Be The Manager Your Employees Want To Follow by marbenbland

Be the Manager Your Employees Want to Follow S E MINA R WO RK B O O K

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DISCLAIMER: The principles and suggestions in this workbook and seminar are presented to apply to diverse personal and company situations. These materials and the overall seminar are for general informational and educational purposes only. The materials and the seminar, in general, are presented with the understanding that Pryor Learning is not engaged in rendering legal advice. You should always consult an attorney with any legal issues. ©2023, 2020 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 Pryor Learning, LLC. Registered U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and Canadian Trade-Marks office. Except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Pryor Learning.

Table of Contents Seminar Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Section 1: Assess Where You Are Recognition Affects Motivation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Are You Sending Mixed Signals to Your Employees? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Discover Your Leadership Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Excellent Corporations Motivate Employees to Do More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Section 2: Assess Your Organization Execute a Working Employee Retention Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Understand the Primary Reasons Employees Leave an Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Section 3: Get the Best from People Management Creed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Know When You Need a New Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Make an Action Plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Traditional Management Barriers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Set Performance Standards that Are Attainable and Desirable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Eligibility and Suitability Work Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Section 4: Coach and Develop Your Employees for Success The Four Most Challenging Performer Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Performance Issues, Barriers, and Attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Factors that Are the Best Indicators of Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Communicate Performance Standards that Are Attainable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Section 5: Focus on Outcomes Avoid Demotivating Employees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Delegate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Give Appreciation Naturally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Power of Recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Accountability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Follow Through on Performance Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 When You’ve Done All You Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Wrap-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

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Seminar Objectives By the end of this course, you will be better able to: 1. Describe what employee engagement is and why it matters 2. Define intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how they affect job performance 3. Identify and adapt your leadership style to bring out the best in employees 4. Set performance standards and hold employees accountable to meeting them 5. Give effective feedback to enhance employees’ performance 6. Recognize and reward employees 7. Help employees overcome performance issues What are the top three things you hope to learn today? If you don’t see them listed above, write them below.

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Introduction Refresh Your Enthusiasm for Leading People According to the American Psychological Association’s Work and Well-Being Survey*, employees who trust their employers and feel engaged at work are three times less likely to be tense and stressed out at work. Engaged employees consistently: • Show up • Do better work • Do more work • Stick around longer The same survey reveals that while three-quarters of workers report overall job satisfaction, only 6 out of 10 are satisfied with their employers’ recognition practices and opportunities for development. What do these facts mean to you, as a manager?

List four barriers to employee engagement: 1. _______________________________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. ______________________________________________________________________

List four benefits that come from recognizing and developing your employees: 1. _______________________________________________________________________ 2. ______________________________________________________________________ 3. ______________________________________________________________________ 4. ______________________________________________________________________

*2017 Work and Well-Being Survey, American Psychological Association, Center for Organizational Excellence

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Assess Where You Are

Recognition Affects Motivation When employees do not feel that their efforts are appreciated, they: • Become disgruntled • Seek employment elsewhere • Go to the competition • Strike out on their own • Quit without a plan in place • Stay, but check out of the day-to-day work process Where Does Motivation Come From? Intrinsic

Extrinsic

• Satisfaction from a job well done

• Awards

•T aking advantage of opportunities

• Praise, promotions

•O vercoming challenges

• Money

How are you extrinsically motivating employees, and what are you doing to support their intrinsic motivation?

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Assess Where You Are

Are You Sending Mixed Signals to Your Employees? Team vs. Individual Your approach to motivating your team must differ from your approach to motivating individuals. Be sure not to outwardly value one and sacrifice the other. Leadership of Teams Involves: • Being results-oriented • Having equal standards • Demonstrated effort • Collaborative execution • Public acknowledgement Leadership of Individuals Involves: • Monitoring performance • Verifying productivity • Career development support • Goal setting • Checking attitudes • Recognition

LAN

Motivation of Teams Involves: • Focus on business outcomes • Measures of productivity • Revenue/profitability information • Customer loyalty • Innovation Motivation of Individuals Involves: • Driving action • Guiding/coaching • Training • Delegating • Prompting • Exploring ideas

1. Ask teams and individuals what motivates them and how they want to be rewarded. 2. Find out how your organization is willing to support your efforts. 3. Work to balance intrinsic and extrinsic motivation approaches. 4. Follow up with teams and individuals to be sure you are hitting the mark – and not inadvertently demotivating employees.

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Assess Where You Are

Discover Your Leadership Style Leaders • Influence others • Create willingness, motivating people to be fully enthusiastic about their work • Bring out the best in people • Know and convey what must be done to create and sustain success

Four Types of Leadership Styles and Work Preferences: Sensing Relating and Teamwork

Directing and Organinzing

Feeling

Thinking

Inspiring and Meaning

Visioning and Excellence Intuiting

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Assess Where You Are

Discover Your Leadership Style Each of us has a preferred leadership style, though we adapt to the situation at hand. Look at the two choices on each line and check the one that better describes your daily leadership approach. Decide based on their own and others’ feelings

Decide based on logic

Freely display and value emotions

Cautiously display and underplay emotions

Want to please

Want what’s just and fair

Value harmony

Value getting the job done

Influence others with persuasion

Influence others with logic

Total: Feeling Preferences

Total: Thinking Preferences

Practical, pragmatic, realistic

Innovative, creative, dreamers

Focus on the here and now

Focus on the future

Logical and linear

Abstract and theoretical

Trust experience and proven methods

Trust subconscious “sixth sense”

Value accuracy and common sense

Value hunches more than data and details

Total: Sensing Preferences

Total: Intuiting Preferences

Think about your most recent conflict with a team member. How might your leadership style have contributed to the situation? How Would You Handle These Leadership Moments? • Mark just found out that he won’t meet a critical deadline, because his teammate forgot to have a vendor sign a contract. Mark is cursing and slamming things around in his cubicle. People in the next department are looking around the corner and whispering. Your team members are working, heads down, unsure of how to react.

• Several team members have approached you because Barb is “not being a team player.” She is on time each day, meets every deadline, and does great work. You have noticed, though, that she eats lunch at her desk while the rest of the team eats together in the break room. In fact, they have given up on inviting her to join them.

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Assess Where You Are

Excellent Corporations Motivate Employees to Do More “Three Legged Stool” Methodology Effective leaders depend on a solid methodology to elevate their employees' performance level. In every industry, true leaders exhibit these three leadership competencies:

Competence

Goodwill

Integrity

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Assess Your Organization

Execute a Working Employee Retention Plan Create an Engaging Organization As a leader, you must live the organization’s mission, vision, and values. You and your team are judged on how you communicate these ideals. Ask yourself: • Do my team members know the organization’s mission, vision, and values? • Am I embodying the mission, vision, and values in front of my team? • Am I requiring my team to live the mission, vision, and values? • How am I measuring our commitment to the organization’s mission, vision, and values? Attributes of an Engaged Organization

Trust in Leadership

Two-Way Feedback System

Role Clarity

Shared Decision-Making

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Assess Your Organization

Execute a Working Employee Retention Plan Future success depends on current measurements. Examine organizational processes for measuring success and create your own for your team. Consider: • Productivity levels • Error rates • Absenteeism • Turnover/retention • Referrals/recruiting • Customer satisfaction Ask Yourself: • Are new employees successfully integrating into their teams? • How are we teaching new employees about our organization’s culture? • Am I asking employees for suggestions about how to improve the workplace? Ask Employees: • Is this a safe workplace? • How do you know that your organization cares about and values you? • Would you recommend this as a place to work? • What can I/the organization do to make this a better place to work?

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Assess Your Organization

Understand the Primary Reasons Employees Leave an Organization Engagement starts at the top. Successful organizations empower their leaders, and those leaders empower their teams. In the table, place a checkmark in the appropriate columns: • “I Get” is the support you receive from your organization • “I Give” is the support you provide to your team Leadership Skills

I Get

I Give

Share mission, vision, and values Value teamwork Identify norms Establish and share expectations Nurture collaboration Build trust Make meaningful decisions Solve problems efficiently Control conflict Value goal-setting Share information transparently Communicate regularly Coach Train/educate Provide ongoing feedback Behave ethically Lead by example

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Get the Best from People

Management Creed Successful employees know what is expected of them. As part of your Management Creed, spell out core values like: • _________________________________________________________ • _________________________________________________________ , and • _________________________________________________________ Other areas to consider: • Continuous-improvement efforts • Protection of the financial viability of the organization

YOU TRY IT Write Your Management Creed Commit your core values to paper to link your and your team’s efforts to a greater purpose than corporate profitability. 1. List your core values. 2. Write your core values into “I will” statements.

EXAMPLE “I will treat all employees with respect, listening, guiding, and supporting each of them with equal effort.” Use the space below to brainstorm key points for your Management Creed. I will:

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Get the Best from People

Know When You Need a New Plan What Is Your Goal? Your leadership method, when managing to motivate and retain employees, must influence:

Superior Performance

Employee Initiative

Individual Responsibility

Achievement

Contribution

Accomplishment

Growth and Development

Morale Buster Managers often confuse an employee’s excellent performance with the standard of performance for the entire team. To maximize performance from your entire team, identify which attributes are required to get the job done. By acknowledging only your super-performers, you quickly alienate the group and invalidate their efforts and yours. What Is Required? A Gallup poll found that a critical indicator of employee productivity and retention is “…knowledge of what is expected of me at work.” Do your employees know what your top five goals are for them as individuals?

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Get the Best from People

Define Objectives A performance objective makes the employee aware of his or her impact in a grander sense. It qualifies why a position exists and what it means to the company to have a competent person performing the job. Evaluate each role on your team, so you understand how your team influences other employees, other departments, and, ultimately, the organization’s operations. Keep in mind that a performance objective is a specific, desired end result. 1. Write the name of a job title: 2. Name a responsibility associated with the job listed above. 3. Define the standard of employee performance necessary to accomplish this job. 4. List the other positions affected by this employee’s responsibility, and how the other positions are affected. 5. Identify how this job contributes to the company’s success. 6. Identify how this job contributes to the company’s mission, vision, and values. 7. Cite what will happen if the job duties are performed below the established standard.

Additionally, ask yourself: • How often should I review this position for efficiency? • How will I measure productivity for this job? • Where can an employee access a written record summarizing this information?

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Get the Best from People

Keys to Establishing Good Performance Organizations with clearly defined job roles minimize voluntary turnover and increase job satisfaction. Checklist for Role Clarity:  Recognize the signs of good performance  Communicate expected outcomes  Make it transparent to all employees  Provide employee-accessible role summaries  Make it timeline driven  Link performance standards to the department, team’s mission, and the organization  State consequences for non-standard performance  Describe impact on other departments  Make measured performance clear with timelines for review  Share feedback, in writing, with the appropriate employee

From the checklist above, discuss how many actions you currently practice.

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Get the Best from People

Traditional Management Barriers Barriers to Employee Performance Traditional management barriers to good employee performance include: • Only commenting on bad performance • Not praising the “bones” of good performance • Making a model of excellent performance the standard for acceptable performance When managers do not acknowledge anything other than a job done poorly, employees let their levels of productivity drop to the manager’s lowest tolerated level. And when managers do not take the opportunity to acknowledge an employee’s best efforts – even if those efforts aren’t stellar – they damage productivity and morale. An employee who wants to do a good job, but does not receive any feedback, will quickly stop striving for quality, paving the way for ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ .

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Get the Best from People

Set Performance Standards that Are Attainable and Desirable Define Performance Goals Unlike a performance objective, a performance goal is specific to the individual. It is a short-term objective set for specific duties or tasks in someone’s current job role. • Look at the employee’s talents, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and experiences and identify what he or she can do to accomplish more. • Ask the employee thought-provoking questions that let the employee connect the dots between their current role and where they want to be in the future. Key Questions Explore Their Past Accomplishments – You Are Looking Back to Move Forward: • Who are you? • What do you love? • Where have you been? • Where do you excel? Explore the Market – Help Your Employee Understand What's Possible: • Consider what’s new at your company. • Know what’s currently happening in your industry. • Identify what’s possible. Insight • Where can the employee place their talents? • What new or unique experiences can broaden their horizons? Ultimately, having conversations where your employee becomes more aware of their abilities (likes, dislikes, strengths, weakness, etc.) should become a regular interactive task for you, the manager. These Conversations: • Help focus the employee’s efforts • Demonstrate your commitment • Keep positive momentum • Are reminders to achieve progress

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Get the Best from People

Eligibility and Suitability Work Together Investing in employees’ skills and talents sends a clear message that you care about their continued success and futures.

Applied Skills

Past Experiences

Knowledge

Ability

Standard Performance

Professional Instruction (Training) Falls Into Two Categories: 1. ___________________________________ trainings, usually, are those courses required by law, and another department can sometimes schedule these training sessions automatically. • It is essential that your employee understand that the training is required and that their workplace performance will be judged based on their successful completion of the training. 2. ___________________________________ trainings enable managers to teach employees to self-manage. • These instructions can be viewed as a uniform way to communicate performance standards, a reinforcing extension of previous coaching, or a primer for an upcoming discussion. Training opportunities are important for your organization and/or team because you want your employees to demonstrate increasing levels of self-management. In essence, you are teaching your employees not to depend on your minute-by-minute feedback for their performance appraisal.

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Coach and Develop Your Employees for Success

The Four Most Challenging Performer Types No matter how much effort you put into managing the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in your workplace, some groups of employees will not be responsive.

Drifting Performers

Hot & Cold Performers

Needy Performers

Help Employees Unlock Their Potential Determine the employee’s: Eligibility

Suitability

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Poor Performers

Coach and Develop Your Employees for Success

Performance Issues, Barriers, and Attitudes When an employee has problems with commitment to the organization, the cause is usually rooted in a managerial or organizational disconnect. Managerial 1. ________________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________________ 3. ________________________________________________ 4. ________________________________________________ 5. ________________________________________________

Organizational 1. ________________________________________________ 2. ________________________________________________ 3. ________________________________________________ 4. ________________________________________________ 5. ________________________________________________

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Coach and Develop Your Employees for Success

Factors that Are the Best Indicators of Success Giving and Getting Feedback Encourage employees to ask for feedback from others, as well as from you. Suggest that they ask the opinions of family, friends, customers, peers, coworkers, and you. • Drives development – getting and taking action on feedback is an indicator of an employee’s ability to thrive • Serves as a reality check, helping employees balance their understanding of their role with the team’s understanding • Allows employees to check their assumptions about how they add value to the team Sample Feedback-Gathering Questions Get Feedback on Abilities: 1. What are my greatest strengths? 2. Which of my skills offer the most value? 3. What can you always count on me for? Get Feedback on Those Things that May Be Blind Spots: 1. What behaviors have you observed that may cause me trouble in the future? 2. What one change could I make that would have the greatest positive effect on my success? 3. How might my strengths work against me? Get Feedback on the Environment: 1. Do I tend perform best with a team or alone? 2. At what tasks do I appear to struggle most? 3. Under what circumstances do I make the greatest contributions?

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Coach and Develop Your Employees for Success

Communicate Performance Standards that Are Attainable Inspire Host Your Own Training Day • Be inspiring – not a fixer • Do what you want them to do • Be what you what them to replicate • Model the change you want to see Tell Your Story Why do you do things the way you do?

What does it mean to you to have things done this way?

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Focus on Outcomes

Avoid Demotivating Employees Employees who perform the day-to-day operational tasks have unique insight into the barriers to peak performance. Naturally, they will seek a way around those barriers – either through self-empowerment or by asking you to intervene. Remember, even if the barriers seem insignificant to you, they are significant to the employees who are working to overcome them. Do not ignore or fail to communicate any action you take regarding employees’ concerns. Inquire, Support, and Enforce Inquire What is your system for handling employee inquiries about process improvements? • Meet with the team and solicit solutions • Fill out forms • Call or meet with other departments • Write information-gathering emails Support How do you update employees on their inquiries? • Meet in person • Send email updates • Describe changes in the work process Enforce How do you get the work done, even when the process isn’t perfect? • Make the employee aware of the process • Link the current task to its immediate need • Use team mentorship

Focus on Outcomes

Delegate Delegation lets you multiply your effectiveness while building future leaders. It lets employees develop skills, engages them, rewards them, and gives them more responsibility. Through Delegation You: • Provide authority and control, which creates task ownership • Give responsibility, which empowers • Develop skilled employees for the future • Build trust and commitment to the organization • Share successes and challenges • Increase productivity What Things Should You Delegate to Others? Routine reports and tasks

Challenges that will provide job variety

Cross-training activities

Tasks others would enjoy

Work that requires skills others have perfected

Things You Should Not Delegate: • Long-range planning • Motivating team members • Evaluating team performance • Tasks that could lead to future policy standards • Personal matters • Crises • Rewarding team members

Focus on Outcomes

Give Appreciation Naturally Hone the skill of showing appreciation for your team’s everyday good work. A culture of appreciation encourages a higher level of performance and makes you seem more approachable and trustworthy. Be Personal: Adding a personal touch makes rewards and gifts more meaningful. Hand-write a note to thank team members for their extra effort. Find out their likes and dislikes and go out of your way to personalize rewards. Provide Opportunity: Offer team members the chance to attend training or to cross-train others on the team or in the company. Pay for them to attend online or off-site classes. Let them represent the company at conferences, philanthropic, or civic events. Offer Flexible Scheduling: Collaborate as a team to cover for each other over holidays or when team members have significant personal events they need to attend. Focus on the work-life balance. Remember that what matters is that the work is done and is done well, and when employees feel like work “owns” them, they will not perform as effectively. Ask About Staff Members' Interests: Show interest in team members' hobbies and special interests, events in their lives, their families, etc.

Treat Employees: Bring in, or cater, treats to celebrate big wins or special anniversaries. Take the opportunity to be personal, and consider employees’ favorite foods as well as their dietary restrictions.

Focus on Outcomes

The Power of Recognition Recognition Timely recognition gives positive reinforcement to the employee receiving the praise and serves as a benchmark of performance to other team members. What Actions Do You Recognize? • Goals Met • Sustained Performance Levels • Team Contributions • Attitude • Skills • Innovation The “Gives” of Recognition • Give it from the heart • Tell how you felt to see the progress, change, and growth in the employee • Give it as soon as possible • Give praise when it is still fresh on your mind, at a time when the praise can be linked to the employee’s recent actions • Give details • Tell how the employee’s contribution made a difference to the team, project, or company • Give it an audience

Focus on Outcomes

The Power of Recognition Raise the Bar in Your Workplace Recognition versus Reward • Recognition could be thought of as the credit that builds up to the reward. • Reward might be thought of as the tangible memory of a job well done. Rewarding your employees does not have to break the bank. However, the return on investment in terms of higher employee engagement and performance can be well worth your efforts.

No Cost

Low Cost

Time to work on other projects to pursue creative interest

Buy lunch

Choice of projects Face time with executives Personal handwritten notes of thanks

Free break-room snacks Give birthday and anniversary cards Have a contest

Focus on Outcomes

Accountability Individual Enforcement

The Golden Rule of Performance

Where the manager's attention goes, so does their employees' attention

Clarify Accountability/Consequences In earlier sections, you learned about the need for managers to set performance expectations. You must be committed to holding people accountable to the expectations you have set. The act of holding employees accountable is a proven exercise that leads to the clarifying of performance achievement, and this process is even more valuable than the goal setting. Examples of the Adverse Effects of Little Or No Employee Accountability: • Redefinition of expectations

• Questioning of stated expectations

• Performance adjustments to the lowest tolerated level

• Lower overall performance from even good employees

• Frustration and anger with management

• Loss of individual workplace enthusiasm

• People quit and leave

• Workplace passiveness

• People quit and stay

• Demotivation

• Feelings of cynicism

• Injustice to higher performance employees is being done

Focus on Outcomes

Follow Through on Performance Issues Setting performance objectives but not enforcing them leaves employees searching for your lowest level of accepted performance. This sabotages your efforts and sends these messages: • You really weren’t serious about the performance expectations • There are no immediate consequences for slipping performance When an employee is underperforming or causing problems, you must intervene with coaching, training, reassignment, or even disciplinary action.

SCENARIOS How Would You Fix These Employees’ Performance? • D enny can’t master the IT system he must understand to do his job. You had a teammate cross-train him, and he attended several training sessions.

• P rocedures dictate that Veronica is to turn in invoices on Fridays. She has been late the past three weeks, turning them in the following Monday, and only after her team has made repeated requests.

• S everal of your team members spend their days writing. This requires a quiet environment with few interruptions. Miles, the team’s social media marketing guru, keeps dropping by the writers’ cubicles “to catch up.” They have tried using social cues, have started wearing ear buds to send a message to him, and one of them has bluntly said, “Miles, when you bug us, you break our concentration and we have to go back and figure out where we were.”

• A ngela keeps undermining your authority. During staff meetings, you outline what you want the final results to be, but she jumps in while you are talking and says things like, “There’s no way we can do that,” or, “Wouldn’t it be better to . . .?” You just heard from an employee that Angela went around after today’s staff meeting and said, “Don’t bother going to the boss with questions. If you need anything, you can just ask me. My way will be faster, anyway.” Another employee tells you that Angela said, “I’m not sure why the boss bothers to come to staff meetings. We could accomplish so much more if we ran them ourselves.”

Focus on Outcomes

When You’ve Done All You Can If you have done your due diligence – creating performance objectives, giving employees regular performance feedback, helping employees develop their skills, letting them use their talents, rewarding them for good work, and coaching and training them when their work was below par – and an employee is still not performing to standards, it might be time to part ways. Your good recordkeeping becomes the evidence of your efforts to: • Intervene • Guide • Prompt • Explore ideas • Reflect on past actions • Activate solutions • Adapt alternatives Put the ball in the employee’s court. • Revisit performance objectives • Show where the employee has fallen short – repeatedly, and despite intervention • Provide evidence that the under-par performance is still going on • Document and discuss the steps the employee must follow to retain employment • Ask if she or he is willing to commit to taking the required steps to better performance • Reiterate the steps and shake hands on his or her agreement to take the steps • Express your genuine belief in his or her ability to do what needs to be done • Monitor performance If substandard performance continues: • Bring in HR • Provide evidence that the employee has broken the handshake contract • Present the employee with a written version of the documented performance-improvement steps • Offer a day of decision-making leave, during which the employee may choose to sign and commit to the documented performance-improvement steps or choose to resign

Wrap-Up The Continuous Management Cycle Take what you have learned today and follow the Continuous Management Cycle, below, and you will build a culture of engaged, accountable future leaders who will be forever grateful that YOU were their manager!

Create Mutual Goals

Be Truthful

Share Information

Give Projects Meaning

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