7: manage individual performance

The previous link and this one move firmly in to the management of people and their expectations.

Whatever type of reward plan is implemented, managers must be able to set goals, talk about performance, identify weaknesses and take corrective action.

Too often none of this is done. Managers reward good staff with more work. Rather than have a difficult conversation about poor performance, managers take the work away from under-performing staff and reallocate it to people who are more likely to get things done. Consequently, competent people have more and more work to do while the workload of their less able colleagues diminishes. This breeds resentment and risks demotivating the best. Worse than this, increasing pressure of work may ultimately destroy the effectiveness of good staff.

How much better it would be if the general standard of achievement could be raised so that work could be allocated more evenly. This would increase capacity without additional cost of resources. The team's spirit and motivation is likely to improve and where goals are clearly defined, better results are almost sure to follow.

This requires managers to deal with issues and with people. It is fair to say that few organisations are truly effective at this. There is huge potential for efficiency improvement through the right coaching, training and development for managers and their team members.

Step 8 >>

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