A Manager's Guide: Unlocking High Performance Through Role Clarity & Energizing Work
15Five empowers team members to take control of their own growth and development. Managers can help their team members discover what they want in a career by clarifying the role and finding ways to maximize energizing work. Read on for our step-by-step guide for how to unlock high performance in your 1-on-1s.
Step 1: Role clarity Effective performance management starts with role clarity and creates a foundation of psychological safety, the invisible force behind all high performing teams. A role clarity conversation is a critical initial meeting between a manager and each team member that occurs at the beginning of the relationship. The goal is to create as much clarity and shared agreement as possible about what the job entails, including all responsibilities, projects, and tasks. At the end of the role clarity session, you want your team members to walk away saying, "I'm clear about my role and responsibilities and what the organization expects of me."
How to structure your 1-on-1: • An effective role clarity conversation starts with a clearly defined job description and list of responsibilities, yet most don't fully capture what the actual job entails. Managers, work with your HR Admin to upload employee job descriptions to the Role Clarity section of Career Hub. If your company doesn't have formal job descriptions, update the responsibilities and add any missing items. Your team members will be prompted to add any additional responsibilities, projects, and tasks as well for a complete view of their role. • Set up a time to meet to review your team member's job description, including all responsibilities, projects, and tasks. We recommend scheduling 1 hour for this session. During the meeting, open the Role Clarity tab in Career Hub. Review the job description and update the current job responsibilities together to ensure the role is clear, complete, and up to date. • At the end of the role clarity conversation, ask your team member to assess their work including all responsibilities, projects, and tasks using the Energizing Work Scale (see in app) which is designed to measure how energized people feel at work. Schedule a follow up meeting to review their results. We recommend scheduling 1 hour for this session.
A Manager's Guide: Unlocking High Performance Through Role Clarity & Energizing Work
For example, a sales rep who is de-energized by reciting a formal script can leverage their humor strength during their calls. Or an HR leader whose top strength is love of learning can help design people 1 s programs out of the latest science. Or a customer success rep who excels in creativity can help develop and design training materials. Managers can also encourage employees to batch de-energizing work during a specific time of the week. By clarifying the role and helping team members maximize energizing work, managers provide the support team members need to grow in their careers. At 15Five, we use Positive Product Design™, a method that aligns technology to the science of thriving, to unlock the potential of every member of the global workforce. Learn more here.