Achieving Goals_ Define and Surpass Your High Performance Goals - Kathleen Schienle [19]
STAYING ON TRACK
Most goal-setting and performance management programs include procedures for written or verbal employee evaluation, or “formal feedback,” at least once a year. However, monitoring your employees’ progress toward their objectives and providing day-to-day feedback is just as important in helping them stay motivated and on track.
Monitoring Your Staff’s Progress
One approach to remaining in touch with your employees and ensuring they are on track to accomplish their goals is “management by walking around.” MBWA, as it is also known, was popularized by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., in their best-selling book, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies, and is an easy practice to put in effect as part of your daily management tasks. Rather than remaining barricaded in your office and observing or interacting with your staff only occasionally from across your desk, circulate among your staff’s offices and cubes. Check in with them, ask questions, and respond to what you see. You will quickly learn who is busily ticking actions off a to-do list and who is staring into space daydreaming.
Plan B
WALKING AROUND AFTER HOURS
One manager in an advertising firm had a smart riff on MBWA: “Walk the halls at 7:00 PM. It’ll take you to the problem every time.” His theory was that the people who were still at work at that hour were either committed employees working late to finish up a project or to clean up a colleague’s problem, overwhelmed employees trying to sort out their own mess, or people avoiding a sorry home life. All of this can be very important for a manager to know.
SOURCE: The Little Blue Book of Advertising by Steve Lance and Jeff Woll (Penguin, 2006).
Behind the Numbers
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Only 3 in 10 employees believed their companies’ performance review system actually improved performance, according to a 2006 study by human resources consulting firm Watson Wyatt. Most said that what is measured has little to do with their actual jobs, that positive feedback is rare, and that even a stellar evaluation didn’t result in a raise or bonus. In another Watson Wyatt study, nearly half of the employers surveyed said their managers were only minimally effective at boosting performance.
For their part, many employees resent the time they have to spend writing about and discussing potentially negative, touchy subjects. And because some companies use ambiguous evaluation and rating standards, employees often get little information on how to improve.
SOURCE: “Performance Reviews: Many Need Improvement” by Kelley Holland, New York Times (September 10, 2006).
If it’s true that the best work is created in a supportive environment, then your presence on the floor is a visible reminder of your support. Part social call, part fact-finding mission, MBWA allows you to mingle with your staff informally while checking on the progress of work.
Drop in when you know a staff member is available to talk, say, after the end of a phone conversation. After chatting about the local baseball team or last night’s episode of a popular reality show, find out what your staffer really thought about the budget meeting earlier in the day. Then ask how the survey of the latest computer graphics applications is coming along, and recommend a Web site with pertinent product information.
In just one encounter, you’ve established rapport, gotten honest feedback on a meeting, determined the progress of a project, and offered a timesaving tip. After a few casual visits, your team will get to know you better and feel even more comfortable with you.
Does managing by walking around literally mean strolling the aisles? Not necessarily. It could mean having a series of breakfasts, lunches or even fast-food runs with your employees, either individually or as a group. However you choose to reach out to your employees, it is critical to have