Unlocking the Potential of Frontline Managers

In most organizations we promote our best individual contributors into front line managers. However, many times a top performing individual contributor will not necessarily be a good front line manager. In fact, according to the the Corporate Executive Board- “Nearly 60% of front line managers under perform during their first two years and more than 50% would rather not manage people”.

This is important because the relationship between an employee and his or her manager affect engagement, performance, retention and overall productivity. We wondered what actions we could take to improve the effectiveness of front line managers, after looking at the situation and surveying our clients we came up with the following;

Six Keys to Unlock the Potential of Front Line Managers.

1. Identify the employees with the capability and interest to be good managers.

2. Help your managers clarify their teams’ goals and roles.

3. Help your managers understand the people they manage.

4. Help your managers understand themselves and how they impact their people.

5. Don’t assume your managers know how or when to coach.

6. Minimize the administrative work to give managers more time to develop people.

If you are interested in learning more or how to accomplish these steps download our report.

Why Traditional Performance Appraisals Don’t Improve Performance

Every business is looking for improved performance and well designed performance appraisals are the weapon of choice for most organizations. I should know because I’ve designed and implemented many performance appraisal systems, and as an employee been a consumer of them as well.

The reality is that many of the traditional performance appraisal methods do not work as designed, and in fact present several problems.  Let me give you an example. Have you ever had this experience? You  go into the annual performance review session, having met or exceeded most if not all your objectives feeling positive and upbeat, but you come out feeling like you have just had a trip to the woodshed. I know I have, and I have often wondered what happened. I got my pay increase and my bonus, because I met most if not all of my objectives, but was left wondering why my manager seemed only to focus only on areas for improvement. What did I learn from this? Next time don’t sign up for such aggressive objectives aka “sand bagging”.

Why is this? Most managers are not prepared or trained to provide coaching for performance or to help employees focus on strengths and potential, so instead they focus on what you didn’t do well enough. As a result many times performance appraisals actually cause problems like:

• Appraisals are often not perceived as valid by employees
• Forced distribution ensures de-motivation and lack of cooperation
• Appraisals create manager-employee contention as most feedback is negative
• Appraisal may systemically reduce performance levels
• Appraisals often mis-align the company as annual objectives are adequate for senior leadership, but are often inadequate at the working level

The problem with traditional performance management is that we focus entirely on results and we view it as a process. To achieve the results we desire, we have to focus on the whole system and  change people’s behaviors, which is a lot harder to do.  One of the keys to changing behavior, improving engagement and performance is to help managers be more effective coaches. Coaches improve people’s thinking and change behavior to achieve goals, where managers tell people what to do and then measure whether they did it or not.

If you are interested in learning more about unlocking the potential of front line leadership, download our latest research.

The Art of Hiring Smart

Have you ever made a bad hire, someone who didn’t live up to your expectations? Conversely, have you ever hired someone who exceeded your expectations? What did you differently in both situations? If you are like most hiring managers  your answer is likely nothing?
While it’s true that hiring has been at a slow pace for the past couple of years, it’s also true that finding top talent has been and will continue to be a challenge for every organization. Today’s workforce is the smartest best educated ever, yet…
We’ve all been there. After an extensive and thorough search for a line manager, one candidate stands out. This candidate has the right experience, solid qualifications, and a relevant work history, and she gave an impressive performance during the interview process. She said the right things, put forward some great ideas and generally presented very well. You hired her.Three months later, you begin to question your decision. Your new hire’s team appears disgruntled, morale is low, and output and productivity are well behind the figures from the previous quarter. After investigating further and speaking with a few key team members, you realize there’s a disconnect—a mismatch. While she looked impressive on paper and presented well during one-on-one interviews, your new hire’s style, approach, and behavior on the job are simply inconsistent with the values and expectations of your organization. Her modus operandi is foreign to her colleagues.
Your new hire is not a good cultural fit and one or more of the following hazards may be the cause…. Download a copy of our report to learn  Why Smart Employees Under Perform. and what you can do to avoid this happening in your organization.

Productive Workplaces

Building Productive Workplaces

Lessons from America’s Most Productive Companies

This information provides a summary of the findings from a 2009 study analyzing financial data, and people management practices from 1666 publicly traded companies in the US. The goals of the study were to identify which companies were more productive than their peers and which people management practices they had in common. In economics “productivity” is a measure of output per unit of input. This report focuses specifically on labor productivity, defined as revenue produced per full-time employee or full-time equivalent.

Following are the common people management attributes of The Most Productive Companies in our study.

People Attributes of America’s Most Productive Companies

1. Create performance–driven cultures where actions and results speak louder than words. Organizational culture is an important driver of employee behavior, and although a strong organizational culture is generally considered a positive attribute, it is not sufficient to enhance productivity on it’s own. In a performance driven culture the entire workforce focuses its effort to achieve the organizations objectives.
2. Clearly define attributes of people who fit their culture that are used for hiring decisions, performance management and development. The most productive companies use the shared characteristics of high-performing employees as a model for hiring and improving performance.
3. Proactively identify and develop effective managers. An effective manger takes responsibility for ensuring that an individual succeeds and that the team, department or business unit achieves its expected results. This is similar to the way effective coaches develop players in order to win games and championships.
4. Invest in information and tools to help front-line managers better understand their people and succeed. The most productive companies also give their managers the information and tools they need to understand the capabilities and styles of their teams. This gives managers a solid foundation for more effective coaching relationships.
5. Clearly align roles and responsibilities with the goals of the organization. Have the right people in the right jobs with the experience, skills and equipment to deliver. Define the model and select employees who fit.
6. View requests to add headcount with healthy skepticism, and only after exhausting good alternatives. America’s most productive companies do more with less. Since these organizations run so lean they are usually more flexible than their peers in handling special circumstances such special projects, peak demand, and unplanned absences.
7. Provide employees with clear goals to help them focus on the outcomes that matter most to the organization. Running lean is not the only thing a company must do to run well. Goals must be achieved at the employee level so results can be observed at the organizational level. Strategic objectives and goals are clearly defined at all levels of the organization and performance measures are closely aligned with strategy.
8. Ensure that employees have the right fit for their jobs, as well as proper experience skills and equipment to perform. The most productive companies have a clear picture of the type of employee who has the best chance of succeeding in the role, However, “fit” alone is not sufficient to ensure an employee will be effective in a job-experience and skills also factor largely into the formula
9. Innovation results from incremental improvements to- and fine tuning of- existing strategy and process. The word “innovation” often evokes images of major breakthroughs and home run projects. However, most innovations are the result of incremental improvements and fine-tuning of existing processes.
10. Failure is not discouraged, and innovation is driven by open communication, teamwork and risk-taking.

To read the full report-America’s Most Productive Companies-2009- What Makes the 2009 Winners Great click here.

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