means they like what they do at some level, they enjoy the job functions of their role, they feel like they are actually contributing to the greater good and they have a sense of accomplishment in their role as well.
Finally: the third esteem is team esteem. Team esteem can be defined as every team member feels like as a group they are able to meet collective goals and that as a group they are able to function with a productive rapport.
You know this doesn’t mean they necessarily have to love each other and be crazy about each other, but it does mean that there is a healthy respect among each team member and that they are able to work together productively in order to get their outcomes collectively as a team. It’s having the knowledge and appreciating the fact that the goal(s) could not have been met in the way they were met, unless everybody was present doing their part.
So there you have it, what I call the three esteems to a high performance team. Again its self esteem, work esteem and team esteem.
Let me suggest as an action item that you as a manager begin to monitor where you see each of your team members related to the three esteems. In fact, I suggest that you put together a survey of some kind to get a sense of how they feel. It might comprise something as follows:
-questions about their own self esteem (you can do it on a scale of one to five with five being the highest.)
-questions regarding how they feel about their job functions and how they feel about their work esteem
- and also their team esteem as well (this will gauge their perception of whether the team can and is working together.)
That information could be very telling and very useful as you work to cultivate a high performance team and a healthy team culture. Good Luck!
If you want more tips and strategies on who to be a more effective manager - then you'll want to get the book - The 1% Edge - Power Strategies to Increase Your Management Effectiveness - both in workbook form or on Kindle.
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How People Operate 101
Transcript - print now WC: 408 Read time: 1-2 mins. I remember when I got a new car several years ago and it had many new gadgets and functions I was not familiar with. For the first time in my adult life, I actually pulled out an owner’s manual for a car. I needed to learn how to operate every aspect of this vehicle to experience its full potential.
You know that really is the same when it comes to managers and their teams. I wish that when someone was promoted to management, they received a book entitled – How People Operate 101. Because in reality, that’s what managers are doing - operating people in the context of a process to obtain an outcome that results in profit for a company.
Yet, the majority of newly promoted managers receive little to no training and are thrown out to fin for themselves…(kinda like those parents who want to teach their kids how to swim and just throw them in the water and say, “Now…swim!”)
Knowing how people operate: what makes them tick, how they are wired, what motivates them, what skills they possess and how to engage them is essential to the effectiveness of a manager. That effectiveness directly impacts the bottom line of a company and this is where there seems to be what I call – THE BIG DISCONNECT….the very thing that impacts the profits of a company is the very thing companies spend very little time and money investing in.
So for those of you managers, who already feeling the pain of resulting from a lack of knowledge in this area, here’s what I recommend. Step 1 in how people operate 101 is to use a temperament or personality profile. There are great tools on the market that are easy to use. Theses profiles provide a very useful framework to understanding people in the ways I listed above.
Here are some recommended resources:
Dr. Keirsey – book: Please Understand Me
The DISC Profile
Tony Alessandra - book: People Smart
Both books can be obtained at Barnes & Noble, Amazon…etc.
I believe having a working intimated knowledge of a personality profile is essential to a manager’s knowledge base.
You know many people talk about diversity training in our work cultures. I believe that in that context the single most important diversity issue today is not necessarily race or ethnicity…it is personality differences, of which employees get the least amount of training. Managers, let’s start with you!
If you are accessing this lesson from the app - remember there is a free personality assessment tool under the Personality Tab.
Focus: Competencies, plus the job description = success
Going Beyond the Job Description – Competencies are Essential
Wc: 425 – Audio duration: 3 mins. 34 secs.
“profits and growth are about performance and performance is about people – performance is behavior.”
Focus: Management Success, Professional Success
Audio Lesson - Duration: 3 mins. 21 secs.
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Transcript
Business is really about two things: knowledge and behavior. This may sound strange, but when you think about it, a business cannot exist without pertinent knowledge and behaviors that generate desired results.
So what’s essential to the success of any company?... a conscious determination of what knowledge and behaviors are absolutely necessary (critical success factors) from each contributor for that particular business to be successful. The behavior piece can be defined in two parts: skills and competencies.
A skill (the capability to do something well) is usually framed and needed in the context of a job description. Example: someone who has the technical knowledge to create a blueprint of a house.
A competency relates to qualities and capabilities beyond the job description…the make-up of the person in the job (e.g. characteristics/traits, attitudes, beliefs, values, motives, character, emotional maturity, relational effectiveness) and how those elements influence how a job is done. Example: a customer service employee who is has the emotional maturity to be self-controlled when dealing with a challenging service call.
The examples above are representative of a skill and a competency. As an effective manager you need to know both, how to distinguish between the two and how to determine them for your role and the roles you are responsible for managing.
Also two additional items of note:
1. Each element (skill and competency) both contribute to the profitability of a company.
2. You’ll rarely find competencies, such as emotional maturity, on a job description.
One can see that in order for a business to stay competitive and profitable three critical assessments need to be made:
1. A determination of those behaviors needed for the success of the business.
2. A determination of where contributors are in possessing those needed behaviors.
3. A plan to close the gap where needed -
a. via training and coaching
b. replacing a contributor with someone who is a better fit.
So the question would be what are the competencies needed in your particular role and that of each of your team members?
Remember, a competency is the way in which the job is done…the qualities of the person who is doing the job.
Action: Make a list of competencies or qualities that are needed for you to do your job successfully.
Then do so for the roles of those you manage.
Next, determine the gaps and incorporate those in your coaching and performance management plan.
This will go a long way in helping to increase the performance of your team and thereby increasing the profitability of you company.
The Power of Focus Themes: Productivity, Performance Management
Audio: 4 mins. 14 secs. – Wc: 711 Transcript - Count On It by Gary Lockwood
"What we see depends mainly on what we look for." John Lubbock
One of my clients (let's call him Mike) was telling me how important it is to him that he sell long-term maintenance contracts, not just ad hoc projects.
Makes sense. The long-term contracts provide some stability and predictable cash flow. They assist in getting closer to his clients. They also help him to borrow funds more easily.
So far, so good.
When I asked him how many of these long-term maintenance contracts he has already, he couldn't tell me. He didn't know! He said he's been too busy to track the number of such agreements.
Wait a minute! If this type of agreement is so important to Mike's growth strategy, how can he not know the status?
The fact is that most owners and CEOs know what's important to their enterprise, but can't (or don't) measure those things.
You've heard the old maxim: "You can't manage what you don't measure." You have also likely read the story of the "Hawthorne Effect".
In the late 1950s, the GE plant in Hawthorne, California brought in some consultants to measure the effect of brighter lighting on the productivity of their factory workers. The consultants first took productivity measurements to establish a baseline. Then they intensified the brightness of the lighting and measured again.
Productivity increased.
They increased the brightness even more and productivity went up again. After raising the brightness two more times, they saw two more increases in productivity. On a hunch, they lowered the lighting and measured one more time. Productivity went up!
They figured out that the productivity gains were not related to the brightness of the lights, but to the act of measuring. They were paying a lot of attention to the effectiveness of their workers. And guess what? The workers responded by working more effectively.
What do you pay a lot of attention to? What are you constantly measuring, asking your employees about, talking about and looking at?
When your team knows what's truly important to you, they'll likely pay more attention to those things, too.
Focusing on two or three key business metrics does something else for your behavior. It triggers your Reticular Activating System. Your brain is assaulted by thousands of messages each second. Everything you see, hear, smell, feel and touch is a message entering your brain. The Reticular Activating System filters through all these messages and decides which ones will get page one treatment - that is, arouse the brain.
One of the things we've learned from working with entrepreneurs is that you tend to pay attention to the things, which are important to you at the time. If your currently dominant thoughts are about creating a new brochure, you'll start seeing other brochures. You'll hear conversations about brochures. You'll pick up ideas relating to brochures and even notice colors that would be attractive for the new brochure.
In other words, the Reticular Activating System will pass through anything even remotely related to the important issue - the brochure.
From a practical point of view, this means that, if you want to solve a problem or achieve a goal, keep it at the top of your mind. Think about it, talk about it, write about it and imagine it completed. This is one of the reasons why affirmations work so well and why it is important to review your goals frequently.
If you focus on improving a specific key indicator of your business success, your Reticular Activating System will pass through sights, sounds, people and ideas even remotely related to that point of focus. In other words, if you measure it visibly, frequently and attentively, it will likely improve.
Here's my suggestion: Identify the two to five key measurements and key indicators that are important and essential for your business. Set up an active system to measure and track these indicators. Talk to your employees about it at every opportunity. Put charts and
graphs of these indicators on the wall of the lunch room. Make your interest in these metrics very active and visible.
Chances are, you'll get what you're looking for - improvements in these areas. Count on it!
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In this bite-audio lesson we’re going to be introducing a coaching and communication philosophy called C.P.R. That’s right C. P. R. Now I know you’ve heard of it in a different context – that is in the medical field, but it’s also a great technique and philosophy for managing a team and building great rapport with your employees.
So, what does CPR mean? CPR stands for – Compliments, Praise, and Recognition. Again - Compliments, Praise, and Recognition. Now there are three elements to applying, or administering CPR in the most effective way.
Those three elements include the following:
First, you’d like for your CPR to be timely. That is to administer it at a time when it’s going to be the most meaningful. I don’t think it’s nearly as meaningful, or perhaps even motivating, to give someone a compliment six months, maybe a year out from when something was actually accomplished. So timely is very important.
Secondly, you want it to be specific. It’s very important to remember that when you give specific feedback, you’re actually reinforcing the desired behavior – both on a conscious level and also on a subconscious level. So you want it to be as specific as possible.
And then finally you want to be able to share some benefits of the behavior, the action or the outcome. So consider the benefits to you, the team, or even the company as you determine what benefits you want to share.
Here’s an example of how CPR might be applied. Sue’s an employee who is asked to compile quarterly sales figures for a client meeting. Sue took on that responsibility with a great attitude, and in fact the report was handed in on time, looked visually appealing, the numbers were laid out in such an effective way that it was very to read, and in fact made the client meeting go much smoother than expected.
As a side not, there are many cases throughout our workday when those kinds of things happen and the opportunity to apply a little CPR is missed. Sometimes it’s in the little things that actually have the biggest and most significant impact.
So here’s how a CPR conversation might go – “Sue, I really appreciate the work you did on that report. It was handed in on time, it looked great visually, and the numbers were laid out so well that the client meeting went much smoother than expected. Thanks again for a job well done. We all appreciate it – there was a lot less stress because of your work, and it helped to reinforce a good rapport with the client. Thanks again!
It’s amazing how just a little CPR can go such a long way. So I want to encourage you to begin to look for opportunities to apply a little CPR to your team.
Supporting lesson(s): Are you making deposits?, Managing is Conditioning
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ARE YOU MAKING DEPOSITS?
Word Ct: 161
Read time: 1 min. Transcript - print now
Sounds like an odd question, doesn’t it? Yet, knowing what this means is essential to successful management in motivating employees.
Each employee has something known as an emotional bank. Depending on what’s going on during a work day, that emotional bank either gets deposits or withdrawals.
So, if you are pleasant to that employee, you say thank you or communicate that you appreciate the work they do; you are making “deposits” in their emotional bank.
If on the other, you let a negative employee reign in the group (I call them toxic) or you are hyper critical of the work of the employee, that would result in withdrawals.
Why does that matter? The emotional bank of an employee is the hub or their individual motivation. You, as a manager, have a significant opportunity to keep an employee motivated with this knowledge.
Coaching Tip: Create an ongoing plan to continually make deposits in the emotional bank of your employees.
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LBs and NTs
Transcript - print now
Wc: 504
Welcome to another bite-size audio tip. Today, under manager’s effectiveness, we’re going to talk about one of my favorite techniques for giving feedback. It’s called LB’s and NT’s – that’s right - Like Best and Next Time. It’s a really cool way of being able to tell an employee something positive while coaching them at the same time.
By the way, I don’t particularly like the word criticism; I do like the word feedback. And when we’re dealing with and coaching employees, it really is all about process improvement versus right and wrong per se.
So here are some of the benefits to using the LB and NT feedback format. First of all, it reinforces the desired behavior. Do you know that every time you give someone feedback on their performance you are actually reinforcing what you’d like to see again? It’s behavior modification and that’s great.
Another thing it does is it really continues to nurture rapport. You know what that’s so important because when you are going to have those sit down talks that are really heavy and really have a lot to say, having pre-established positive rapport will really help that particular conversation go a whole lot better.
And then, finally, it teaches them how you think and what you value as a leader and really you can establish more trust once you coach them and they understand how you think and what you value. That means you have to manage them less and trust them more.
Now, for the employee, one of the benefits is they feel supported, they feel appreciated, and they feel led without feeling dominated and that’s really super-important, particularly for some personality types and even generational types as well.
So it’s a very simple technique you just say ‘like best’ and ‘next time’. So it might be something like this. Let’s say that JoAnn did a spreadsheet that was really useful and had everything pretty much the way you wanted it except it could have been designed to be a bit more scanable.
So your feedback might go something like this, “Hey JoAnn, I really liked the spreadsheet you that you set up. It was visually attractive, the columns were centered nicely - it really worked. Next time, how about we make it a bit more scanable - in that when you see it you can see all the information we want in these specific areas?” and you then go ahead and give the specific areas.
So you really gave feedback on the things that you did like, but also gave feedback on one element of improvement. Now, will that employee receive that a bit better couched in that way? I’m going to submit to you probably. And if that’s a regular part of your format of how you communicate then that would be useful.
And another value-added tip is make that a part of your team lingo. Teach your team members how to give feedback to each other so that you can build synergy.
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MANAGING IS CONDITIONING
Wc:141
Read time: 30 sec.
Transcript - print now
Say what?...yep it is! This is an important management insight. Every time you interact with your employees, you are giving them information about yourself…what you like, what you don’t like, how you’ll respond to their behaviors, what you will tolerate and what you won’t tolerate...or and I hate to say it, what they can get away with.
This is critical to recognize. Why? There may be times when an employee is not performing the way you’d like. One of the reasons?....you’ve allowed it and the employee knows it, because in the past you’ve responded to that performance in a way that communicated that they could get by with it – whether you intended to communicate that or not. The result?...they’ve been conditioned into poor performance.
Yikes! I know that’s not pleasant to hear, but that’s the reality of human behavior.
Remember, we are consciously and unconsciously communicating to and thereby conditioning our team members each time we interact with them.
