Performance Management

By: Rob Fazio

“How do we keep people motivated with all of this uncertainty and fear?” This is a question I continue to get asked from clients during the Covid-19 crisis. The answer is simple but not easy. What’s needed is a shift from trying to motivate people to invite people to be motivated. I believe that motivation is personal and needs to come from within. We consistently confuse motivation with inspiration. Inspiration is often short term. For example, what you experience after hearing a feel-good speech. Gifted speakers tap into your emotions and tell stories that make us feel positive and inspired, but it usually doesn’t last.

Motivation matters more than ever today. The way we lead will either cost us or give us a large ROE, return on our efforts.  Aon found that in the current digital age, the impact of reputation events on stocks has doubled. How a company’s management prepares, handles, and behaves following a crisis can add 20% of value or lose 30% of value. According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety have a significant economic impact. The approximate cost to the global economy is $1 trillion lost in productivity annually. Given the perfect storm of predictors of anxiety during the Covid-19 crisis such as lack of control, ambiguity, no clear path, and constant media coverage, that number is likely to be larger. One way to offset these risks and increase engagement is to shift the way you think about motivation and diversify your approach so you meet people where they are.

The type of motivation that increases engagement comes from what naturally drives people and lasts longer than a booster shot of enthusiasm. The way to reach people where they are is to appreciate the diversity of drivers and communication styles in people. A simple way to remember this is to key into mind Vibe, Vocabulary, and Vision. Vibe is how you interact with people and demonstrate that you genuinely want to play a role in their success. Vocabulary is using language that taps into people’s motivators. Vision is being forward looking, positive, and painting a picture of how individual contributions lead to collective success.

In order to accomplish paying attention to Vibe, Vocabulary, and Vision our team wanted to create a simple approach to a complex challenge. How do we know what motivates people and, just as important, what do we do once we know? Think of motivation as a diverse approach to reach people where they are. In his book Human Motivation, Harvard psychologist David McClelland looked at social motives and what drives our behavior inside us. His work led to the development of motivational currency, which is a simple approach to reading and leading based on an appreciation of what drives each individual person. The core four motivators are Performance, People, Power, and Purpose.  With fewer in-person interactions and more virtual interactions, it’s even more important to increase the probability of successfully influencing people by suspending your initial instinct and leading with intention.

As much as we wish it were as simple as a one size fits all, when it comes to motivation and much of psychology, people are unique, and we take action based on our personalities, previous experiences, and current situation. Therefore, although most people will have a primary motivator, it is often the case that people have multiple motivators. Someone can be highly motivated and driven by Performance as much as they are by People. The stronger your motivators are in one area, the easier it is for you to make decisions and the more challenging it is to manage your impulses.

Below are descriptions of the four motivators presented in an intuitive and straightforward way. The goals are to be able to: a) recognize what your primary motivators are, b) read what the motivators are for others, and c) lead with intention so you can motivate others quickly and effectively.

Performance                                                                                                                                                                                       

The Performance motivator is about results. Individuals who are driven by performance want to get things done. They pride themselves on not just completing tasks but excelling. A person with a drive for performance thrives on meeting challenges and exceeding standards. They are often fast paced, direct, and focused on outcomes. Performance driven people are not afraid to challenge the status quo and expect others to have as much drive as they do.

People                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The People motivator is about relationships. Individuals who are driven by the People motivator are most concerned about getting along, teamwork, and collaboration. They are focused on what impact things have on other people. They tend to have a strong social radar and can read people well.

In groups, the People driven person is often the person who asks a lot of questions, is inclusive, and focuses on getting everyone’s option. A common descriptor of someone who is People driven is “nice” or “team-oriented.”

Power                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The Power motivator is about influence. People are motivated by Power put a premium on being persuasive and offering their point of view. They often are effective at providing advice and communicating the importance of brand and reputation.

Purpose                                                                                                                                                                                             

The Purpose motivator is about helping others and contributing to something outside of themselves. They often crave having purpose and meaning in their work. Many Purpose driven people are motivated by developing others or volunteering and community involvement. They excel at getting people to focus on the greater good and can be tremendous enterprise contributors. They can get people to think across business silos and think about what is best for the entire group or business rather than individuals or teams.

From analyzing the data, we have from the Motivational Currency Calculator across industries, we have found that women rate themselves higher than men on Purpose. Men rate themselves higher on Performance and Power. There are similar related to People. Men and women do not differ on their accuracy scores for “Leading,” which is identifying the correct communication approach based on someone’s primary motivator. However, women tend to have a higher accuracy score related to “Reading” which is how effectively one can identify what is someone’s primary motivator.

In regard to generations, our team was surprised to learn that millennials have more similar motivation profiles to baby boomers than generation X. Millennials rate themselves highest on Power and Purpose. Generation X rates themselves highest on Performance. All generations rate themselves similarly on People. Generation X scores highest on “Reading.”

Connect with us and continue the conversation. On October 7^th, in partnership with HRDQ, we will have the opportunity to further the conversation on motivation. You can register here: Motivational Currency®  The Coins of Influence and Inclusion.

The more effort you put into understanding what drives people, the further you will go together.

Rob Fazio, PhD of OnPoint Advising, has over 20 years of experience advising executives on crisis, power, influence, and motivation with elite and emerging talent. Rob is the author of Simple is the New Smart and the Motivational Currency Calculator. He is the founder of Hold the Door a 9-11 inspired nonprofit focused on growth through adversity.

By Sally Foley-Lewis

When I lived in Germany, I learned to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road in winter. I lived at the bottom of a hilly street so with snow and ice on the road during winter I felt completely out of control and scared as the car simply slid its way zig-zagging down the hill. Brakes were a waste of time, the steering had only a small impact to help me not bump into other cars parked in the street.

The feeling of being out of control like this was not enjoyable. All I could think of is, “How do I stop this? How do I not hit another car?”

This is like delegating blindfolded or for the first time. When you don’t have a structure, a map or a process to follow, it feels completely impossible because there’s a sense of having no control.

A quick quiz for you:

1. Do you find yourself spending more time than you would like on routine, administrative or menial tasks?  YES  /  NO
2. Do you spend significant time giving answers to questions that should already be known?   YES  /  NO
3. Do you consistently have more work to do than time available?   YES  /  NO
4. Do you spend most of your day putting out spot fires of issues for your team rather than getting on with your work?   YES  /  NO
5. You feel an increase in stress levels when you do delegate and can’t feel relaxed until the task is completed?   YES  /  NO

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then the next step is to explore why delegating is not part of your day to day process of managing and leading.

Whether it’s outsourcing or delegating, the process of getting results through others is a cost-effective way to execute an ever-increasing workload, and to engage and empower your people.

With so many reasons that immediately pop up to validate why managers or business owners don’t delegate or outsource, it can seem natural to just continue piling on to the already endless ToDo List.

And it doesn’t take long for this to become an unconscious habit.

• I’m too busy to delegate.
• It’s quicker if I just do it myself.
• I’m not sure they’ll do it to the/my standard.
• I don’t want to cop the blame if it goes wrong, again!
• I tried it once and I had to re-do all the work anyway.
• I tried delegating but it all went pear-shaped.
• I don’t know what I can actually delegate to them.

These are just a few of the reasons my clients tell me why they haven’t delegated. All are true and valid. However, they are short-term focused and keep the manager busy, overwhelmed and overworked. There are nine steps to delegating or outsourcing properly. You know you simply can’t dump a task on someone’s desk as you walk out the door to your next meeting. An email, no matter how detailed, will never be enough to ensure the outsourcing is done to your standard, on time and to budget.

Stepping through each of the nine steps puts control and productivity squarely in your hands. When you know what each step is, when you’ve done them once, you’ll instantly experience a greater sense of control and confidence. Some steps can be worked through very quickly the more you do them; some will become a simple check rather than an in-depth and lengthy process to complete.

BEFORE DELEGATING

To plan your delegation means you will avoid dumping the wrong task on the wrong person while you’re rushing from one meeting to the next. Planning can cause some people’s eyes to glaze over, while at the other extreme others love it so much that they spend their entire time planning and neglect to implement their plans. Whether you fall into one of these two types of ‘planners,’ or somewhere in between, planning is essential for your success. The success of delegating is your planning.

DURING DELEGATING

Once the delegation has started, you simply cannot disappear! Being accessible during the delegation means you can step in quickly if a problem arises that needs your level of authority or expertise. Furthermore, your presence can provide a sense of support for the delegate. During the delegation, there are three key elements to ensure you stay engaged in the process: outcome, support and tracking.

AFTER DELEGATING

Work is busy! Some days it can feel impossible to stop and think, however, reflection is essential for learning and improving. What did delegating this task or project to that delegate teach you? Reflect on this question prior to asking the delegate what they learned from doing the task or project.

Better still, breaking your reflections down a little further will help you identify where you can improve your future delegating. This process gives you essential information for what to change going forward, what worked really well so that acknowledgment and recognition can be given – to yourself and your delegate!

Having a process, a structure, the nine steps, to follow is what gives you confidence and control.

Join us on June 10 to hear Sally Foley-Lewis present DELEGATE: Double the Results! Halve YOUR Effort!

By Kevin Eikenberry

Ask anyone to tell you what they think about the performance management process at work and you will get a different response. Everyone has an opinion – whether they are an individual contributor and are the recipient of the “performance review,” or a leader who is likely both a giver and receiver. Unfortunately, those opinions and experiences are rarely glowing and are often negative.

While no organization wants to set up a performance management process that people don’t like or don’t find helpful, too often that is what happens. Learning professionals and HR teams are working hard with good intentions – it’s just performance management processes often fall short of their intended goals.

The Problem

There are several reasons this can happen, but I want to highlight just one: most performance management processes have the wrong time horizon. My point is this is, most of these processes look backward to consider:

• How people did
• What their results were
• What happened
• Whether they improved or not

Notice that all of these are about what has already happened. While we need to know that, and that is important, consider this question: What can you change about the past?

Unless you possess powers I am unaware of, the answer is nothing. You can’t change the past, and neither can anyone else. When we do performance reviews (notice that the name tells us that we are looking at the past), we spend all our time looking back – having a history lesson. Since we can’t change it – if all we do is look back, it can’t be very helpful.

A Better Approach

While having a clear picture of what did happen (and to be clear, sometimes we need to see a perspective beyond our own to remove blind spots or get out of denial) is important for context, it isn’t by itself actionable.  That is why if we will move our time horizon from “the past” to “the past and the future,” we can truly help people do something with the performance conversation.

This matters whether someone is doing really well or has some significant performance gaps. In either case, people need to know where they are and what to do to make it better. Once we change the time horizon, we transform the traditional performance management/review conversation into a status report and a planning session. That change provides what the developers of your process wanted, and helps make it part of ongoing improvement and growth, rather than a source of consternation and frustration.

What You Can Do Now

The best news here is that you can change the time horizon of your performance management process at no cost. You don’t need to change software, your forms, or even your process. In fact, as an individual leader you can make this adjustment unilaterally. As a leader, tell your team members you want the meeting to be more than just a review. Encourage them to come prepared to talk not only about the past, but about what comes next. Then, make sure your meeting includes a healthy dose of “what’s next?” or “now what?” questions, and not just “here’s what happened.”

By the way, do you see what I just did? I changed what I am suggesting you do in your performance management conversations – I went from a discussion of “what is,” to a discussion of “what’s next.”  Hopefully I achieved my goal of creating a valuable, actionable message for you, and practicing the lesson at the same time – proving my point.

Making this change will get you better results and begin to change the perception and experiences people have of performance management for the better. Not with words, but with action.

Learn more about performance management by attending Kevin Eikenberry’s webinar Making Performance Management Work on March 18. Register here.

Courage involves behavior. Like all behaviors, courage can be developed, encouraged, and reinforced. While a lot of writers have focused on the realms in which courage is applied (e.g. moral courage) military courage, and political courage, it is more useful to understand the common ways that people behave when being courageous, regardless of which realm they’re operating in.

While the realms themselves may have sharp differences, the ways people behave when being courageous within those realms are surprisingly similar. In my work as a courage-building consultant, I have discovered that there are three ways of behaving when your courage is activated. When you become familiar with the three distinct types of courageous behavior, you gain a deeper understanding of how to tap into, and strengthen, your own courage and the courage of those around you.

I call these three different forms of courage the Three Buckets of Courage.

Try Courage

When managers talk about wanting workers to “step up to the plate,” it is Try Courage that they are referring to. Try Courage is the courage of initiative and action. You often see Try Courage when people make first attempts – for example, whenever you see someone attempt new, skill-stretching, or pioneering tasks. Someone who volunteers to lead a tough or risky project is demonstrating Try Courage.

Trust Courage

Trust Courage is the courage that it takes to relinquish control and rely on others. When managers talk of wanting employees to embrace company changes more willingly or to follow directives more enthusiastically, it is more Trust Courage that they want employees to have. When Trust Courage is present, people give each other the benefit of the doubt, instead of questioning the motives and intentions of those around them. Trust Courage isn’t about taking charge (as with Try Courage), but about following the charge of others.

Tell Courage

Tell Courage is the courage of voice and involves speaking with candor and conviction, especially when the opinions expressed run counter to the groups. To preserve their safety, workers often agree too much and speak up too little. When Tell Courage is activated, it causes workers to assert themselves more willingly and confidently. Tell Courage at work is shown when employees tactfully but truthfully provide tough feedback, even to their manager. It’s also seen when workers raise their hands and ask for help, or when they tell their manager about mistakes they’ve made before they are asked.

The main benefit of using the Three Buckets of Courage as a framework for understanding and categorizing courageous behavior is that it helps make courage, as a concept, more graspable.

Parsing courage into three behavioral buckets allows us to discriminate the different ways we have been courageous in the past and are capable of being in the future.

To learn more about how to develop courage, watch the free webinar “Courageous Leadership: How to Build Backbone, Boost Performance, and Get Results”. This webinar will allow viewers to understanding why being courageous is the premier personal and professional virtue while learning how to create an environment that supports ongoing courageous behavior. Viewers will also receive tips on how to increase their courage while inspiring more workplace courage.

This webinar is based on the HRDQ product “Courageous Leadership.” Courageous Leadership is a comprehensive training package that introduces courage-building, which is a practice that guides leaders to readily meet challenges, fully embrace change, and speak more assertively. Learn more!