***The following transcript has been automatically generated and is presented here unchecked***
LinkedIn Live Harnessing the power of performance management…
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
performance management, people, targets, feedback, important, organization, conversation, linkedin, questions, differentiating, week, talk, multiple sources, company, thought, line, manager, point, nadine, share
SPEAKERS
Nadine Powrie
Nadine Powrie [00:02]
Good afternoon and Nadine Powrie Thank you for watching my LinkedIn life today. All Thank you, if you are watching on the on the replay, I know that we have a number of attendees watching as well today. So thank you to you, if you’re attending. If you’re attending live, as you said you would be you would be doing. So first of all, let me wish you all a very happy new year and good house success and happiness, I really hope that 2022 is going to be a different year for four. So I hope that we will have the opportunity to work together in 2022. So when feel free to go and check my website at Nadine valley.com, or feel free to send me an email at any Barry at Nadine powrie.com. And let’s start a conversation. So today I am going to be sharing with you my expertise around performance management. And as always, you know, feel free to ask some questions or to share some point of view or some opinions, I really would like to see on the on the right hand side of my screen, I really would like to see some some input from you. So I’m going to be keeping an eye on the right part of my screen. So if you see my eyes going somewhere else, it’s because I am checking on the input of my audience. So for those who don’t know me, I’m an executive and leadership coach, I am a workplace mediator, and Amazon International Education Specialist. So I specialize in change management. And particularly, I am specializing in difficult conversations. So I help leaders and managers who are really feeling quite worried and about conversations that they’re having to have around redeployment around restructuring around mergers and acquisition around conflict with colleagues, conflict with stakeholders or of the world. And I help them shift their mindset so that they see what they thought was a difficult conversation is actually and become a courageous conversation. And I love watching that transformation, the different belief to different mindset to different thinking, even a different language that those leaders and managers are using. Once we’ve finished our our coaching and our work together. I also enjoy receiving testimonials. So if you go on to my website on my LinkedIn, you will see that there are a number of testimonials and I enjoy receiving feedback. Now this morning on on LinkedIn, actually Jenny plans if you go to our, to our post, Jenny works with an account management. She has her own company and she did a great post around feedback. And she was saying that, actually, it’s quite difficult for people to receive feedback, I think it’s a gift to give it and to receive it. So please leave me some feedback. And I’d love to hear from you. And I want to know how I’m doing as well. So this year, I am going to continue with my LinkedIn live, I think I’ve put a post at the end of December to celebrate or my guest and to say thank you. And given the feedback that I’ve received, I thought I want to continue to LinkedIn live. It’s much easier for me than doing podcasts because we do podcasts you have to edit the podcast and I’m not a Sunday tech. So it’s taking me quite quite a long time. I think we LinkedIn naive Here I am, I am speaking to you. I know that I am making some mistakes in English, but it doesn’t matter. Or we can, we can still communicate. But I know that it’s it’s great to be doing LinkedIn live on my own. It’s great to be doing it with guest. So I may have one or two guest or I may organize a roundtable. So in 2022 I’m going to be doing it slightly differently, whereby there will be perhaps a more diverse approach to my LinkedIn life. Because I think it’s nice to do LinkedIn live in a different way. And in those LinkedIn live, I will continue to share my experience my expertise, and I will share with you some some tips. You know some strategies that I hope will be will be helpful. So today I want to talk about performance management. And I want to share with you the why. And I guess for me it’s twofold number one and I think you all know for those who are not following me, necessarily, I have put together a proposal for a PhD. And my PhD is about the role of hope, in the outcome of difficult conversations in the context of performance management. So I have an interest, I have a very vested interest in performance management. And the second reason is that it’s quite timely to talk about performance management, because for many companies, performance management is under review is happening right now in January, for other company it’s going to be happening in in March, because it’s before the end of the tax year just depends where we are in the world. So I thought that it would be interesting to share with you actually, the work that I am doing, and the work that I’m doing in my research, but also the work that I am doing in terms of leadership development with with my client. So thinking about performance management, I would say that there are two kinds of schools of thoughts. The school that is very traditional, whereby you set some objectives and targets with your colleague, you’re the line manager, so you set targets, and then you might have a review in the middle of the year. And then you have a kind of wrap up evaluation at the end of the cycle. To evaluate those targets. That I would say is the more traditional way, in more agile organizations quite different, because the system is a little bit more dynamic, whereby you may have fewer targets, or you may have team objectives. And in those organizations, those targets are spoken about frequently. So it’s not like every six months, it’s like almost every week, they they talk about those targets to those action points, the support that is needed, the the evaluation of where people are at and whether or not they are progressing on target. So because it’s kind of organic to the organization, it’s, it’s not so much. You know, the big performance management discussion, it’s organic, it’s part of the everyday today, discuss discussions that people are having in the company. And I have to say that I quite like that approach. Because I think that it’s quite interesting to think about team objectives. I was working with a company not long ago doing some leadership training with them. And I said to them, have you thought about, in addition, or perhaps instead of setting some individual targets, have you thought about setting some team objectives? They kind of had thought of it, but they they had fear because they didn’t know how to go about it. And those team objectives can be very transparent, you can even resize them. I mean, you know, everybody is entitled to see the Stargate. It’s I, I’ve always thought no big deal, really. But I think that by publishing it by having transparency philosophy about them, then it makes, you know, it makes everybody being aware of them. Even if the CEO, do you know, the director, and if everybody shares that target, then at least everybody in the company know where they’re going. And I think being transparent about them. And I think being dynamic and frequently visiting those targets is important or is important for the growth of the organization, but also for the cohesion for the coherence of the team. And in some companies that I’ve worked with, and that I think is really great practice, but it may I get that it may worries other companies is that they set targets every quarter. So, you know, they kind of do four or three, I should say, psychos throughout throughout the year, so a set of targets and then they talk about it on a frequent basis. And then they review and then they might abandon some targets because you know, they’ve been achieved sort of go move on to something else. Or they may continue to work on that targets. And I think this is a very dynamic approach. I’m to, to have in terms of performance management, there is a there is a thing that I have noticed there is a trend that I have noticed when I’ve been working with some of my clients. And when I’ve been discussing Chile, with a number of pupils, from my research, I’ve kind of noticed that sometime in the targets for performance management sometime, there is no reference to big topics such as, you know, diversity, inclusion, gender parity, so many organizations are talking about it, you know, in social media, and you can see it on their website, and you think, great, it’s there. But actually, when it comes to embedding, that in people’s performance management, it doesn’t exist. So you could argue, well, perhaps it’s because they’ve got some very specific department dealing with that, and therefore, those departments are only talking about it and leading training about about it. But if we want to an organization to be very aligned, and if we want to have everybody walking to talk, and if you want to make sure that those KPIs are going to be achieved, achieved in terms of, you know, the, the targets that you’ve said, then I think it’s important that everybody is given the opportunity to contribute to aid. And I think it’s important not to leave it at Oak. So one of the tips that I would say here is, look at your organizational strategy, and integrate that in the performance management of people. So even if an Action Point is about, you know, doing some recruitment, then you could write a line about diversity and inclusion, for example. So that people are thinking about it when, you know, they are doing a specific action. And what I’m trying to say here is that I think it’s important that people are not reminding, not reminded because they should know about it, but I think it’s important that people are getting being given an opportunity to contribute. I guess that’s what I’m saying. So the second point that I want to make about performance management is that it’s important to invest in managers and in leaders coaching skills. So I see performance management as a very powerful intervention. Otherwise, you know, what’s the point of having a conversation around performance management? I mean, you could argue that everybody could do it online, you know, you have some tools, you just typing your notes, and then your line manager, check it, and then you know, it’s done. I think here, there is a huge opportunity to have a powerful intervention and powerful conversation. And I think that it’s all about developing the capability needs of people. Now, when you have a line manager, I don’t think that here I am, particularly being aloof, right. But I think that your role is to inspire your role is to provide feedback. But your role is also to be to be fair. So for me, those three components are part of that powerful intervention of that discussion. So inspiring, providing feedback, and being fair. Now, it’s important that when you put feedback at the heart of the organization, it’s actually important that people understand how to give feedback. I think it’s a gift. I think it’s a talent to be able to give feedback that is constructive. But I think it’s also equal to equip people to ask for feedback. And it’s important to develop that learn that feedback culture in the organization, because if you suddenly ask feedback to somebody who is not trained to give feedback, who is quite surprised and not ready to give you feedback, then I think it defeats the purpose of having those conversations. So I guess here, it’s, it’s about making sure that everybody is having a training around feedback, and is equipping all the employees to have the same opportunities actually to ask and to receive feedback. So one of the questions that I would like to ask you, and I would like you to think about is, how are you equipping your employees and your organization? How are you developing your organization? How are you equipping your employees to have those courageous conversation, you know, to give that courageous feedback, but also to ask, you know, courageously that feedback? And how do you make sure that the feedback that has been collected comes from different stores, I think it’s really important that the final say about performance management doesn’t rely on one person. And I’ve seen that in organization where, you know, the line manager is going to kind of make the decision, of course, you knows, often talking with HR, but they make the decision on their own about that performance management and ice really think that this is fundamentally wrong. But again, that’s my view, I think it’s wrong, because I think that probably never worked on on their own, they work in a team, they work with clients, they work with different teams. And I think, asking for the feedback of all of those people who will have very different perspective, very different opinions. And who can all bring something to the table to make that employee even better at what that employee is doing? I think this is quite critical. So it’s about having multiple sources of feedback to ensure that it is quality feedback. Now, one of the points as well, that I want to make is that it’s really important. I should say that, when it’s really important to just thinking here about what I want to say, it’s really important to share that performance management conversation, it’s important to make sure that you have it on a frequent basis. I mean, I’m all for that. So I’m all for, you know, every week when you’re having every fortnight when you’re having your line meeting line management meeting with your colleagues, I think it’s really important to touch home. The what seems that performance management. And I think that there are questions that can be asked that you can ask, you know, on a regular basis, the same questions where you can actually make people reflect on how far they’re getting on with their, with their performance management, right? I mean, their performance management, performance management shouldn’t kind of be a receipt. It shouldn’t be a document that is just by filing cabinets. I think it should, it’s for the company, but it’s sort of built to make people grow. So what I want to do is I want to share with you some of the some of the podium, everybody, I don’t know if you will up, listen to me. I might have to do that again. I might have to finish the broadcast. And to do that again, I don’t know. Maybe Maybe let’s continue and see, and then I will really send and then I might have to do it again. Okay. So as I was saying that there are some key questions that you could ask every you know, every time you meet with your, with your direct report, or with your people that you learn, manage, and I’m going to share with you the questions that I was asking to people who were on my team when I was a head teacher. So some of the questions were what have you changed this week? That will never be the same again? What are the high level successes this week? How have you leverage the strengths of your teams? What is your new learning about yourself, your team, your organization, and your community? What new ideas are you bringing this week that will make a significant difference? What have you done this week to contribute to us being outstanding? What have you done this week to stand out? How did you model the values of our organization this week? And what is your gross focus this week? So those were the questions that I was using with my team when I was ahead and that I continue to use our to share with my clients when I do leadership training, because they make you reflect on what you’re doing. They’re forward thinking and you can easily linked to, you know, what’s in your performance management. And the third point that I want to that I want to make is this is about differentiation. Now, you know, when you’re a teacher you’re differentiating in your classroom, depending on, on the ability, so you’re differentiating like task, you’re differentiating with time, you’re differentiating with the type of questions that you’re asking. And here, I want to talk about differentiating in terms of the contribution. So how can you differentiate the individual contribution to the team? contribution? So I would say two things here, a, what is tangible is easy to differentiate because you can see it. So it’s a direct results, it’s linked to numbers. Easy, right? But there is everything that is not easy to measure. And this is what is intangible. Because it’s, it’s more difficult because you don’t see it. And it’s even more difficult at a time where we are working, we in hybrid, we’re working from home, we silly people a lot less. I mean, you know, there’s so many people who have not met their team for such a long time. So it’s very difficult to, to see, and to assess what they’ve done, because we’ve not seen them directly in the corridors, you know, meeting room. And what is difficult to see is, for example, anything that is related to values. I talked earlier on about one of the questions I’m asking, I was asking my team, you know, how did you contribute to demonstrating the values of our organization? Well, you know, if you don’t see people, that’s going to be quite difficult. So it’s just being aware of, how are you going to go about capturing? What is more intangible? And what are the questions that are related to that measure? I think it’s important to be to be aware of that. So better conversations around performance management means that, you know, productivity is going to increase, people are going to perform better, quicker, people are going to be motivated, and you’re going to be, you’re going to have a higher retention, that means less exit interviews, I do want to do something about exit interviews, because I think it’s, it’s quite, it’s, it’s great to have people’s feedback in exit interviews, I think it’s a different type of feedback that we can get. But actually retaining your staff is a good thing, particularly at the moment, because in some sectors, it’s quite difficult to recruit. So the quality of those performance conversation will affect, you know, always our staff, want to stay on with our employees want to stay in your organization. So the final point that I want to make is about the importance to prepare performance management. Now, I’ve said that performance management is, is a powerful intervention, I said that it’s a conversation that is really important, and that those conversations should be happening on a regular basis. But each conversation is a is a gift. And I guess the first thing, the first thing here is about having the evidence about, you know, the achievement and what you brought on the table, so that it can be celebrated. And that the moment we need a lot of that. And so that’s really, that’s really important. My second point is about when you when you have those conversations, think about the language of risk, think about the type of risk that you are taking, you know, in the actions that you are taking to achieve those targets, think about the importance of the risks of thinking about, Oh, how many how many, you know, green, did I you know, in terms of how you flagged those two, those targets, you know, how many green how many orange, how many red? am I dealing with because actually if you have managed to overcome, you know, more red than green, which actually couldn’t be easier, you could argue, then this is a huge celebration and people will want to know about that. And, you know, think about the risk in terms of the type of risk being, financial being human risk being, health and safety, reputation, so think about that language of risk and, and try to assess where you where you are with that. And, and my final point here would be about opening up future discussions. So every week, you’re opening up a new discussion, or you know, every fortnight when you are meeting, your opening, you’re opening up for discussions around innovation, I think it’s important to, to keep going. And it’s important to, it’s important to be a disruptive leader, right? And I remember doing a podcast, and I really invite you to go and listen to that podcast, it’s on my website, and berry.com. I think it’s forward slash podcast you and it’s podcast number 60. With Simon harm. Now Simon is the director of a creative agency. And he’s a really great guy. And we talked a lot about being a disruptive leader and asking questions around the why, and asking question around, you know, is there a better way? I think it’s really important to keep having those conversations, because the cycle of Performance Management has a beginning, a middle and an end. But I think that there is a thread, and this thread can be innovation, the thread can be about constantly questioning as to how we can do things better. Because actually, you know, we say we outstanding and, and some companies are still writing, and may say, you know, you’re outstanding, well, what makes you outstanding? And where does outstanding finish? And is there something else above outstanding? So something really for you to think about. So I hope you’ve enjoyed watching my LinkedIn live, I think that I hope you could listen to me at the beginning. And please leave me some feedback. If there are any questions that you want to ask me, you can always, retrospectively send me some questions, and I will answer them. In the meantime, I will see you next week. And I can already say that next week, I’ve got a very specific guest, who is going to be joining me. And we are going to be talking about influence negotiation, difficult conversation. Oh, Ian is here. So Ian is saying how can we encourage our colleagues to engage positively with the process, the performance management process can feel threatening to some particularly salary and or promotion are directly or indirectly linked to the outcomes? Yes, I mean, I think yeah, and that’s one of the one of the solution for me to engage more positively is to, is to make sure that performance management is part of the everyday day to day culture is organic to the culture, and that it’s not a one off conversation that we’re having every year. Because you know, the like, before you don’t sleep. It’s conversations that we should have it’s in are one to one, we shouldn’t be talking about it. And we should be celebrating, because we all have something to bring to the table. And I’m sure that if you ask people every week, they’re going to come up with you know, what they’ve achieved. And I think that will relax people a little bit and they won’t see it, as, you know, the daunting conversations that they’re having to having to have. And when you are mentioning a salary, I said earlier on, I talked about the multiple sources of feedback that we we shouldn’t be getting. I don’t think it’s right for one person to be deciding on the under salary or promotion. I think that it’s important to have multiple sources. So it’s a bit like a 360 degrees, right, where you have solid evidence that that person has done extremely well. Not only, you know, with you, but with, with other peers with other you know, with other department with other services. I think it’s really important. I can see a LinkedIn user. I don’t know who you are, but thank you for finding it. Interesting. And thank you, Jenny, as always, for for listening to me. So I shall see you next week. And I thank you for listening to me. Goodbye.