P3 Performance – Using the 3 P’s to Dramatically Improve Performance

We’ve all seen it. Your superstar cashier, John, has always been a top performer. He has always smiled and greeted our guests. His paperwork is always correct. He has been your go to person to help train new cashiers.

However, over the past few weeks, John’s performance has been deteriorating. He no longer smiles, and usually grunts his greetings to guests. There are now multiple errors each day on his paperwork. The other employees are complaining that John is surly and rude to them. As a Leader, you decide that he needs to be retrained. You contact Corporate Training, and ask for John to be registered for a remedial customer service module as well as a paperwork refresher course. John grudgingly attends, but his attitude and performance do not improve. Eventually, you make the difficult decision to terminate John.

What happened? Why didn’t the training work? The simple answer is that training is not always the answer for performance issues. In fact, it is rarely the answer. My brother coached a high school basketball team. In a recent game, his team jumped out to a 20 point lead. By halftime, the lead had been reduced to two points. Did they suddenly forget how to play basketball? Did they need a refresher on how to play? Not at all. They merely needed to be motivated. The threat of running laps around the gym was motivation enough. They went on to win the game.

So what is the answer? The first thing we need to realize is that we cannot ignore the problem. If we do, it will get worse and worse. Also, training is not the answer to most performance issues. Training may be a part of the answer, but it is not the only intervention. Finally, we cannot jump straight to termination for performance issues either. Sometimes our knee jerk reactions cause us to fire a potential superstar performer, when all we had to do was to correctly assess the true issue and take steps to correct it. This middle ground approach is called Human Performance Improvement (HPI). This middle ground is how we should handle employees with problems.

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) defines HPI as the systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non-financial results.

That is a big definition that means that when we are faced with a performance issue, we first have to determine the cause, decide on what to do, and then put the solution in place to fix the issue. How do we determine what has caused the performance issue? Most often, that is the easy part, if we take the time to observe and listen. Human Performance is affected by three things:

• People
• Processes
• Place
  

All three of the pieces of the Performance Puzzle must be properly joined together for the performance to be at maximum levels. Let’s look at each a little more.

People:

Most organizations are built on people. If our organization did not have people, we would quickly fail. So when assessing performance, we have to start with the people. Do we have the right person? Is this person a good fit for Lanier and our culture? Is Lanier a good fit for the employee? Is the job they are doing a good fit for them? Or should they be doing something else that fully utilizes their strengths? Are we building a pipeline of good candidates as we move people into other projects?

Processes:

If a process is bad, the best person cannot perform at a high level. We have to constantly audit our processes. Even when something worked before, something in the work environment may have changed to the point where the process must be modified.

When doing a process audit, we have to map out the process. We do that by watching each step of the process, documenting the step, and then asking, “Why are you doing that?” By the end, we have the process mapped out, and can more easily spot breakdowns.

Place:

Place is about the physical work environment and the environment created by the leadership and peers. The work environment has as much of a profound impact (if not greater) on job performance and satisfaction as does management, salary, personality, knowledge and skill. It influences every aspect of our being and directs our actions and reactions. We are not usually conscious of these effects but our physical and mental / emotional well being are dictated by our surroundings:

1. Physical work space – Color, air, lighting, sound, and work station all play a major role in productivity, quality of performance, attendance, and interpersonal relationships. Is our workspace neat and organized? Is it cramped? Is it hot? Is it cold? Do the employees have what they need to do the job?
2. Created by leadership / peers – is there a reward / recognition program in place? Does the leader only notice when the employee screws up? Does the employee want to come to work? Do their peers make the job more difficult through comments or inaction?

So the next time you are faced with a low performer, consider what part of the Performance Puzzle has changed and take the appropriate steps to correct.

 

When Setting Goals, Work SMARTER!

One of my favorite quotations comes from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Alice comes to a fork in the road and sees a Cheshire cat sitting in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asks the cat. “Where do you want to go?” the cat responded. “”I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

One of the key areas of leadership is the ability to set and achieve goals. Goal setting, therefore, is a fundamental skill every leader needs to develop. Goals set the vision of the organization, team, or individual. Additionally, the goals help indicate the direction to go to meet the mission. People want a strong sense of where they are going, and they do not want to feel like they are going nowhere.

When done correctly, goals can be a powerful motivator for individuals and organizations. But if done poorly, they have undesired effect of demotivating people, thereby diminishing the employee’s and team’s effectiveness. Even so, many leaders never develop this skill.

At this time of year, many organizations are going through their employee review process. So this is a great time to discuss SMARTER goal setting. The best goals are SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound, Exciting, and Reevaluated).

Specific:

Specific goals are precise and clear in their intent. There is no ambiguity and they are not overly broad. Specific goals have a much better chance of being accomplished than general goals. For a goal to be Specific, it must answer these “W” questions:

· Who is involved?

· What do I want to accomplish?

· Where will this occur?

· When will it happen?

· Which obstacles will I need to overcome?

· Why am I doing this?

For example, an overly broad goal would be, “To get into shape.” Who is getting into shape? What shape? To make that goal Specific, you could state, “To improve my level of physical fitness, I will join a heath club, and work out 3 days per week.”

Measureable:

A wise man once said, “That which gets measured gets done.” And that man was right. If we know that we will be held accountable to measure something, we have a harder time trying to work around it – we are more likely to stay on track and reach key target dates. For goals to be effective, we have to set up concrete criteria for measuring success. To be able to measure goals, we have to answer the “How” questions:

· How much?

· How many?

· How will I know I’ve been successful?

Accountable:

All goals should spell out who you are accountable to for the goal. That accountability may be to you, but it should be clear. If we are accountable, we are more likely to follow through and complete the goal.

Realistic:

You must be willing and able to work towards a goal. We must be able to reach a goal, or we will give up. If a goal is realistically attainable, we will figure out ways to overcome obstacles to reach the goal by developing the attitude and ability required.

Time-based:

All good goals have an end point that you can point to on any calendar. Success can only be measured if there is a deadline. The time frame creates a sense of urgency to achieve a goal.

Evaluate:

Make sure that you are regularly reevaluating your goals. Things change throughout the year, and these changes may make a goal unrealistic. Look for changes in the work environment, business setting, people, etc.

Revise as needed:

If your evaluation shows that a goal is no longer realistic due to changes, be proactive and revise it. Don’t continue to work towards a goal that you cannot attain. Don’t make your team work towards an unattainable goal either. Don’t set them up for failure, let’s build them towards success.

Good goal setting will make any team stronger and more successful. Get in the habit of creating SMARTER goals for you and your team.

What is a Leader?

What is a Leader? That’s an easy question, isn’t it? But it is an important thing to consider in our constantly changing and increasingly complex business world. So, what is a Leader?

Some would say that a Leader is the boss. However, that’s not always true – a Leader may be the boss, but the boss may not always be a Leader. So, again, what is a

Leader?

Is it power that makes a Leader? Is the most powerful person the Leader? A man with a gun to your head has power and can make you follow him, but is he a Leader? I believe most people would say “No”.

A Leader has vision, and has the ability to get others to share that vision. Leaders inspire others to follow them to a destination; a destination somewhere other than where they are. Leaders help organizations to move forward to places they’ve never been.

The simplest answer is that a Leader is someone who has followers. Well, yes, that’s true. But what makes that Leader effective at getting people to follow them? That’s at the core of what a Leader is. Over the years, there have been many theories as to what makes a good Leader and why some can lead and others never seem to get it. Some people feel that Leadership is fixed at birth – that leadership is not “teachable”. Others think that our experiences shape us into Leaders. Still others think that it is a combination of the two. So, again I ask, what is a Leader?

As Lachlan McLean said, “You can only lead others where you yourself are willing to go”. Or as E.M. Kelly said, “Remember the difference between a boss and a Leader; a boss says, ‘Go!’ A Leader says, ‘Let’s go!’” So, Leaders, as the name suggests, start on the path towards their vision, and then help others come along on the journey.

Sometimes, when in leadership positions, it is easy to sit back and dictate orders to other people and expect that things will go your way with little argument. While you

May have worked hard to earn that position, true Leadership is not about titles or position; it is a way of thinking and a way of acting. Don’t forget the path that you

took to get there. Other people are now on that same path.

Leaders start things; Managers keep things going. Leaders shape change; Managers keep change at bay.

Are you a Leader or just a Manager?

Leadership has become a critical element of creating high performance individuals and organizations. Leadership development today goes beyond a traditional view of

leadership, that of leading others. It is also about personal leadership, and leading from the inside out. I think that a great leader is someone who has developed mastery in

both areas. The capacity to establish leadership is a developed skill. There is no “special” type of person that makes a leader. However, learning to lead effectively requires skills development and practice. But most of all, it takes the initiative and the drive to do what it takes to develop those skills.