Reimagining the Performance Model pt. 3

Leader Support

Stop Managing People – The leadership model for performance is evolving, are you?

Ask anyone if they want to be managed and watch their response.  No one wants to be managed.  The old management model that has survived since pre-World War ll of planning, directing, controlling, and managing people and activities is evolving.

As we shift performance management to a more effective and engaging employee-led performance model, leaders with people responsibility must shift and evolve their leadership style and develop competencies to better support, guide and develop the leader in everyone.

The new leadership model now shifts to actions and behaviors that inspire, energize, facilitate and develop both organization and people performance.   This leader shift encourages leaders to inspire people with vision and purpose.  Create energy with involvement and acknowledgement. Cultivate a culture of personal and team leadership, accountability and an environment where change can thrive.

People leaders should develop an environment where performance is accelerated through regular performance connections and not managed and reviewed only at the mid and end of the year.  With these performance connections, leaders can develop the leader in everyone and ensure organizational and role clarity and alignment at every level.

Leader Support, Where to Start –

·       Evolve your personal leadership style, don’t get stuck managing in the past

·       Inspire with vision and ensure clarity and alignment

·       Share and develop accountability, bridge the natural gap of accountability

·       Develop the leader in everyone

·       Facilitate employee-led, not leader managed performance

Inspire people by giving them a reason to believe. Create energy by saying ‘Thank you’ and ‘I appreciate you’.  Facilitate growth by asking, not telling, and develop top tier performers and performance by cultivating leaders, not managing people and activities.  It is leadership reimagined!

Next week – Organization Enabled – Create a culture by design not default. The stakes are too high not to.

Reimagining the Performance Model pt. 2

Employee-Led Performance – Developing leaders from the board room to the break room and everywhere in between

We introduced the ELO performance model in our last blog which truly transforms traditional performance management into ongoing performance development and enablement. 

In traditional performance management models, much of the role and responsibility for ensuring performance results, conducting performance feedback, developing accountability and providing effective change management resides with formal people leaders in the organization.  In addition, training focused on developing core leadership skills, activities and behaviors is generally reserved for these formal leaders.

This legacy performance model unfortunately limits true performance ownership, and by reserving leadership skill development for a select few, we limit the immense potential and impact of having everyone no matter what their title or position lead from where they are. 

Employee-Led performance is the key to shifting performance results from management driven to employee owned, supported by formal leaders and enabled by the organization.  As a foundation, it is important for an organization to create a baseline of expected leadership skills, activities and behaviors that everyone from senior leadership to entry level individual contributors understand, value, exhibit and are held accountable to.  This creates a foundation of common leadership expectations and a “language” of leadership that defines your organization.

Of course, roles and responsibilities are different, and the level of leadership impact will change as you move up the organization, but developing a core set of leadership competencies in everyone is critical to tapping into, and leveraging the value of every employee leading where they are.

Where to Start –

• Create awareness and set an expectation that everyone is a leader

• Provide baseline leadership development, starting with 4-5 core leadership competencies that provide a competitive differentiation for your organization

• Support developing the leader in everyone with coaching and training

• Reward and recognize employee-led success

• Continue to add to and build upon the core leadership competencies.

Expect everyone to lead, give them the tools and training to lead, support them like leaders, and they will lead!

Next week – Leader Support – Evolving the leadership model to meet the leadership challenges of the future.

Reimagining the Performance Model

Performance Management – Love or hate it, it’s time for a change!

Ask anyone if they like the traditional performance management process and most will let you know through their body language and facial expression, NO!  However those that have benefitted from an effective performance management process LOVE IT!

Certainly everyone loves the intent of performance management; clear expectations and role definitions set, coupled with the right resources, training, consistent and fair feedback all leading to a path for individual, team and organizational performance success and development. 

Sounds so easy. However, the actual impact of a typical performance management process often results in too many mid and end of year performance review “surprises”, and unclear expectations and roles that overlap or are in competition with one another. The feedback is infrequent and forced at the end of the year to ensure we check the box that all reviews have been completed and signed.  In addition, the performance feedback often is swayed by what we call the “recency factor”, whatever performance, good or bad, that is the most recent in history is what often times dominates the remarks and ratings during the review.   

So, what SHOULD be one of the most important processes in delivering both bottom line results and enhancing both employee commitment and engagement becomes a necessary “to do” for everyone at the end of the year. This ends up wasting millions of employee hours in performing “check the box” activities that, face it, few really embrace to their fullest potential.

So whether you love it or hate it, it’s time for the reimagining of performance management!

We will introduce a new model for performance in this four part blog series, Reimaging the Performance Model.

Part One – The ELO model for performance defined

Part Two – Employee-Led Performance

Part Three – Leader Supported Development

Part Four – Organization Enabled Success

ELO – Employee-led, Leader Supported, Organization Enabled Performance Introduced:

Imagine your organization as a place where traditional performance management becomes performance enablement!  Where every person in your organization, from the most senior executives to entry levels proactively own and manage their career development and where once or twice a year performance reviews, which often become those performance “surprises” we mentioned earlier, are now weekly or bi-weekly performance connections owned and directed by the employees, not the manager, and are focused on actions and activities that develop skills and behaviors rather than just reviewing and rating them.

Imagine every employee from top to bottom, displaying both team and individual role model leadership behavior and accountability, using technology to connect and enhance relationships rather than just adding more “communication” to everyone’s inboxes.

Imagine your organization as a place where the skills of collaboration, agile decision making, and the focus on delivering results, not excuses, are learned and cultivated and over time becoming natural and expected from everyone – where functional silos cease to exist!

Over the next few weeks, we will outline a path to long term, sustained performance model success that can, and will, provide a true ‘people’ competitive advantage with everyone in the organization enhancing both their personal and team accountability, embracing and leading change, and owning and managing their own performance and development.  In addition, we will provide a cultural blueprint that enables performance success by ensuring clarity, alignment and accountability at all levels supported by formal people leaders exhibiting new leadership competencies that develops the leader in everyone.

Employee-led, leader supported and organization enabled performance.  The performance model reimagined. 

Next week: Employee-led Performance – Developing the leader in everyone!