PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

COMMUNICATE CLEARLY

• Establish an open-door policy and ensure that you follow through on that commitment. If a team member comes to you for help, you should make yourself available to talk either immediately or soon thereafter. • Be sure you are clearly communicating your expectations to your team. • Always listen to your employees and their concerns, even in times when you disagree. • Ask a team member to summarize the stated expectations to ensure you are aligned. • Be sure to actively listen and not think about what you are going to say next • Take time in your one-on-one meetings to see if any team member needs clarification of the expectations or • As a best practice summarize what you heard the employee say before taking your turn to speak. if they feel clear.

COMMUNICATE OFTEN

• Use your team meeting to reinforce expectations and to highlight examples of high performing behavior. • Use your check-ins with your individual team members to discuss how they are performing against expectations.

CHALLENGE YOUR EMPLOYEES

• At team meetings discuss the behaviors that differentiate meeting expectations vs. exceeding expectations. • Be upfront that you will be assessing performance throughout the year and will be working to distinguish individuals that are exceeding expectations vs. those that are meeting expectations.

RECOGNIZE LEVEL OF EFFORT

• Recognize team members that are going above and beyond in team meetings being sure to address the specific behaviors and the positive impact it is having on the team/organization. • Be sure to recognize extra effort in performance reviews. At a minimum, this recognition could be incorporated in the text of the performance review. Ideally you will be able to recognize the effort in the monetary component of the review as well.

BE HONEST WITH PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

• Always be honest in your ratings on performance reviews. • A common mistake that managers make is giving higher ratings to lower performing employees hoping that by giving the higher rating the employee will improve. This does not work. • Higher performing employees will disengage if they perceive that they are getting the same rating as others who have not put in as much effort.