Dairy farmers spend hours thinking about the performance of their cows and crops and visiting about that performance with partners, employees, family members, trusted advisers and other farmers. Much less time and effort are spent concerning employee performance.
Why is that? I suspect the biggest reason is less comfort and even interest in employee performance discussions. It is at least as important as the performance of those cows and crops.
The purpose of this article is to increase your comfort level in performance discussions. There are two types of performance discussions. The first focuses on training and assigning new tasks and/or responsibilities. The second is providing feedback on the execution of those tasks and responsibilities. The focus of this article is the latter – feedback – although all but the first section applies to both.
Determine the correct feedback
One of my favorite quotes is from Don Shula in a book titled Everyone’s a COACH: “Good performance should always be treated differently than poor performance.” This seems obvious, but it is not, especially when performance expectations are not clear. Begin by identifying positives to compliment.
Positive feedback has two delivery modes. The first, which is almost always underused, is spontaneous whenever something positive is observed. The second is as part of a planned performance feedback discussion. Even when the discussion will focus on unmet expectations, positive feedback should be included.
For example, let’s say a new employee or an employee starting a new task or responsibility is not meeting at least one expectation. Focusing only on the unmet expectations would be very demoralizing. Look for positives that can be shared. They could be expectations met and/or positive efforts to meet expectations.
It is important to be specific when providing positive feedback. “You’re doing great” or “great job” is better than nothing. However, that does not tell the employee what he or she is doing well, so it will not necessarily lead to continued and improved performance.
More commonly, our performance meeting is about an unmet expectation or an unacceptable behavior. As we have often discussed, the key decision is whether to provide redirection or negative feedback. The analysis begins by determining the root cause of the unmet expectation. If the root cause or causes are not under the control of the employee, redirection feedback is needed. This will be the more common feedback and almost always the first feedback for an unmet expectation. When it is entirely clear that the unmet expectation is completely under the control of the employee, negative feedback is appropriate.
Listening
One of my sons will soon be seeking a new job. He now works for a nonprofit with a team of employees committed to the mission. Despite that commitment, several key employees have left or are considering leaving. Why? The primary reason for these departures is that the key people know the company has significant issues that need to be addressed, but the CEO is not listening.
No matter how well you have prepared for the performance conversation, you do not have complete knowledge of the situation. You complete your knowledge by asking questions. Ask the employee for his or her perspective on the issue. Alternatively, especially when you are certain you have all the facts or this is a continuing conversation, you can lay out the situation and ask for their input or perspective.
A key to effective listening is to pause before responding. This gives you time to better hear the other person and to provide a more thoughtful response. It often also reduces the “temperature” of the conversation and reduces the defensiveness of the employee.
Clear expectations
Most of us are participants or spectators in one or more sports. One of the reason sports are so compelling is because every sport has a scoreboard. Every player and spectator knows the score and can adjust or cheer accordingly. Knowing the score for employees requires clear expectations. These clear expectations compared with actual performance provide the information to make needed adjustments – the scoreboard. This comparison also provides focus and motivation often lacking when expectations are not clear.
The comparison with sports has a shortcoming. In sports, there are winners and losers. Our goal for performance management conversations is to create all winners.
Collaboration
When you have a crop or livestock performance issue, you use your analysis and root cause inquiry to develop a solution that you then implement. Similarly, with an employee problem, you do the analysis and root cause inquiry.
Now everything changes. First, the employee can speak, think and feel and thus can contribute to an improved solution. Second, you are not the one implementing the solution; that will be the employee.
Both differences mean that the best solution and the greatest likelihood of successful implementation are when the conversation is a collaboration rather than you telling him or her the solution. I have this funny term for a collaborative performance discussion – a formal informal meeting. Formal because there is a plan, and it is scheduled – informal in that it is collaborative with much discussion and listening.
Next steps
Except for the spontaneous positive feedback, every performance discussion should result in a next step. For positive feedback, that next step might be setting an expectation for even better performance. For a redirection discussion, the next step likely will be a plan to bring meeting the expectation under the control of the employee and a next meeting date. For negative feedback, the next step will be a deadline for the employee to have changed his or her behavior to meet the expectation.
