Performance Management

Skills:
Overview
 Coaching
 Coaching Styles
 Coaching Process
 Performance Review Meetings
 Coaching: Definition (1)
 Helping relationship
 Manager
• Interacts with employee and
• Takes active role and interest in
performance
 Coaching: Definition (2)
 Collaborative ongoing process
• Directing employee behavior
• Motivating employee behavior
• Rewarding employee behavior
• Concern with long-term
performance
Understanding Successful Coaching
Guiding Principles (1)
 A good coaching relationship is
essential:
• Trusting and collaborative
• Willing to listen in order to
understand
• Looking for positive aspects of the
employee
• Understanding that coaching is
done with the employee, not to the
employee
Understanding Successful Coaching
Guiding Principles (2)
 The Employee is the Source
and Director of change
 The Employee is whole and
unique
 The Coach is the Facilitator of
the Employee’s growth
 Major Coaching Functions:
 Give advice
 Provide guidance
 Provide support
 Give confidence
 Promote greater competence
 Key Coaching Behaviors
 Establish developmental
objectives
 Communicate effectively
 Motivate employees
 Document performance
 Give feedback
 Diagnose performance problems
 Develop employees
The Good Coach Questionnaire
 Do you listen to your employees?
 Do you understand the individual
needs of your employees?
 Do you encourage employees to
express their feelings openly?
 Do you provide your employees
with tangible and intangible
support for development?
 Do your employees know your
expectations about their
performance?
(continued on next slide)
 The Good Coach Questionnaire
(continued)
 Do you encourage open and honest
discussions and problem solving?
 Do you help your employees create
action plans that will
 Solve problems?
 Create changes?

 Do you help your employees

explore potential areas of growth
and development?
 Coaching Styles
More Less
assertive assertive

Task & Fact

oriented Driver Analyzer

People
oriented
Persuader Amiable
 Adaptive coaches use all styles
according to employee needs:
 Sometimes providing direction
 Sometimes persuading
 Sometimes showing empathy
 Sometimes paying close
attention to rules and established
procedures
 Coaching Process

Identify
Developmental
Set
Resources &
Developmenta
Strategies
l Goals
Implement
Strategies

Give Feedback Observe and

Document
Developmental
Behavior
 Coaching Process:
Steps covered in Chapter 8
 Set Developmental Goals
 Identify Resources and
Strategies Needed to Implement
Developmental Goals
 Implement Developmental Goals
 Coaching Process:
Overview of remaining steps
 Observe and Document
Developmental Behavior and
Outcomes
 Give Feedback
• Praise
• Negative Feedback
Observe and Document Developmental
Behavior and Outcomes
Constraints:
 Time
 Situation
 Activity
Organizational Activities
to improve documentation of
performance
 Good communication plan to get
manager buy-in
 Training programs
• Rater error training
• Frame-of-reference training
• Behavioral observation training
• Self-leadership training
Reasons to document performance
 Minimize cognitive load
 Create trust
 Plan for the future
 Provide legal protection
 Recommendations for
Documentation
 Be specific
 Use adjectives and adverbs
sparingly
 Balance positives with negatives
 Focus on job-related information
 Be comprehensive
 Standardize procedures
 Describe observable behavior
 Giving Feedback
 Main purposes:
• Help build confidence
• Develop competence
• Enhance involvement
• Improve future performance
Potential costs of failing to provide
feedback:
 Employees are deprived of
chance to improve their own
performance
 Chronic poor performance
 Employees have inaccurate
perceptions of how their
performance is regarded by
others
 To be effective, feedback should:
 Be timely
 Be frequent
 Be specific
 Be verifiable
 Be consistent (over time and
across employees)
 Be given privately
 Provide context and consequences
(continued next slide)
To be effective, feedback should:
(continued)
 Provide description first, evaluation
second
 Cover the continuum of performance
 Identify patterns
 Demonstrate confidence in employee
 Allow for both
• Supervisor’s advice and
• Idea generation by both
 Employee
 Supervisor
 Guidelines for Giving Praise
 Be sincere – only give praise when
it is deserved
 Give praise about specific behaviors
or results
 Take your time
 Be comfortable with act of praising
 Emphasize the positive
 Giving Negative Feedback
Managers avoid giving negative
feedback due to:
 Negative reactions and consequences

 Negative experiences in the past

 Playing “god”

 Need for irrefutable and conclusive

evidence
Negative feedback is most useful when
it:
 Identifies warning signs and
performance problem is still
manageable
 Clarifies unwanted behaviors and
consequences
 Focuses on behaviors that can be
changed
 Comes from a credible source
 Is supported by hard data
Feedback Sessions should always
answer: (1)
 How is your job going?

 Do you have what you need

to do your job?
 Are you adequately trained?

 Do you have the skills and

tools you need to do your

job?
Feedback Sessions should always
answer: (2)
 What can be done to improve?
• Job
• Product
• Services
 How can you better serve your
customers?
• Internal
• External
 Supervisory roles in managing
performance
 Judge
• Evaluate performance
• Allocate rewards
 Coach
• Help employee solve performance
problems
• Identify performance weaknesses
• Design developmental plans
Performance Review Formal Meetings
Possible types of formal meetings:
1. System Inauguration
2. Self-Appraisal
3. Classical Performance Review
4. Merit/Salary Review
5. Developmental Plan
6. Objective Setting
Steps to take before meeting:
 Give at least 2 weeks notice
 Block sufficient time
 Arrange to meet in a private
location without interruptions
Merged Performance Review Meeting
Components
1. Explanation of meeting purpose
2. Employee self-appraisal
3. Supervisor & employee share rating and
rationale
4. Developmental discussion
5. Employee summary
6. Rewards discussion
7. Follow-up meeting arrangement
8. Approval and appeals process discussion
9. Final recap
 Possible defensive behaviors of
employees
 Fight response
• Blaming others
• Staring at supervisor
• Raising voice
• Other aggressive responses
 Flight response
• Looking/turning away
• Speaking softly
• Continually changing the
subject
• Quickly agreeing without basis
• Other passive responses
To prevent/reduce defensive
behaviors
 Establish and maintain rapport
 Be empathetic
 Observe verbal and nonverbal
cues
 Minimize threats
 Encourage participation
 When defensiveness is
unavoidable:
 Recognize it
 Allow its expression
Accept employee’s feelings
Ask for additional information and
clarification (if appropriate)

If situation becomes intolerable

 Reschedule the meeting for a

later time
 Quick Review
 Coaching
 Coaching Styles

 Coaching Process

 Performance Review

Meetings