Leaders and managers should work in partnership with employees to promote constructive dialogue regarding performance management, including improving employee performance. They all have a mutual obligation to provide value and excellence to the organization, and this requires each individual to be continually challenged to perform his/her best. For this to occur, management must communicate its vision, values, and expectations clearly and create an environment for continual learning, while working with employees to ensure they may reach their full potential. The organization must be prepared to recognize and reward excellence with financial and non-financial incentives, such as increased job flexibility, more meaningful work, and a sense of accomplishment and recognition. Taking timely action to both reward and correct performance appropriately will ensure that excellence is the standard for all. 

Expect excellence by communicating expectations. Employees need a clear picture of what is expected of them, as individuals and as members of a team. This is an ongoing responsibility for senior management as well as supervisors and team leaders. Employees should understand how their contribution and their colleagues’ contribution link to the organization’s mission and goals. Expecting excellence might chart the course, but getting there requires a climate that allows excellence to be sustained. Management plays a vital role in early and repeated recognition of excellence, because recognition affects two sets of employees, (1) the employees who receive the recognition, and (2) the employees who observe the recognition and learn what is valued. 

Establish accountability by holding supervisors responsible for managing performance. Supervisors and managers must see performance management as a central role of their job, not a collateral duty, and executives can “walk the talk” by modeling effective performance management for managers and supervisors. Supervisors’ and team leaders’ quality in performance management should be expected, developed, assessed, and recognized at least as much as their technical quality. Human resource management systems should support rewarding excellence in performance and separating employees whose performance does not improve to meet established standards. HR accountability systems should examine how well the organization is achieving outcomes such as”

·        positive linkages between performance and rewards, especially financial incentives;

·        positive improvements in systems that proactively prevent performance deficiencies from developing in the first place, and;

·        customer and employee perceptions that poor performance is addressed and dealt with effectively.

Early intervention is critical. Experience, especially at the top management levels, indicates that resolving a performance issue may be a matter of creating a better fit between the employee and the role he or she is expected to perform, since some employees who fail to perform well may be underutilized, or some may be performing functions that grew out of job restructuring, reassignments, downsizing, or automation and poor performance reflects lack of training or skills. When significant new responsibilities or technological skills are added, training that preceded implementation can help keep performance from falling, since it takes far fewer resources to identify and correct performance that is starting to slip than to intervene after a downward spiral has continued over months or even years. Also, employees are often relieved and much more responsive to counseling and support when it is offered early. Because performance problems are relatively uncommon, most supervisors are not adept at dealing with the full set of procedures and may require support from several perspectives:

·        many supervisors believe that they should be acting on the problem, but are equally convinced that senior management will fail to support them;

·        a performance based action is a legal proceeding that has many specific requirements;

·        many supervisors have concerns about their personal liability;

·        most supervisors need moral and emotional support to get through what will never be a pleasant part of the job.

Top management must commit the necessary resources and support, since any failure to do so will have a chilling effect on the organization’s managers and supervisors. Within your organization, leaders, managers, and employees have a mutual and inclusive obligation to provide value and excellence. If you want change:

·        review and re-review your expectations so both manager and employee will clearly understand what it takes to deliver that value and excellence;

·        establish a contract with your employees laying out these expectations clearly;

·        develop the necessary performance management skills for coaching, mentoring, assisting, measuring, recognizing, etc.;

·        provide appropriate ongoing feedback and follow-up, both positive and negative;

·        reward the great performers, and move or otherwise deal with the poor performers.

Leadership is the key to success.

Tony Belak