Archive for the ‘How To’ Category

How to talk to your staff about their job satisfaction

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

We know that showing a high level of interest and concern for our staff member results in higher levels of motivation and performance. One of the most powerful ways to do this is to have a conversation specifically about how to maintain or improve their current level of job satisfaction. After all, who wouldn’t feel motivated by having a manager who cares about our satisfaction at work and who is happy to spend the time talking to us about this subject which is so close to our hearts?

 

Some managers, though, are reluctant to hold these conversations in case they result in ‘opening a can of worms’ – more specifically in case the staff member comes to them with a list of wants and needs they, the manager, cannot meet

 

Here’s a simple process that enables you to talk to your staff member about their job satisfaction in a way that’s risk free and highly motivational

 

Four Steps for Talking about Job Satisfaction

   

STEP ONE. Explain to the staff member that you would like to talk with them about their job satisfaction and how you both can either maintain it if it’s high or improve it if it needs improvement. Top tip: make this conversation only about their job satisfaction as it has much more perceived value as a ‘stand alone’ conversation rather than tacked on to a conversation about their performance

 

STEP TWO. Ask the staff member to undertake this exercise in preparation for the meeting:

 

1. Answer the question ‘What do you want from your job, me as your manager, the organisation’?

 

2. Identify which of these ‘wants’ can be addressed by you and me, rather than ‘wants’ that can only be addressed by others / the business (because what we are aiming to do here is focus on what we can directly influence)

 

3. Of these, rate your current level of satisfaction between 0 (not at all satisfied) to 5 (fully satisfied)

 

STEP THREE. At the meeting ask the staff member to talk through their list. Use questions like these to explore their answers;

 

·         Tell me more about why this issue is important to you?

 

·         What are your priorities here?

 

·         What ideas do you have on how you and I can maintain or improve your satisfaction in these areas?

 

Dealing with Unworkable Ideas

 

There may be ideas that are (in your opinion) not ‘workable’. For example, the staff member may want to undertake some training which means they will be away from their job during a time when you know there will be a high volume of work to complete. Explore these areas with questions, particularly with any variation on the key question ‘Talk me through how that would work?’

 

So in this example you might ask ‘Thinking about the pressure of work we will be under at that time, talk me through how you think we can cope with you being away on the training.  How would that work?’

 

Often using the ‘Talk me through’ technique the staff member will come to the conclusion that their idea is not workable. You can then move on to other options. Of course, if they can talk this through with you and come up with a good plan, then the idea is workable and you can simply go with it!       

 

 

STEP FOUR. Make an action plan. Here you want to select two or three ideas you and the staff member can implement. Please note the ‘you and’ part of the last statement because if you, and only you, come away from the meeting with a ‘to do’ list, something’s gone wrong. Why? Because job satisfaction is a joint responsibility. Your staff member has, as an intelligent adult, a responsibility for their own satisfaction at work. You can, and do, play a large part in influencing your staff’s satisfaction but they have to play their part too. So be sure to include in the action planning a question on the lines of ‘and what will you do?’                   

 

 

Summary

Having conversations with your staff member about their job satisfaction may feel like just one more thing on your ever expanding ‘to do list’! The benefits, though, of spending some good quality, focused time on this issue can be enormous in terms of both staff motivation and in building your relationship with them.

And here’s the great part. Even if you and the staff member cannot come up with a whole range of actions to maintain or improve their job satisfaction, most people find that the very fact that their manager is interested in their satisfaction and prepared to spend time discussing this with them is highly motivational in itself. It’s a ‘no lose’ situation   

 

 

   

If you would like to know more about motivating you staff I’d like to invite you to check out some of my free videos where you learn about how to motivate staff to high performance – you can find them at http://www.10mmt.com/watch-videos/

 

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Performance objectives that work – How to use a Model

Friday, June 25th, 2010

 

Most of us know that research shows that staff members who know clearly what is expected of them are both more productive and have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who don’t. We also know that achieving high levels of clarity with our staff is sometimes easier said than done, particularly for those areas of performance that are unquantifiable – the behaviours rather than the numbers. This is why I’m often asked by the managers, team leaders, supervisors and business owners I work with to help them to define and describe more clearly what they want from their staff. Here’s a technique that works really well – using a model    

How to use a Model

The simple idea here is to find someone who is performing well in the area and then use that person as your model of good performance

So, if you think Dev is a really effective team player, you describe what you see them doing that makes you think of them as an effective team player

 

Or if Carole is getting great feedback from clients you find out what she’s doing to get that feedback so you can use her as a model for ‘effective client management’ 

 

The key here is to focus on the behaviours the person is demonstrating – it’s all about analysing what the ‘model’ is doing which is so effective

 

2 Ways to analyse a model

 

1. By paying close attention to their behaviours – observing them ‘in action’. This means you need to pay particular attention to Dev when he is in ‘team playing mode’. For example, what does he do in team meetings  that is so effective? What do you see him doing with his team members? Is it that he often builds on other people’s ideas in meetings? Is it the way he offers support to less experienced team members? You are simply trying to ‘unpick’ what it is that makes you (and probably others) regard him as effective in this area      

 

2. By asking the model. You may not be able to observe the model in action, you may not be able to accompany Carole to her client meetings. The approach here is to find out from them what they do that makes them effective. For example you could ask Carole ‘would you mind spending 10 minutes with me explaining how you get such great feedback from clients?’ You would then be aiming to get Carole to describe specifically what she does that gets such great results. Is it about the preparation she does? Her knowledge of the client? Her ability to adjust her style to meet theirs?  Here you are helping Carole ‘unpick’ what makes her so successful in this area 

 

Clearly you then need to write down the outcomes of your analysis. Let’s take a look at example

 

An example – Team Player

 

 Here’s my description of what I would expect to see if I watched an effective team player in action

·         Knows what the team needs to do and what they need to do to contribute

·         Looks around  and sees when others need help, then offers help

·         Involved in team meetings and events – always has something useful to say

·         Comes up with ideas on ways the team can work together more effectively

·         Other team members say they are good to work with     

Now clearly this might not be your description of ‘team playing’, it may look quite different in your organization or for your team. I’m simply aiming here to give you an idea how these behaviours might be demonstrated

 

A word of warning

 

What I don’t mean you should be doing is using the model as an example. Saying to your staff members ‘If you were all like Dev everything would be fine’ or ‘Can’t you just be great with clients, like Carole?’ won’t work (so that’s something you didn’t know then!). What we need to do is to take the information we have gathered and to then to describe those behaviours as performance objectives we can use with our staff to clarify our expectations       

 

Describing the behaviours as performance objectives

 

In order to make this description into a performance objective you simply need to reframe it into positive outcome language or the language style you usually use in your business for objectives. Here is the team player description written as an objective

 

Performance objective – Team Player

 

·         Explain the team objectives and your role in meeting those objectives

·         Identify when your team members need help or assistance and offer that help

·         Fully participate in team meetings and events

·         Identify ways the team can work together more effectively

·         Gain feedback that you are an effective team worker

Summary

When you can describe what your expectations of your staff are you can then begin to share and agree with your staff what these expectations look like in practice – using performance objectives. You can then begin to work with those staff to coach them towards meeting those objectives – and your expectations   

 

And now I’d like to invite you to watch, for free, session one of my management training course ‘Motivating your staff with powerful performance objectives’ where you will learn ‘How to use a three step process for getting really clear on what you want from your staff’. Watch now at  http://www.10mmt.com/watch-videos/

 

From Joan Henshaw, the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers, team leaders and supervisors learn how to motivate their staff to high performance

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How to get started on delegation

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Many managers tell me they don’t delegate tasks as often as they’d like because they just don’t know where to start. Here’s a 3 step process that can help to identify what you could delegate, who you could delegate to and how much of a task you could delegate.

 It’s all about making that start!      

 

STEP ONE – IDENTIFY THE TASKS

The first step is to identify the tasks that would be suitable for delegation.

 

1.         Make a list of all the tasks you currently perform

 

2.         Delete from the list the tasks you must do yourself

 

These may be tasks which:

 

·         Are a requirement of your job which no one else can do

 

·         You are ‘legally’ responsible for carrying out

 

·         Only you have the expertise and experience for and it would be impossible or impractical to help your team members gain that expertise and experience.

 

3.         The tasks that have not been deleted from the list are those that you potentially could delegate totally or partially

 

4.         Ask the question – which of these tasks, if delegated, will free up the most time, so that I can concentrate on those tasks only I can do?  

 

 

STEP TWO – IDENTIFY THE INDIVIDUAL

 

The second step is to identify the individual who would be best suited to undertake the delegated task.

 

In identifying the individual you may want to use some of the following selection criteria:

 

•                      Spare capacity (i.e. they’ve got the time)

•                      Best fit – in job terms

•                      The team member has a special interest in the task

•                      The delegated task may help to meet a development need

•                      The team member already has the skills/knowledge to complete the task.

 

 

 

STEP THREE – IDENTIFY THE APPROPRIATE DEGREE OF DELEGATION

 

At this step you should consider the aptitude and potential of the team member and decide upon the ‘degree’ of delegation:

 

Degree 1           Full Delegation:

 

The team member takes over the task fully

 

Degree 2           Shared Delegation:

 

You and the team member share the task and agree who will be responsible for which parts.  This is useful when the person is not ready to take full responsibility but can do elements of it now and learn others later.

 

Degree 3           Contributory Delegation:

 

At this stage the team member is not ready to take on a large part of the task but may contribute to some part of the task

 

 

Now you’ve got the what, the who, and how much in place – is it time to delegate?

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How to give positive criticism – with the focus on behaviours

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Most managers, in my experience, don’t find it too difficult to give criticism on the

quantifiable element of their staff member’s performance.  They don’t find it too difficult to say something like ‘We agreed you would produce 30 units a day. This record shows you’re producing 20. Can you agree there’s a problem here with your performance?’

 

The challenge

What many managers find much more challenging is giving criticism on the unquantifiable elements of the staff member’s performance. This is how managers often describe this type of issue to me

 

·         He’s got a poor attitude

·         She lacks confidence

·         He’s not a team player

·         She’s arrogant

 

Clearly it’s not too hard to see the problem managers have with raising these types of issue.  It is difficult to see a conversation going well based on an opening line ‘I want to talk to you about your attitude. It stinks’ (and if you think I’ve made that last statement up, I’m sorry to say I haven’t)

 

So how do you give this type of criticism?

 

The first step is to focus on behaviours, and only the behaviours. What you will notice from our manager’s statements above is that they are talking about the staff member’s characteristics or personality traits. As you may have noticed from your own experience, criticising a person’s characteristics or personality traits very rarely works well. If ever. Criticism specifically focussed on behaviours is much more likely to be understood and accepted. Here’s why

 

1. Behaviours vs. Characteristics or Personality Traits

 

When a staff member receives criticism on their behaviours they generally ‘hear’ that criticism on the cognitive or intellectual level (‘in the head’)

 

 When they receive criticism of their characteristics or personality they generally ‘hear’ that on the emotional level (’in the heart’)

 

Criticism based on our behaviours is easier to accept than criticism of our personality or characteristics because it is based on

 

·         what we do

 

NOT ON

 

·         who we are

 

 

Also, although most people believe they can change what they do. Very few people believe they can

change who they are

 

 A couple of examples:

 

 

A) If I were to say to you

 

When you turn up late to team briefings it causes a problem (Behaviour)

 

It would probably feel easier to accept than if I were to say

 

Your lack of commitment to the team is causing a problem (Characteristic / Personality trait)

 

 

B) When you interrupt me in front of a client it causes a problem (Behaviour)

 

Would probably feel easier to accept than

 

Your arrogance is causing a problem (Characteristic /Personality trait)

 

So, criticism based on behaviours is both a) depersonalised and b) focussed on the belief that the person can change. This makes it easier to accept and consequently easier to give

 

2. Facts vs. Assumptions

 

The second reason is that it’s easier to give criticism on behaviours is because behavioural

criticism is based on facts not assumptions

 

Examples

 

A) When I talk about you turning up late for a meeting – that’s a fact

 

When I talk about your lack of commitment – that’s an assumption

 

B) When I talk about there being three errors in the report you gave me – that’s a fact

 

When I talk about your lack of interest in your work – that’s an assumption

 

The reality is I can’t actually know what your level of commitment or interest in your work is – I can only assume, or guess, based on my interpretation of your behaviours

 

But it is assumption and it is guesswork and, putting aside any moral objection you might have to making assumptions about a person, assumptions can be argued against and facts cannot.  And that’s why it’s a problem

 

Another example

 

Have you ever said to anyone ‘You just don’t listen!’?

 

Have you ever had the following response?

 ‘Your assumption that I don’t listen to you is absolutely correct. I rarely, if ever, pay attention to anything anyone else says. Thank you for pointing this out to me. I shall now endeavour to hang on to every word you say’ 

 

I thought not    

 

Almost any criticism of characteristics or personality trait will be met with an argument.   

 

‘You don’t listen’                                                                                              ‘I do’

 

‘You’re not committed enough’                                                                      ‘I am’

 

And so it goes on

 

3. Objectivity

 

When you focus on behaviours you can give examples:

 

Yesterday you came to the meeting 20 minutes late

 

 There were three errors in the report you gave me

 

What examples give you is objectivity – because you’re talking about facts – and criticism that is seen as being objective is always easier to understand and accept

 

A summary of the benefits of focussing on behaviours  

 

a) It depersonalises the criticism as much as is possible – it’s not about the person. It is

About what they do or have done

 

b) Most people believe they can change what they do. Very few people believe they can

change who they are

 

c) It’s difficult to disagree with facts. It’s easy to disagree with assumption

 

d) Facts bring objectivity. Objective criticism is easier to accept and easier to give

 

Want to know more about this topic? You can watch Session One from the video ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’ for FREE at http://www.10mmt.com/wp-login.php?action=register

In this session you can learn;

·         How an iceberg can help you understand (and explain) the concept of behavioural criticism

·         Why the focus on behaviours can be such a challenge

·         A two step exercise for preparing to give criticism on behaviours

    

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How to improve performance – using the 10 Minute Management Toolkit

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

One of the most challenging, but vital, aspects of a managers job is giving positive criticism that improves performance. In the letter below a client describes how she stepped up to that challenge (and got a great bonus result!) by using the 10 Minute Management Toolkit DVD ‘Motivating Your Staff To Improve Their Performance With Positive Criticism’

 Dear Joan

I wanted to share with you the excellent results (plus added bonus!) we’ve achieved from using your 10 Minute Management Toolkit video ‘Motivating your staff to improve their performance with positive criticism’

I have been attempting to address a series of issues of underperformance with one of my Practitioners over the course of the past term

Having watched the video and seen your A.R.C. model, I then took the model and examples you provided and produced my own document. I concentrated on clearly setting out the examples / ‘evidence’ of underperformance – the ‘actions’ – and clearly describing the results

By sharing with the Practitioner the ‘A’ and the ‘R’ I was able to help her identify and accept the consequences – the ‘C’. She was able to see that her failure to perform effectively was having a negative consequence on the children’s attainment and (finally!) accept that she needed to make improvements. I’m happy to say she has started to make those improvements

The model worked extremely well and the examples you provided in the video were invaluable  

The added bonus

We have recently been inspected by Ofsted. As part of that an Inspector asked to see an example of how we were improving performance. I shared the A.R.C. model document and documentation with him. He said it was the best example of a performance improvement document he had seen and asked if he could take a copy to show other schools! I am convinced that our ability to demonstrate to the Inspector such sound practice in performance improvement played a significant part in the achievement of a positive result in the inspection

Many thanks!

E. Ostrynska

Acting Co-head teacher

Inner London School

 

 

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com 

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How to describe what you want from your staff using ‘reverse thinking’

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Research consistently demonstrates that staff members who know what is expected of them are both more productive and have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who don’t. Clarity – about what our specific contribution to the organisation needs to be and why our contribution is important – is highly motivational and leads to improved performance

Here’s one technique you can use to clearly describe what you want. It’s based on the ‘spooky but true’ principle that it’s often easier to describe what you don’t want rather than what you do want

 

What you might call ‘reverse thinking’. Here’s how it works

 

STEP ONE  

Describe what you don’t want

·         What would this look like done really badly?

·         What would other people be saying about them, if they were doing this badly?

·         What don’t I want to see?

An example

 

Imagine we are aiming to describe to our staff what we mean by ‘open to change’ Here’s what I would expect to see if my staff member was not open to change;

 

Open to Change (the reverse)

·         Doesn’t demonstrate any interest in proposed changes

·         Doesn’t plan to incorporate changes

·         Doesn’t try out new things

·         Doesn’t give feedback on the changes

·         Gives in as soon as there are any difficulties implementing change

STEP TWO

 

Of course you then need to reverse the description!

 

An example

 

Performance objective – Open to Change

·         Seek information on the proposed changes

·         Plan to incorporate the change

·         Actively seek to experiment with changes

·         Objectively evaluates changes and gives feedback

·         Seeks to overcome any difficulties implementing change

·         Helps others to come to terms with change 

So, a quick and easy way to describe what you do want – by firstly describing what you don’t!

 

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at my ebook ‘Instant Performance Objectives’ at http://www.performance-objectives.com  A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

About the author: Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the 10 Minute Management Toolkit 

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5 Top Tips for a Motivational Performance Review Meeting

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

In this short video I share 5 simple tips for making your performance review meetings really motivational   

5 Top Tips

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How to define what you want from your staff – without reinventing the wheel!

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

Research consistently demonstrates that staff members who know what is expected of them are both more productive and have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who don’t. Clarity – about what our specific contribution to the organisation needs to be and why our contribution is important – is highly motivational and leads to improved performance

The start point for achieving that clarity is to identify what resources you currently have in place in the business which can help you define your expectations of your staff – what you want from them

Here are some examples of resources managers typically use

Resources to help you define what you want from your staff 

  • Job descriptions
  • Person specifications
  • Objectives – team or individual
  • Performance standards
  • Competency descriptions
  • Handbooks
  • Guidance notes
  • Training manuals

Let’s not re-invent the wheel 

A couple of questions;

Have you utilised all the resources in place in your business to describe to your staff what you want from them (why not use the above ideas as a check list)?  

Could you find out;

  • What other managers use?
  • What your manager uses?
  • What resources your HR department could give you?

It’s all about making use of what’s currently in place – without reinventing any wheels

Need more help?

Take a look at my e-book ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavoural Performance Objectives’. A quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

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