Without clear standards and regular measurement, performance suffers. Even the self-motivated achiever will produce disappointing results when they lack direction.
Every manager and employee must have a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, and they must be measured against those expectations daily. Inspect often to ensure the results you expect are achieved, and let everyone know where his or her performance ranks.
Be Clear on Expectations
It is important for leaders to be crystal clear on what is expected, but managers often fail to set and communicate clear and measurable performance criteria.
Every position or job responsibility should have established quantifiable standards which are used to hold the employee accountable. If the position is responsible for revenue or profitability, how much is expected? What is the minimum expectation by week or month? What is considered above average or superior?
There is also more to a position than the numbers of widgets that are expected be completed on a regular basis. These are other intangible measures, and even these are usually measureable and observable. What is the level of service expected to internal and external customers? How are people expected to treat one another? What type of attitude should employees exhibit in the workplace? What must managers do to promote the culture of the team or company?
If managers and employees do not clearly understand what is expected of them, it is very unlikely that they will ever achieve the expected level of performance, let alone surpass it.
The expectations for each role, and the criteria for success, should have been clearly communicated during the hiring and on-boarding process. If they weren’t, the failure to do it now will create bigger long-term problems.
Set Stretch Goals
It is worth repeating that you cannot reach a goal you do not have. You also cannot achieve a goal that you don’t understand. It follows that if your goals are easy to achieve, you will almost certainly underperform to your capabilities.
Setting goals has several problems. What performance standards should be set and when should they be changed to set the performance bar higher?
Often managers have been promoted because they performed well in the jobs they now supervise. As a result, setting goals for their team can be tricky. They certainly know what they were able to accomplish, but it may have been awhile since they actually did the work. Changes may have been made which impact performance expectation.
If you are unclear on what the goals and standards should be, take the time to observe and measure current performance on specific requirements for all employees. Then, rank their performance and calibrate what is considered satisfactory performance based on what is observed.
Recently, I witnessed a CEO setting performance measurement criteria for all critical functions in the organization. When reviewing actual performance against these criteria, most of the performance wasn’t even close. Perhaps process changes were getting in the way, or training was not sufficient. Whatever the cause, this leader recalibrated the criteria to make sure the majority of employees were at least within the expected standard.
If standards are set too high, and unachievable, then they will have little use as a measurement tool and a negative impact on morale.
The challenge for this leader, and for any of us, is to evaluate what it will take to get the level of performance to a standard that is acceptable and achievable. This must be a specific goal that can be achieved over time.
Measure Performance Religiously
When performance standards are set, they must be measured. If they are not, it won’t take employees long to decide that they must not be important. If employees are to be held accountable, then measurement is essential.
There are several benefits of regular measurement. It helps keep managers and employees focused on what’s important. If there are issues, they can be corrected early. If performance is not corrected, then appropriate and timely management action can be taken.
Don’t be Afraid to Communicate Ranking
I have seen managers unwilling to regularly share performance results with employees in similar positions because they didn’t want to embarrass underachievers. Nonsense! I appreciate their empathy, but the best way to direct it is to help those underperformers to improve.
It has been said many times that you must inspect what you expect. It follows that you must communicate not only what is expected, but also the results of the inspections.
Within most of us is a competitive spirit. We don’t want to underperform and find ourselves at the bottom of the heap. Performance visibility is a good thing. It creates an opportunity to recognize top performers and to help those who need improvement. Over time, an awareness of the team’s performance level can lift overall performance and raise the bar for continuous improvement.
Leaders must be clear and definitive about what is expected. They must ensure that all performance is measured, good performance is rewarded, and shortfalls are improved.
Most people want to do well. With proper expectations and encouragement, you’ll draw out their very best efforts.
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Tags: Expectations, Goals, Improvement, Performance
Jerry Baker began his career in the management development program at Ford Motor Company, later became a manager of budgets and analysis for Northrop Corporation, then furthered his management development as Deputy Director for the California Department of Commerce when Ronald Reagan was Governor.
Great post Jerry. I had to have the “performance” and “expectations” talk with my team at the end of 2009 as we set goals for 2010. We are now at the end of Q1 and its time for us our first formal review. We’ll be using the Keep-Start-Stop tool primarily but I am going to share the production rankings and remind everyone of performance expectations for the next 9 months.
Thanks for the reminder that this is so important and key part to leading a successful team.
Dan
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[…] is important to have clear benchmarks established in advance, and then to measure performance against those expectations. Every function must have known performance standards and expectations […]