Managing For High Performance For this Discussion, you need to read Part II “Managing for High Performance” in your textbook. (A) Use the SMART (Specifi

Managing For High Performance For this Discussion, you need to read Part II “Managing for High Performance” in your textbook.

(A) Use the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound) traits to establish goals for your educational career.
Requirements:
a. Ensure each goal is SMART
b. 3-5 goals
c. Explanation of what you hope to achieve with each goal.
d. What difficulties you had in establishing goals.
For example, if you say “didn’t have enough information,” you should also state what information you would have needed.
Do not use any of the goals found on page 25 of your text. You may use them as a reference.
(B). Have a counseling session with a friend, co-worker, or family member. Summarize your results in the Discussion post. How do relationships influence our ability to effectively counsel someone (does the relationship help, hurt?)?
(C). Explain one disciplinary technique you either have used or had used on you. Based on the reading, was the technique proper? Explain why or why not. Submit your answer in this Discussion by selecting “Post New Thread” above. (Do not enter your answer in the Assignments section of your e-classroom.) Managing for High
Performance

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—Mary Kay Ash
Founder, Mary Kay Cosmetics

P A R T 2

“ My experience with people is that they generally do what you
expect them to do.”

Excellence in Supervision : Essential Skills for the New Supervisor, edited by Debbie Woodbury, et al., Course Technology Crisp, 2001. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/apus/detail.action?docID=3116904.
Created from apus on 2021-09-15 14:28:08.

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Performance Management

“How do I motivate people?” This is the question that supervisors and managers ask
most commonly. The answer is the key to managing for high performance.

A mid-sized company was confronted with new competition. A number of its
customers defected to competitors. Sales management set new standards for sales
performance, conducted additional sales training, and created better incentives for
success. The company’s growth rate improved. Notice the strategies—goals, training,
and recognition.

All people are motivated. It’s just that some people aren’t motivated to do what you
want them to do. Practical experience and research give clues to key performance-
management skills.

Key Skills for Managing Performance

Set clear expectations and goals

Give positive feedback

Handle performance problems effectively

Supervise with flexibility

Let’s dig into the details of these practices so you can
“get into action!”

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THE BENEFITS OF MANAGING PERFORMANCE
Think of the supervisors you have worked with. Have they all set goals, given
lots of feedback, handled problems positively, and supervised people with
flexibility? Probably not.

Why don’t more supervisors use these skills? Compare some of the benefits of
using them to the obstacles that keep supervisors from exercising them. Add
any additional benefits and obstacles you can think of.

Benefits Obstacles

Why use these skills? Why aren’t they used more?

Builds confidence in employees Don’t know how

Clarifies goals and expectations Don’t think the skills work

Generates pride in a job Don’t want to change

Increases job satisfaction Don’t have enough time

Creates willingness to go the extra mile Have tried and it didn’t work

Relieves job boredom or routine Laziness or apathy

Increases productivity Accept mediocre results

Other: Other:

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Setting Expectations and Goals

All good performance begins with clear expectations and goals. Without these,
employees seldom reach their potential. Unfortunately, nearly seven out of 10
supervisors and managers fail at it. Excellent supervisors do it well, and so can you.

A customer-service supervisor had poor customer-survey results in his department.
After attending a seminar, he refocused his performance-management skills. With
employee input, he set customer-satisfaction goals and a recognition plan for making
progress and for accomplishing the goals. After six months, the department’s
customer-service ratings were better, and employee morale was extremely positive.

Supervisors must establish standards for performance. This way, employees will
know what good performance looks like. Then you’ll be able to evaluate more readily
whether performance meets or exceeds expectations. Standards are most often written
in terms of the goals to which they relate: quantity, quality, accuracy, timeliness,
service, and relationships.

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How to Establish Clear Expectations
Establish clear expectations by meeting with employees one-on-one. How frequently
you do this will depend on the employee’s experience level. Set up monthly or
quarterly one-on-one meetings with experienced employees. Meet with inexperienced
employees one-on-one during job training and in weekly or monthly sessions. The
meetings should address the following issues:

Explain the job during the hiring process. Make sure you are involved in the
hiring of your employees or at least have some input. Go over the job
description during the interview.

During the initial meeting, create a job description or job-duties list for the
employee. If the person is experienced, write the job-duties list together. If
the person is inexperienced, you make the list. See the sample on page 24.

Plan to review the job duties and goals regularly together. Focusing on
priorities and goals, ask experienced employees for their input. Also ask
them what they do well and what they can improve. Put the resulting
decisions and agreements in writing so the two of you can review for
progress later.

With new employees, review the first day on the job and at the end of the
first week. While this requires time, it will help the employee understand
the job and succeed.

In addition to the one-on-one meetings:

Focus on key job duties, goals, and results during monthly departmental or
work-group meetings and in special training sessions you may conduct.

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How to Set Goals
In each of the one-on-one meetings, you’ll also discuss the performance goals or
“standards” of the job. For most jobs, you determine three to five goals related to the
priorities of the job. A goal needs to be SMART. This means:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-bound

Effective goal setting increases performance and productivity. Examples of goals are
on page 25. (Just a note: some supervisors have 40 to 100 employees. This is
unfortunate. The best range is seven to 10. It is nearly impossible to meet one-on-one
with 20 or more people, so if you do supervise a large work group, team people up by
job function. Identify team leaders to help you with the expectation-and-goals
process.)

The biggest obstacle supervisors face in goal setting is finding adequate time to do it.
Remember these two points:

Lack of clear expectations and goals relates to 80% of performance problems

Research shows that goal setting can improve performance 25% in areas
where it hasn’t been applied

Now, let’s apply the material we’ve been talking about:

Step 1: Review the sample job description on the next page

Step 2: Review the sample goals on page 25

Step 3: Complete “Establishing Clear Expectations and Goals” on page 26

First, apply it to an employee you will work with. Then continue this process with all
of your employees. Do this regularly, and people will perform better.

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SAMPLE JOB DESCRIPTION

Customer Service Clerk

Overall Responsibility:

To ensure efficient department operations; provide prompt, friendly, courteous customer
service; and maintain high-quality products for customers. This position reports to the
Customer Service Supervisor.

Job Functions/Duties:
Customer Service

• Answer customer questions and complaints in a friendly, helpful, prompt
manner or refer questions to the appropriate staff.

• Issue credits to customer for returned items as referred by cashiers, and
ensure items are properly restocked, repaired, or disposed of.

• Help customer with placing and picking up special orders.
• Ensure a pleasant shopping environment.
• Provide price checks as requested by others.

Department Operations and Maintenance

• Clean up spills and messes promptly. Keep department working area in dean,
orderly condition and retail area clear during shift.

• Accomplish what priority stocking needs to be done per shift.
• Process leftover deliveries as communicated by department manager.
• Communicate with supervisor and department manager any tasks needed to

be done or opportunities to improve.
• Monitor all product for quality and dating. Pull products not meeting

standards.
• Record damaged products accurately.
• Understand and utilize proper sanitizing procedures used during food

preparation.
Personnel

• Help create a safe work environment.
• Maintain open, honest, and positive communications with all personnel.
• Use time efficiently while performing job functions. Set examples for other

employees to observe.

Carry out appropriate opening and closing procedures as established by management.
Deal with equipment breakdowns during shift as needed.
Perform other job-related tasks assigned by management.

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SAMPLE GOALS

1. Complete all action items on the project within five months and on budget

2. Produce a daily average of 580 units this month

3. Reduce cost by 10% this quarter

4. Return all customer calls within 4 hours of receiving the message

5. Answer the phone within three rings 95% of the time

6. Achieve on-time delivery 97% of the time

7. Mail customer follow-up letters within 30 days after the sale

8. Achieve a customer-satisfaction index of 98% or better each month

9. Sell 10 units each month for the next three months

10. Reorganize the service database by August 15

11. Complete the financial statement by the, 10th day, of each month

12. Accomplish 90% or better productivity each month

13. Increase sales by 10% this year

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ESTABLISHING CLEAR
EXPECTATIONS AND GOALS

Name:

Job:

Overall Responsibility:

Key Job Duties:

Mark priorities with an asterisk (*), mark strengths with a plus sign (+), and
mark areas to improve with a check mark ( ).

Performance Goals (SMART):

Complete a copy of this form for each of your employees.

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Giving Positive Feedback

It’s been said that “feedback is the breakfast of champions.” Feedback can be positive
or negative and, when used correctly and appropriately, both are acceptable means of
managing employee performance. Clearly, it is more pleasant to give and receive
positive feedback. When done correctly, constructive negative feedback can help
employees better understand what is expected of them and how their actions
contribute to success—for themselves and for the organization.

It all begins with positive recognition and praise. Over 90% of employees want more
recognition. Have you ever received too much recognition? There are the basic
principles to keep in mind.

Principles of Recognition
Be specific “Thanks for staying late…”

Be as immediate as possible “Thanks for staying late tonight…”

Relate the recognition to the “Thanks for staying late tonight to
activity/result complete that rush order…”

Relate the recognition to the person “Thanks for staying late
tonight to complete that
rush order, Bill…”

Be sincere and genuine “Thanks for staying late tonight to
complete that rush order, Bill. I
appreciate it.”

Give weekly recognition. “Good job meeting the deadline on
that marketing plan this week.”

Praise progress, not just “Your response times are
accomplishmen getting closer to your goal and I

appreciate how hard you are
working on that.”

Positive feedback can also take the form of rewards and recognition, but be sure any
such gestures also follow the principles above. And never assume the gesture takes
the place of specific, personalized praise—tell the employee why he or she is being
rewarded and add your sincere thanks.

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PROVIDING REWARDS AND RECOGNITION
Put a check ( ) next to the things you can do to provide no-cost and low-cost recognition,
and add your own ideas. Then outline a plan of what you intend to do, keeping in mind
the principles of recognition.

No Cost

Say thank you

Praise an employee in front of others

Give recognition in a newsletter

Give out thank-you notes

Send a letter of praise to the family

Post positive comment letters on a bulletin board

Send verbal praise in a voicemail or email

Compliment an employee for effort

Give words of encouragement

Send your manager a positive memo about the employee and copy the employee

Low Cost

Buy the employee lunch Give out T-shirts or caps

Give $10 cash Award a trophy

Take people to a ball game Award a certificate

Give a gift certificate Distribute lapel pins

Your ideas and plans:

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Handling Performance Problems

You will, at times, have to give negative but constructive feedback. It’s a key to high
performance and motivation. If employees don’t know what’s wrong or don’t realize
their mistakes, how will they improve? For example, Olympic athletes get regular
positive and negative feedback from their coaches during workouts.

As a general rule, there are no bad people, just some with behavior problems. An
employee in a mechanical-contracting company had a hard time completing
important customer reports on time. In other areas of the job, he did fine. Just telling
him to complete the reports didn’t change the behavior. Through regular review
sessions, he improved.

Review sessions are one-on-one meetings for the purpose of giving constructive
feedback to improve poor performance in an employee. A review session takes two
general directions:

Counseling: use a mutual discussion process for occasional problems

Disciplinary: use a directive process for chronic or ongoing problems

When using either approach, keep the feedback simple and straightforward, and keep
in mind the following principles.

Principles for Giving Constructive Feedback

Be as immediate as possible

Be specific about the problem

Clarify your expectations, goals, and plans

Avoid judgmental criticism

Treat the person respectfully

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Counseling Method
Most employees want to do a good job. Could you even imagine an employee saying,
“I’m no good. I want to fail.” Some employees just need extra help. It’s human to
make mistakes. In these cases, sit down with them, privately, using these steps.

1. Identify the problem.

“I want to talk to you about being late to work. This is unacceptable
because…”

2. Ask for the employee’s view.

“Please explain to me why this is happening.”

3. Seek the employee’s ideas on how to improve. Add your guidance.

Ask: “What can you do to improve?

“What else can you do?”

Add your ideas: “What if you try…”

4. Agree on a plan and put it in writing.

“So, the plan we discussed is…”

5. Establish a follow-up review of results.

“Let’s discuss results next week. Same time and place.”

This needs to be two-way communication. Conduct it in a positive way. Be
constructive, not critical. Focus on the problem but do not threaten the employee’s
self-esteem. Avoid judgmental comments like, “It’s stupid to do what you do,” or
“You’re a poor employee because of this.”

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Disciplinary Method
A different, but essential part of the supervisior’s job is to take disciplinary action
when warranted. This may be warranted when an employee purposely violates
company policy. Or when nothing you do—establishing goals, providing recognition,
one-on-one communication, or even counseling—helps an employee to improve. It
may come to the point where you need to fire the person.

To protect the employee’s rights, yourself, and your company, there are specific steps
you need to take leading up to this final action. Most companies have disciplinary
procedures that include verbal and written warnings. Be sure you are familiar with
and follow those procedures. Here are general steps to follow in most cases:

1. Identify the problem.

“Sara, the reason I want to talk with you is that your service contracts are below
performance. We have talked about this before and created plans for improvement.”
(Include this statement if you actually have done this.)

2. State the expectation or goal.

“As you know, the goal of the department is…”

3. State the consequence.

“Because of the poor performance, I’m giving you this reprimand, which I’m also
documenting in your file. Continued poor performance could lead to termination.”

4. Ask for employee comments, then summarize.

“Sara, what we have discussed is…. I believe you can do this, and my hope is that you
improve.”

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Whenever you get to this stage, make certain that you:

Clearly understand company policies regarding discipline and termination.
If not, get help from the human resources department or your manager.

Talk things over with human resources and your manager.

Are consistent and clear in setting expectations and goals, giving feedback,
providing training, and communicating with the employee.

Discipline issues are serious for both the employee and you. The employee’s
livelihood and self-esteem are at stake. The potential turnover can cause your
company lost productivity, low morale, and wasted training dollars. Be sensitive, seek
guidance, but also take action.

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IDENTIFYING PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS
Which of the following performance problems do you anticipate you will need
to address in the near future? Put a check ( ) next to any that relate to your
current situation, and add any additional issues you are facing. Then make a
plan to use either counseling or discipline to begin improving employee
performance.

Potential Performance Problems

Poor service or workmanship

Absenteeism

Missed deadlines

Performance below expectations

Tardiness

Difficulty getting along with others

Customer complaints about the person

Critical or negative about work and the company

Poor communication

Lack of follow-through

Other:

Counseling or Discipline?

Describe a situation where you need to or anticipate needing to use the counseling
method.

Describe a situation where you need to or anticipate needing to use the disciplinary
method.

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Supervising with Flexibility

Supervising with flexibility means working with employees according to their
needs and situation. Remember, all employees need goals, recognition, and help
with performance problems. While you will try to apply your approach and
company policies fairly, you will need to supervise individual people differently
to help them perform at their best. For example, some employees need more
training than others, some employees need more pats on the back or recognition,
and a few require a lot more direction from you. Behavioral scientist Dr. Ken
Blanchard calls it, “Different strokes for different folks.” The first step involves
analyzing an employee in two areas:

Motivation: This involves a person’s willingness and desire to do the job. Does the
employee “want to” and believe she can do the job?

Skill: This area takes into consideration experience at doing a job. Does the employee
have the knowledge and ability to perform well?

As a supervisor, your job is to help enhance employees’ willingness and ability to
perform the job successfully. As already discussed, you can help employees increase
their motivation and skills by setting expectations and goals, giving direction, and
providing feedback. Another key to excellence in supervision is flexibility: determining
how to best help each employee, according to the individual’s current needs and
situation. As you gain experience, you will develop a variety of tools and techniques
that work for you. Initially, however, you can apply two basic approaches for
managing for high performance: The Relationship Approach (RA) and the Training
Approach (TA).

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Relationship Approach
As you recall from Case Study 1, supervisors can negatively influence their
employees’ motivation to do the job. There is no good excuse for this. Certainly, there
will be a time when nothing you do as a supervisor seems to change a negative
attitude. You won’t win them all. But an excellent supervisor positively improves the
performance of a department or work group and is invaluable to the company.
Excellent supervisors apply the right approaches that motivate and train their
employees for greater success.

A new supervisor was once asked by the president of her company, “How do you
motivate people?” She responded by saying, “All people motivate themselves for
their own goals. However, I will create an atmosphere in my area where they decide
to be excited and motivated to reach our department goals.” The president smiled and
welcomed the new supervisor to the company. The Relationship Approach means
creating a positive and motivating work environment. When using this method, you
focus more on the person’s motivation than on his or her skill. You spend more time
encouraging and supporting than training.

The best supervisors use goals, performance counseling, and recognition as key
strategies with all employees. They also seek to better understand each individual.
What is their “hot button?” In other words, what motivates them? For example, if it is
fishing, ask them about it once in a while. Other actions to take include:

Encourage the employee

Ask for input and listen to the employee’s ideas

Solve problems with the employee

Be positive and enthusiastic

Check in with the person every day

Give regular praise

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Understanding Employee Needs

In a survey, Total Qualify Newsletter found people to be motivated by these top five
issues:

1. Challenges (goals, risks, change, learning)

2. Recognition for a job well done

3. A feeling of being in on things (teamwork, input, opportunity)

4. Job security

5. Money

Unfortunately, most supervisors and managers think money is the most important
motivator. As a supervisor, focus on the top three areas listed above and you will find
you have a highly motivated, high-performing group of employees. You will find that
even your most experienced employees can reach new levels of accomplishment
when you help renew their enthusiasm by providing for these needs and building
strong relationships and trust.

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