BSBMGT401A: Topic 1 Lead by example
Lead by example
Reading 2: Managing performance
Reading for performance criteria:
1.3 Develop and implement performance plans in accordance with organisation's goals and objectives
1.4 Establish and use key performance indicators to meet organisation's goals and objectives
Contents
Lead by example 1
Introduction 2
Performance planning – what and why? 3
Determining performance expectations 4
Developing team goals, objectives and performance standards 7
Communicating performance expectations 9
Monitoring performance 14
Sample employee performance appraisal form 17
Giving feedback 19
Other methods of performance monitoring & feedback 22
Introduction
A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.Rossalyn Carter
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
John Quincy Adams
Consider what on earth people did thousands of years ago before there were compasses or maps to help them reach their destinations? They planned their journeys according to the sun and stars. These guiding lights were both compasses and maps. They provided evidence that people were headed in the right direction. If they read the sky well, travellers could rely on the sun and stars to indicate distances and weather conditions.
Having a solid performance plan to guide peoples’ efforts at work isn’t much different from having a map, compass, or a reliable star to follow. Performance plans provide people & organisations with direction to reach their destinations – their goals.
Imagine if everyone in the organisation worked as hard as they could to get somewhere but with no plan to guide them. Would they be successful? Only if they were lucky. How would they feel? Lacking clear direction, they might be frustrated and confused. And the organisation itself? How successful could it be with everyone heading in different directions? Probably not vey productive or profitable.
You’ll know from your experience that organisations have expectations about the way leaders and team members should perform. Frontline leaders play a vital role in establishing performance standards for their teams, and clearly communicating them. When anyone is not meeting the standards set frontline leaders have a responsibility to step in and recognise and resolve the problem as well as to achieve maximum levels of productivity from team members.
We saw in the first part of this section that exemplary leaders ‘inspire a shared vision’ by developing plans with the end in mind. A leader ‘enables others to act’ by establishing cooperative, shared goals and objectives in the workplace. They ‘model the way’ by creating standards of excellence and then setting an example for others to follow. They also set interim goals so people can achieve small wins.
Whether your team has just been formed or whether it has developed to the stage of performing well, there are a number of processes to help you plan, manage, and enhance individual and team performance. These include:
· Determining performance expectations
· Communicating performance expectations
· Monitoring and reviewing performance
Performance planning – what and why?
Plans are projected courses of action aimed at achieving objectives. Or, more simply said, planning is simply thinking ahead and deciding what needs to be done BEFORE we start doing it. It involves deciding what we want to achieve and when we want to achieve it, delegating tasks, organising our resources, and monitoring our progress so that we know when we have achieved our goals.
Planning is an important function performed by all managers and supervisors at every level of a successful organisation. Whether you are a team leader, supervisor, or the managing director, your ability to effectively plan and support the operation by delivering the goals and vision of the organisation is key to achieving both your personal career goals and those of the organisation.
We devise plans every day of our lives personally and professionally. In the workplace it is critical that each department or team has a clear plan, which may relate to productivity, customer service, quality or quantity. Importantly, the plan needs to be documented, communicated, and be measurable and achievable for all involved.
Without a plan, you are setting yourself up for failure, or even complete disaster. As the saying goes:
If you fail to planYou plan to fail.
The performance planning processes you may be involved with in your organisation will vary depending on your role. They might include simple plans such as staff rosters, cleaning checklists or training plans, through to more complex plans such as service improvement plans, recruitment plans, promotional plans, business plans, or marketing plans.
Why is performance planning essential?
Performance planning helps teams and individuals to understand what is expected of them, and why. It links their performance to the performance of the rest of their organisation by setting individual and team work goals that contribute to company goals. It also lets them know how they are going and what they can do to improve when necessary.
Performance planning is vital to the success of organisations because it clarifies expectations and provides the support necessary for team members to contribute efficiently and productively. It also increases our sense of purpose, self-esteem and motivation.
Although there are many ways of approaching performance planning and management, it generally involves:
· Analysing the strategic intent and the overall goals of the organisation, and breaking them down into team or workgroup goals and objectives.
· Analysing the jobs and the skills of individuals as they relate to team goals.
· Developing clear goals, objectives and standards relating to individuals’ work performance.
· Clearly communicating performance goals and expectations to team members and gaining agreement on those goals and expectations.
· Monitoring and assessing the performance of team members against goals and standards.
· Recognising and acknowledging good performance of individuals and teams.
· Recognising where performance needs to improve and providing the necessary support for this to happen.
We will now examine some of the ways in which frontline managers contribute to this process.
Determining performance expectations
Picture an Olympic rowing team. Each team member has a role, is well trained, and is performing in a way that keeps the boat moving quickly and smoothly through the water. What would happen if each member of the team started rowing out of synch with the others? If they rowed at different rates, and pulled unevenly on their oars, or ignored the instructions from their captain? We can safely say that not only would the team not win the race, they would be lucky to cross the finish line at all! It’s highly likely that the boat would capsize.
The same holds true in organisations. For an organisation to be successful, it is vital that the performance of each individual and team contributes to and is aligned with the goals and objectives of the organisation. The organisation’s goals and strategies must be taken into account when developing the performance required of teams and individuals.
The following diagram illustrates the process of organisational goals cascading to individual work objectives.
Performance expectations of both teams and individuals can be determined by reviewing documents such as:
· The organisation’s mission/vision statement
· The organisation’s values
· Codes of conduct or business ethics
· Business plans
· Policies and procedures
· Job descriptions
· Person specifications
· Task breakdowns
Values describe what a person or an organisation believes is important in very general terms. They are internal principles that guide our actions and behaviours. For instance, the stated values of AMP are:
· We are customer focused.
· We are market oriented
· We are committed to people
· We achieve results through teamwork
· We are results driven
· We act with integrity
· We take responsibility for ourselves
There is more detail about values in the workplace in the second section of your reading notes for this unit.
A vision provides a clear picture of what everyone is trying to achieve. It describes ‘what we do’ and defines the fundamental purpose of an organisation or team. People need to be challenged and inspired by visions so they know their efforts are worthwhile. For example, AMP’s vision is “AMP helps people achieve their dreams and provides peace of mind’. You can find more information in AMP’s Corporate Governance Statement on the website www.amp.com
A mission statement describes ‘how’ the vision will be achieved. It is usually more specific, and reflects the organisation’s standards in areas such as customer service, employee relations, product or service quality etc. AMP says it this way: “We will be the best at providing valued solutions, superb services and excellent results”.
Organisational goals are based on the values, vision and mission, and describe more specifically the destination that the organisation is aiming for. For example, to provide ‘superb service’ an organisation may develop a goal of ‘achieving an overall customer satisfaction rate of 85%’. Another example might be a goal to achieve ‘excellent results’ by ‘increasing our net profit by 15%’.
Business plans are then developed which detail how each goal is to be achieved by identifying specific action steps, timelines, and resources. You’ll learn more about the processes of business planning in another unit in your course.
Job descriptions describe the duties, tasks and activities to be performed in a particular position or job classification. They provide detail about what is to be done and the standard required. It might also list the internal and external relationships, responsibilities and accountabilities relevant to the job.
Task breakdowns provide an even greater level of detail about what the job entails. They describe specific tasks that need to be completed, and how they are to be undertaken.
Person specifications describe the knowledge, skills and qualifications required by the person in a particular position or job classification – that is, they describe the person doing the job.
In addition to the above documents, most organisations develop and communicate codes of conduct and policies and procedures which describe how people in the workplace are required to behave. There is more information about these documents in part 2 of these reading notes.
Developing team goals, objectives and performance standards
It is usually the role of frontline managers to develop individual and team goals, objectives and performance standards. Since these are the things performance is measured against, they are vital to the success of the performance planning and management system. Without them, any assessment or management of performance becomes difficult, flawed, and often meaningless.
As we discussed previously, individual goals must be related to the goals of the team, the department, and the organisation. Goals are broad statements of intent; they are general and not time-bound. They describe where we are headed if we are fulfilling our purpose. Think of them as ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’.
They are different from objectives. Objectives are based on goals and on the overall purpose of the job, and are specific statements that describe results to be achieved, when, and by whom, in order for goals to be accomplished. They describe quantifiable and/or observable achievements that can be measured; they describe what will be achieved, not how they will be achieved. Objectives are expectations. They may also be further analysed to provide more specific performance requirements in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or Key Performance Minimums (KPMs).
This diagram below shows the relationship between goals, objectives and KPIs. Keep refining your goals until you arrive at objectives and KPIs you can work with and that you feel are meaningful, believable and specific enough to provide a sense of direction.
An example might be:
Organisation goal / Objective / KPITo maximise returns for shareholders / To decrease overall payroll costs / To decrease payroll costs by 5% during the financial year ending June 2009
So you can see that the KPIs you have at a departmental level reflect the objectives, goals and KPIs set at organisational level. The KPIs you plan to achieve in your department contribute towards the achievement of your organisation’s KPIs, which in turn help the organisation to achieve overall business goals and objectives.
Here is an example of a team performance plan to achieve the above KPI.
TEAM GOAL/ TARGET/ KPI:To decrease overall payroll costs by 5% during the financial year ending June 2009.
ACTION STEPS / BY WHEN / BY WHOM / RESOURCES/COSTS
1. (start point). Determine current year’s payroll costs / June 30 2008 / Self / 2007 budget – actual payroll
2. Review 2007 actual expenditure & rosters, plus 2008 anticipated revenue; look for potential greater efficiencies / July 7 2008 / Self
Assistant / 2008 budget actuals
2008 rosters
2009 anticipated revenue budget
3. Develop plan to reduce payroll costs for 2008 fiscal year; review with Manager; gain approval to implement / July 14 2008 / Self
Manager / 2009 Payroll Plan
4. Communicate plan to relevant team members; ask for feedback & further suggestions for implementation & contingency plans / July 21 2008 / Self
Team members / 2009 Payroll Plan
Meeting room
Powerpoint presentation
Whiteboard/pens
5. Begin plan implementation & monthly monitoring; implement contingency plans if required / From August 1 2008 / Self
Team members
Manager / 2009 Payroll Plan
6. (end point) Determine 2008 payroll costs; prepare & submit report to Manager / June 2009 / Self / 2009 Payroll Report
Contingency Actions:
· To be determined with team members
· Review payroll according to actual business requirements
· Reduce or increase payroll expenditure depending on business requirements
Monitoring Strategies:
· Review monthly actual payroll reports
· Review monthly anticipated revenues
· Prepare graphs for presentation to team members
Communication & Consultation:
· Initial planning meeting with relevant team members
· Report progress to them at team briefings
· Ask for formal & informal feedback
· Post bar graphs showing progress on staff notice-board
There is more information about the process of developing and implementing operational plans in another unit of your course.