Some more notes and thoughts about the leadership course that i am currently undertaking. It is delivered by an excellent training company called Bute (http://www.buteltd.com/)
Setting goals
By setting goals an employee can clearly identify what is required to measure their performance. This barometer of their success will be useful for both employee and employer during both informal and formal performance reviews.
Where possible it is better for the employee to set their own goals and discuss these with their boss to see how their respective lists of goals for the employee compare.
When the employee contributes and sets their own goals, their commitment and motivation to the goals will be greater rather than receiving a pre-determined list from their boss.
A good method I employ with my own goals is to make them into SMART objectives. This way they are SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVEABLE, RELEVANT, and TIME BASED.
Phase 1: Preparation – Choosing the Right Person
Job Descriptions
The importance of a job description (JD) cannot be underestimated as it specifies the skills, responsibilities, experience, and expectations required for the role as well as possibly, salary and benefits.
Making there things clear will help reduce wasted time on applications that don’t fit. Also by being specific, not waste the time of the recruiters and the applicants. It is also worth adding a little something about the type of personality required for the role so that you get the right fit.
Going Forward
In a role, the job description should be reviewed once a year as roles change due to demand and shift in company requirements. This review would do well to be completed by employer and employee, who can meet to discuss the final draft.
Why Bother?
In a lot of organisations there is a feeling of “why bother” surrounding the subject of job descriptions. It is a response that stops the “jobsworths” from being inflexible in their role, only working within the boundaries of their JD or appraisal objectives and saying “that’s not in my job description”. The same people will expect a bonus just for meeting their objectives.
However this should not be a reason for not having a JD, as without one how can you measure if an employee is performing their responsibilities? If you need to sack someone for not fulfilling their job you have no agreed document that outlines what it is they should have been doing, especially if legal steps are taken.
It will also clear up any grey areas between staff who do not know who should be performing certain tasks or duties as it will be clear where the responsibility lies.
Flexibility
Continuing with the theme of JD’s, it is wise to build in flexible terms such as “work late if work demands require” or “responsible for looking after database X but with dependancy from others to help with other database admin tasks if asked”.
There kinds of phrases can help stop the “jobsworths” and “notmyjob’ers” from putting up barriers around their role and with your JD to hand you can correct them.
Standards
Setting or outlining standards can help to measure the quality of work by an employee. This can involve processes to follow to reach a required standard as well as outlining the level of customer service to be delivered to customers and colleagues.
Working within an IT environment a standard could be that project work must be accompanied by documentation and technical handover before it is deemed complete.
When delivering a project to the live environment the standard could be that if it is a visible change to what the users see, they are notified in advance and offered training and tipsheets.
On an interpersonal level a standard could be that all customers and colleagues are treated with the same respect, meaning no snyde remarks out of earshot or sly looks or raised eyebrows to colleagues.
Delegation
Delegating a task does not mean that it is no longer your responsibility because if the task fails, it will fall to you to explain to the person who delegated to you as to why. When delegating a task, make sure that you provide the right tools to perform the task. It would be no good delegating a task of putting nails into wood if you don’t give the delegatee a hammer!
Effective Training
If the task being delegated is quite technical or requires new skills, then effective training is required. Give the delegatee access to learning material and outlets that are relevant to the task close to when they are due to begin. Training too far in advance will likely be mostly forgotten by the time the tasks begins.
Coaching
As mentioned in one of my previous posts, an employee/colleague will not always learn by being told the solution but by being coached towards finding the solution for themself. Coaching them this way provides a sense of achievement and job satisfaction and a much greater percentage that the knowledge will be retained in the long term.
I recently read a really good book by Sir John Whitmore about coaching called Coaching for Performance in which he describes methods for coaching people to succeed. One of the theories that he has developed along with his contemporaries in the field is the GROW model, which is a technique for goal setting and problem solving.
G – Goal: what is wanted to be achieved.
R – Reality: steps required to meet the goal.
O – Obstacles to be overcome and Options available to do so.
W -Way Forward: creating action steps to follow.
Phase 2: Activation
Now that the delegatee has the goals, SMART objectives, training etc to perform the task, they now need to activate it.
Motivation
By setting their own goals and objectives the delegatee should be able to self-motivate to get it done on time. However if that is not quite the case, the manager may need to introduce “the Carrot”, “the Stick” or “the Plant” depending on the situation.
Here is some more information from a previous article i wrote on Team Motivation.
Phase 3: Evaluation
Having a JD and or SMART objectives would help give an accurate measurement of successful performance at an informal of formal performance review or feedback session.
Feedback
Be prepared before hand for positives as well as negatives. Ask for specific examples when given feedback as you will need to know where the reviewer thinks you succeeded or failed. Take any criticism as an opportunity to improve and turn negatives into SMART objectives.
Her is some more information from a previous article i wrote on Feedback.
