The Point of Monitoring Performance against Objectives
Imagine this: It’s your performance appraisal meeting. As you enter the room you find your manager frantically scrabbling in her drawer trying to find copies of the performance objectives you last agreed – 12 months ago. She finds the objectives, blows off the dust and you both stare at them blankly? Has that ever happened to you?
Many managers I know do some excellent work agreeing performance objectives with their staff then … nothing. Clearly once managers have agreed performance objectives they then need to agree with their staff how they are going to go about monitoring performance against those objectives
Why?
Monitoring Performance = Effective Measures
Because research tells us that clear objectives with effective measures can improve performance by over 30%? Well here’s the part about ‘effective measures’ (and it’s impossible to measure performance without monitoring performance)
Monitoring Performance = Effective Performance Feedback
Also by effectively monitoring performance managers gather the information they need to give feedback which is;
• Accurate
• Objective
• Balanced
The type of feedback that staff tell us they want more of, because they find it constructive and motivational, and which improves performance
Monitoring Performance = A Valued Staff Member
Also, by monitoring performance, managers demonstrate to their staff member;
• How important they consider their staff member’s work to be
• How much they value their staff member’s contribution to the business
After all, why would a manager you bother monitoring staff performance if they didn’t think that performance was valuable? I guess they wouldn’t. When managers monitor performance they pay attention to their staff’s work and that, in itself, is motivational
Monitoring Performance – What Does It Actually Mean?
Monitoring performance is a structured, planned activity where both the manager and the staff member collect examples and samples of their actual performance for comparison against the agreed performance objectives
And a quick word about what monitoring isn’t – it isn’t about checking every bit of the staff member’s work or about following them around. It’s about collecting examples and samples
Monitoring Performance – Do The Managers in Your Business Need Help?
The skill to effectively monitoring performance is to
a) Identify a range of easy to use, practical monitoring methods
b) Involve the staff member in monitoring their own performance
c) Design and implement a structured monitoring plan
In my video ‘Motivating Your Staff by Monitoring and Reviewing Performance’ I teach managers how to; identify a range of monitoring methods that are easy to apply and effective, involve the staff member in monitoring their own performance, use a planned (and unplanned) approach to monitoring, how to prepare effectively for a performance review / appraisal meeting and how to run the meeting in a way that the staff member finds highly motivational. Take a look at the video details and find out how to watch a preview session from the video HERE