How can I effectively improve the performance of others

How frustrating, here you are managing a team of people and yet you are still being held back from achieving your goals. On management training courses all over the country trainers are asked 'how can I deal with poor performance?'

Well the truth is it is not all that difficult, probably the most difficult part is finding the time to sit down with the individual and agree goals which are acceptable to you but are also achievable and realistic to the staff member.

The other encounter that i have come accross in management training courses is that once you have done this how do you monitor it and ensure the staff member is on track, once again this takes time and effort on your part.

The key to improving performance is to agree a performance improvement plan with the staff member and see it through to the end. You must agree the performance standards with the individual and then agree goals that can be achieved.

When it comes to agreeing goals we should always remember the goal should stand up to the acronym SMART which means the following:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Realistic

Time Framed

I know some of you At this stage are probably saying ‘oh no not smart goals again’ but the reality is that they are used so often because they work. The easiest way to manage people is to make sure the goals are crystal clear, there should be no ambiguity. As a golfing friend of mine always reminds me, the ball is ether in the hole or it is not. Giving unclear goals is like playing golf at night, you can hit the ball all night long but if it isn’t going towards the hole it is useless.

Before you let the staff member off to achieve the goals you have agreed on management training courses we stress that you must ask one important question, the question is 'what can you think of which might get in the way of you achieving the goal?' This is known as removing the barriers, and is one area where many managers fall down. You must cut off any areas that will stop some one from performing.

The other thing is it is a little like a football match you are better off to know the barriers before the kick off than to learn about the problems with only two minutes of the game left. If you know of the barriers before you can do something about them.

Once you have removed any barriers the next step is to support and encourage the staff member to achieve the goal. You must put in place a monitoring system to check that the staff member is on course. Remember the saying that is said in Management all over the country 'what gets checked gets done'

A skill that is difficult to teach in management training is the skill of judgement and you have to make a judgement on whether this person has achieved the goal or not achieved the goal. At this stage you should be thinking of the three Rs that is, do I Retain this person, do I Retrain this person or do I Replace this person.

There is no doubt that improving performance is not easy but with good management training you can develop the skills to put you ahead of the rest.