Author: Bob Bannister

If you really want to make a disconnect between performance management and your staff then here are three must haves for your team’s job descriptions:

1.The old ones are the good ones
Why go to the bother of updating perfectly good JD’s?  If you’ve an old one that’s been faithful in the past, then save yourself the effort and issue it again. Even better, you might have a good one from a previous employer, search it out and get this time wasting activity out of the way. No one ever looks at them anyway!

2.Make the job title as flash as you can
If you have to tart up an old JD then go for a flash title. The grander the better. People love to feel important so dream up the biggest title possible for the role in question.

3.Don’t tie your kangaroo down sport
Keep any JD as vague as you possibly can, that way you can get them to do anything you need.  After all, a flexible team is key to success.

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we?  Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be applied at your own organisations job description practices. It’s often not that difficult to find more than a hint of these practices in our organisations so let’s make sure it’s not us that’s doing it. Performance management should be built on an effective foundation that starts with writing robust and clear job descriptions. Let’s flip these three crappy rules around to create better ones.

1.Job descriptions become dated as soon as you’ve written them
The fact is people often dismiss the value of JD’s because they have the potential to become out of date very quickly. Not only should we start with a clean sheet when we are writing a JD, we should make time to regularly review existing ones. If you do this it will send a very strong message to your team about the direction of your function and about the value you put supporting the team. Never pull out an old JD and pass it on. Start with a good job analysis, use your team to support this activity and craft the new document. If you’re revisiting the JD because someone is leaving, then interview them about the job they were doing, then ask how what you have learned impacts what you do next and use your knowledge to influence the new version.

2.Ensure that the job title will attract the write candidate
Avoid at all costs the temptation to ‘over-egg’ the job title. It is the main trigger for attracting new candidates to the role. It is the thing that they will latch onto first and if done badly can attract all the wrong people to your recruitment process. If you had a vacancy for a systems support role you might give it the title of Systems Manager or perhaps Systems Specialist. These two titles have the potential to attract very different applicants.

3.Make the language used as specific as possible:
A vague JD does not correlate with having a flexible team; more often it creates confusion. Use very clear descriptions of what is needed to do the job, trying always to remove ambiguity. Avoid fashionable but meaningless phrases such as “computer literate” – They can mean a hundred different things to a hundred different people. The more specific you are, the better able you will be to judge role suitability and the better the employee will be at developing the required capabilities. For recruitment make sure you differentiate between role ‘must have’ and ‘nice to have’ competencies / requirements, it will help you to see which applicants are in the race at all and for those that are which can offer your team the most.

You may have heard biblical parable of the man who built his house on the sand and his peer who built on the rock. Great performance management should start with a rock like foundation – despite all the corporate criticism they receive Job Descriptions offer you the opportunity build a strong effective team that will take less of your precious resource to performance manage the results you require. Perhaps it’s even a good time for a complete team JD review?  Go on, build your team on a solid foundation.

In my previous two blogs, I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management: Don’t tell anyone about the vision and rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff as it will merely be seen as patronising. In this final instalment of the trilogy, the hero of crappy performance management wins the day as we trace the steps of the 3rd most important rule when designing a ‘damp squib’ performance management system.

Crappy Performance Management Rule 3: At all costs ensure that objectives set are well outside of the owners span of control.

Some managers are already great at this rule, but if you still need to develop this ability here are some guidelines:

1.Set the objective as close to the organisational vision as possible
Don’t worry about applying the objective at an operational level, no one needs you to spell out the obvious. It is far better to pass down exactly the same objective you received from your boss and they received from their line manager. Look for top to bottom consistency; you can’t go far wrong if everyone has the same objectives.

2.Never make changes
Once objectives have been set, ensure they are like the law of the Medes and Persians, irrevocable. Never give into that cowardly cry that “things have changed since the objectives were set”.

3.Multiple objectives are best
No one likes lots of objectives so here’s a tip to keep the number down.  Roll multiple objectives into one – staff often don’t even notice you’ve got away with it. Sneak nested objectives into the mix by multiple use of the little word ‘and’.  You might say “achieve this ‘and’ while you are at it complete this other thing as well”.

4.SMART really means Specific, Measurable, Awesome, Ridiculous, Terrifying
There is only one way to make an organisation buzz, that’s to set proper stretching targets. Don’t mess with the tendency go soft and easy with your objective setting, expect awesome and ridiculous achievements. Test your ability to do this by gauging the level of individuals terror when expected to meet your objectives.

5. Seek challenge over success
It’s best not to expect your staff to be successful at their objectives.  If they are, you clearly haven’t been stretching enough.

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we?  Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be levelled at your own organisations management.  I have been genuinely surprised over my career just how often I bump into staff that claim their objectives are outside of their control. Why don’t managers tune in to the absurdity of this? Why would anyone perceive this to be motivating?  Yet it happens, year after year n many organisations around the globe. It is possibly (in my opinion) the single biggest factor in discrediting otherwise useful performance management processes, and in those places where objective delivery is linked to performance related pay, it’s close to criminal.  I am unsure whether it born out of incompetence or laziness, but no one should ever be set an objective which they cannot directly influence. There are no extenuating circumstances for such management behaviour.  I have met the man who was single handedly tasked in his objectives to reduce teenage pregnancy across the county for which he worked.  Unsurprisingly he
was frustrated!  There were things that he could do to aid this admirable goal, but ultimately success was not within his control.  He might have been lucky and secured a wonderful bonus but there was equal chance that he would be a failure with his performance determined by this objective.

It really isn’t hard to get this right. Some simple direction coupled with a realisation of the damage demotivating objectives like this cause will often suffice. From the top to the bottom of any organisation five simple things need to happen:

1. Agree objectives that are as close to operational activity as possible
There is a missing link in many performance management cascades from strategy down into operational activity.  Managers fail when they take the strategic goals or the organisations vision and set objectives that resemble them too closely. The missing link is to first define the critical success factors that will bring about the vision and goals of the organisation and from these develop objectives at a ‘successful’ level – Objectives that are within the span of influence and control of the owner.  Using the previous example of the strategic goal to reduce teenage pregnancy, we might determine that one critical success factor is to educate all teenagers. From this we can develop a series of objectives that would be completely within the span of control and influence of the owner. They might for example be to design and
or organise a number of workshops across the county

2. Build objective recalibration into your mid term reviews
In our fast moving world it is farcical to argue that an objective has to be retained simply because it was set for the current period or year. I’ve seen this happen on many occasions. Managers must revisit objectives periodically and ask whether they are still relevant, and or whether the level of stretch is still appropriate. We refer to this process as ‘Recalibration’ of the objective. It is not weak management unless the manager is gutless enough to relax targets simply to ensure perceived success. It is strong management making adjustments so that the outcome remains within the span of control of the owner. Managers must stop judging individuals performance on objectives that for whatever reason are no longer relevant.

3. Real objectives are singular
I have read individual objectives and suspected that it really contains five or more!  By doing this you are making the whole process over complex. It’s harder to understand what the objective requires, it’s harder to determine what to measure, it’s harder to get the sequence of events necessary to succeed. All of this added difficult is removed when you keep objectives concise and to a single idea. That can be done using the following structure:

4. Structure all objectives in the same way to ensure they are SMART
There are a few variants on the smart acronym, but non of them include awesome, ridiculous and terrifying. Unify the way objectives are written across your whole organisation and keep them SMART by using this structure;  Verb, Target area, by Measure, by Time. E.g. Organise (verb) teenage pregnancy education workshops (target area) for 5000 14 to 18 year olds (measure) within the current fiscal year (time). Some have argued with me that their objectives won’t fit this structure – I fight them to the death 😉

5. Seek success over challenge
Stretch in objective target setting is vital.  It is motivating and it facilitates the ability to keep up with ever increasing expectations of our world. However from a motivation perspective the target has to be within the perceived grasp of the owner, if not the balance shifts and most (after an initial flurry of enthusiasm) will not be bothered to attempt it. It is very close in frustration levels to being set an objective that is out our your control and does plenty to discredit otherwise good performance management processes.

Managers should not be afraid to ask their staff whether they feel their objectives are within their span of control and influence; then they should listen carefully to the answer. It is beyond me why anyone would ever want their staff performance to be judged on something they cannot humanly achieve. After all, who amongst us would not struggle to find motivation in an objective they cannot attain without the aid of significant divine intervention?
Bob Bannister

In my previous iThink article I articulated rule 1 of crappy performance management: Don’t tell anyone about the vision. In this blog post we step up a gear and think about the 2nd most important rule when designing a ‘wet lettuce’ performance management mindset.
Crappy Performance Management Rule 2: Never attempt to motivate staff as it will merely be seen as patronising.

Some managers are already great at this rule but if you still need to develop this ability here are some guidelines:

1. Remove staff control: Always try to ensure that you stay in total control. Never let go of the detail and expect your staff to report back to you on everything before they act.
2. Stop idle interaction: If your people start to feel a sense of allegiance towards one another, they may rise up and revolt against you. Keep them as isolated as possible.
3. Leave the learning to them: They took the job, so they should make sure they are capable of doing it. Avoid a spoon feeding mentality that puts the emphasis on you as the manager having to do all the development.
4. Ensure frequent subtle changes: Never settle into a single groove, make sure that your leadership direction is kept fluid. Keep staff on their toes by introducing frequent subtle changes to your strategy and goals.
5. Let them know who’s boss: Start each day by setting a tone of superiority. Leave no one in your team with any doubt that when you walk in, you are the boss.
6. Problems will pass: Do not feel the need to address all underperformance in a team as problems will often pass unnoticed. The group itself will be effective at dealing with team members that aren’t pulling their weight, so leave it to them.

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we? Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be levelled at your own organisations management. In an article “The Ten Ironies of Motivation,” reward and recognition guru, Bob Nelson, says, “More than anything else, employees want to be valued for a job well done by those they hold in high esteem.” He adds that people want to be treated as if they are adult human beings and that the number one reason people leave there jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated.

I was reading all this only a matter of months ago when to my bemusement we had a member of staff leave us, and their primary reason given for this was that they didn’t feel appreciated! Now, we are a small company, making people feel appreciated shouldn’t be
hard, but it served as a good lesson in realising that often peoples need for appreciation is much higher than we might imagine as the manager. There is a great little book ‘How Full Is Your Bucket: Positive Strategies for Life and Work’ by Tom Rath in which a study on
praise / criticism confirms the logic that those praised significantly out perform other students. Over a series of tests a separated control group (given neither praise nor criticism) were the lowest performers in 4th place. The highest performing students by a large
margin were those who were praised, followed by those that were criticised, and then thirdly those that heard the praise and criticism but were ignored. Rath draws the conclusion that there is a magic praise / criticism ratio of 5:1

Without doubt financial reward plays a part in motivation. Fair benefits and pay are the cornerstone of a successful company that recruits and retains committed workers. If you provide a living wage for your employees, you can then work on additional motivation
issues. Without the fair living wage however, you risk losing your best people to a better-paying employer. We may have read or heard about the surveys and studies dating back to the early 1980s that demonstrate people want more from work than money. While
managers predict the most important motivational aspect of work for people would be money, personal time and attention from the supervisor is cited by workers as most rewarding and motivational for them at work.

So let’s have another go at those guidelines by presenting the key elements in the effective motivation as suggested by Nelson:

1. Control of their work inspires motivation: including such components as the ability to impact decisions; setting clear and measurable goals; clear responsibility for a complete, or at least defined, task; job enrichment; tasks performed in the work itself;
recognition for achievement.

2. To belong to the in-crowd creates motivation: including items such as receiving timely information and communication; understanding management’s formulas for decision making; team and meeting participation opportunities; visual documentation
and posting of work progress and accomplishments.

3. The opportunity for growth and development is motivational: and includes education and training; career paths; team participation; succession planning; cross-training; field trips to successful workplaces.

4. Leadership is key in motivation. People want clear expectations that provide a picture of the outcomes desired with goal setting and feedback and an appropriate structure or framework.

5. Your arrival at work sets the employee motivation tone for the day. Your arrival and the first moments you spend with staff each day have an immeasurable impact on positive employee motivation and morale. Start the day right. Smile. Walk tall and confidently.
Walk around your workplace and greet people. Share the goals and expectations for the day. Let the staff know that today is going to be a great day. It starts with you. You can make their day.

6. People need positive and not so positive consequences. Employees need a fair, consistently administered progressive disciplinary system for when they fail to perform effectively. The motivation and morale of your best-contributing employees is at
stake. Nothing hurts positive motivation and morale more quickly than unaddressed problems, or problems addressed inconsistently.

Why not grab a sheet of paper and a pencil and work through your own application of these six ideas. What things could you do for your department or organisation this week that will lead to higher performance, by encouraging staff to feel more
motivated?

Performance Management Rule 2 should simply read: Work constantly at making your staff feel appreciated.
Bob Bannister

It’s a rule well rehearsed in many organisations but if you are not quite there with it yet, here are some guidelines:

1. Make sure it’s over complex: Try to use as much jargon and technobabble as humanly possible
2. Be as boring as possible: A verbal picture is worth a thousand words, so never use metaphor, analogy or example
3. Only ever use a single channel: Keep the message to a single channel, like SMS texting. Be sure to minimise interaction – staff are ineffective at spreading the word
4. State it only once: People aren’t stupid so you only need to tell them once
5. Lead inconsistently: Be careful not to be seen as a swot
6. Leave seeming inconsistencies unaddressed: It’s just better not to go there!
7. Minimise give and take: Avoid two-way communication about the vision. Just present it as an order

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we? Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be levelled at your own organisations communication of the vision. It’s actually not that difficult to find more than a hint of these chocolate teapot practices.

Buy-in from competent people in the business is critical to the successful implementation of any organisational strategy yet John Kotters Harvard research suggests organisations under-communicate the vision by a factor of 10 (or 100 or even 1000!). In practice this means that many people are unable to make the connection between the objectives that they work to and the goals of the organisation. There will often be plenty of activity, lots being done, but organisational success will be more luck than judgement as people do what they think should be done rather than what they are certain must be done.

For many there is no golden thread between the organisations vision, their own functional strategies and objectives that they are working on. If people don’t truly get the vision it’s not their fault. There are a lot of places for the vision to become lost and muddled as it cascades down the organisation, but leaders and managers need to do more in order to facilitate a visible golden thread. The introduction of functional critical success factors can go a long way towards this. Great organisations are good at defining and focusing on what is critical for success. They articulate well the links between the vision and the functional strategy by developing critical success factors that determine individuals objectives.

So let’s have another go at those guidelines by presenting the key elements in the effective communication of vision as suggested by Kotter:
1. Simplicity: All jargon and technobabble must be eliminated
2. Metaphor, analogy, and example: A verbal picture is worth a thousand words
3. Multiple forums: Big meetings and small, emails and newsletters, formal and informal interaction – all are effective for spreading the word
4. Repetition: Ideas sink in deeply only after they have been heard many times
5. Leadership by example: Behaviour from important people that is inconsistent with the vision overwhelms other forms of communication
6. Explanation of seeming inconsistencies: Unaddressed inconsistencies undermine the credibility of all communication
7. Give and take: Two-way communication is always more powerful than one-way communication

You might challenge this idea, but I believe it is almost impossible to over communicate your organisations vision. At least not if you don’t want to pilot a rudderless ship.
Performance Management Rule 1 should simply read: Ensure your people get the vision.
Bob Bannister