Improving Staff Productivity
If a manager improves his own productivity, in the grand scheme of things there is little gain. But if he improves the productivity of each person on his staff, then he has done much for the organization due to the multiplying effect of increased productivity of many people.
So how does one improve each person's productivity? In a word: Leadership. Often this is what unleashes the potential in a staff member. This is not an overnight issue. The leader has to gain the respect of his staff and colleagues. The goal of any new leader is to quickly get to "level 4" of the five levels of leadership. This provides to the leader with a solid, credible platform from which to execute his agenda.
While building to being a level 4 leader, I'd suggest the new manager review the performance history of all of his staff. Obtain the HR records of each person. Note strengths and weaknesses, specialized training, awards, recognitions, even reprimands. Then I suggest sitting down individually with each person on the staff and reviewing the 12 Ways to Keep Good People questions. The objective here is to find out what is between the individual and 12 yes's. Any no's over these 12 questions shows an important area for the manager to correct. Note that the responses by the individuals are not meant to judge the person, but rather how the organization is run. Thus it is incumbent upon the manager to correct any no's.
Immediately after asking the 12 Questions above ask the following seven questions:
What are your expectations of me?
If you were the department leader for one day, what would you do?
Six months from now, and we're sitting at this same table, what will I have done or accomplished that will allow you to say that I was a good hire for this department?
What are the published goals of the organization (if indeed there are any)?
What are your current technical responsibilities?
What are your goals at the company?
What is your title?
When the 12-Questions, and the follow up seven questions are asked, you should have a good idea of where the person stands technically and what shape their attitude is in. You should also know their goals and some of the ideas they'd like to have implemented. With this information you go about assessing if each individual is placed within the organization where they can contribute the most to the organization.
Ultimately each person should have a clear title, clear responsibilities, and clear performance and behavioral expectations. Then build on this. Praise in public (and it must be sincere and relevant) and admonish in private. The goal is to edify the staff member to advance the purposes of the organization.
And don't forget that as a leader you have to be consistent, open, honest, transparent, fair, knowledgeable, credible, accountable, submissive, and add value.
It would also be a good thing, with your staff, to jointly arrive at a clear mission statement that each staff member can buy into. It should be short and relevant and easily memorized.
BUT! ... what about the naysayers? Well, anyone can lead A+ players who are on board and buy into the mission. What about the ones who will not. Here's what I have done: Work with them, give them the benefit of the doubt, encourage growth, provide clear expectations. If they still will not get on board, then, in the interest of overall staff morale, you MUST deal with it. Slackers will de-motivate a team. If they cannot do the job, transfer them to a job they can do. If they will not do the job, then begin with verbal, then written warnings, then a PIP (performance improvement plan -formalized written plan of action with a time limit and clear expectations), then termination if required. You raise the level of your staff in two ways: Train them; Trade them.
Promote POSITIVE expectations. Everyone on staff should resonate with the following expectations:
P - Process oriented; solid systems define world-class quality
O - Organized; neat and orderly files - use electronic communications
S - Strategic awareness; ensure all you do aligns with the strategic goals
I - Intrinsically directed; self-directed and self-motivated people based on company goals
T - Thinking; always think, solve problems, innovate, create
I - Internal and external customer focus; who is your customer and what do they need?
V - Values based; operate within the boundaries of personal and company values
E - Environmentally adaptive; as the environment changes be nimble, flexible, adaptable
Another area to consider is the limits of the organization itself in the area of productivity. Most of the productive effort will come through people. But what is the environment that they have to work within? Does it maximize their skills? Are the systems they have to work in "cast in concrete" and unchangeable, even if they don't work. Consider the following and ensure that your business isn't suffering from:
Lastly, once we have the staff motivated and the organizational issues fixed (by and large), there's one more area to consider: retention. Keeping high-performance, highly trained, highly productive people is a must to improving productivity. There is a lot of time and momentum lost when a key person leaves. The manager has a "good reason" for missing dates because "a key person left the company," as if he had nothing to do with it! But he does! He should know the pulse of the staff and continually reinforce the benefits to the individual of their being a part of your team.
Although I have dismissed three persons in my almost nine years of being an engineering manager, I have never lost an employee to a competitor. Never. And not a few had offers. And not a few left for other companies after I left the organization. What is my secret? It's back to the 5 Levels of Leadership. It involves all of the above. When you are a level four leader, you add value, you are consistent, you have clear expectations, and you get results - people want to stay on board. That's been my experience as a professional manager of professionals.
A fine article on coaching employees follows...
Coaching Employees to Better Productivity
Nov. 10, 2000 (SmartPros) — As your company grows, more demand is placed on your employees. Productivity is key to the continued success of your business, so how to you improve productivity? Try coaching your employees.
Coaching your employees serves five major purposes:
It is used to effectively modify employee behavior patterns and/or job skills for the benefit of both the employee and the management/supervision staff of the company.
It is used to review employee's performance and behavior patterns, letting the employee know where they have made progress and shown improvement.
It helps management, at all levels, to assist their subordinates in recognizing their own strengths and weaknesses.
It is used to show employees what they must do to improve themselves and to help them in setting realistic goals for specific achievements.
It is used to help employees recognize a problem which may exist and correct it.
When used as part of an employee review and evaluation system, the coaching interview helps build respect, morale, motivation and loyalty by helping the employee become a better performer, qualifying for wage increases and/or promotions and increased job productivity. By nature, reprimands, warnings and suspensions are harsh. They can tear down an employee's self-confidence and morale. In these cases, the coaching interview softens the blow and helps cure the problems the employee is encountering.
The employee's immediate supervisor must always perform a coaching interview and he/she must be familiar with this procedure before being allowed to conduct the interview. The coaching interview should take as long as needed or required to help the employee, but must be kept short as to avoid being repetitive on the same issues or to use a phrase "beating a dead horse". A well-prepared coaching interview should last approximately 30 minutes. The coaching interview should, in reality, be a discussion. Two-way communication is essential if full advantage is to be gained for the benefit of the employee as well as the "coach"/manager.
The Role of the Supervisor
There are many different ways to conduct a coaching interview and each supervisor will develop a method which best suits their personality and the personalities of the employees being evaluated. However, coaches must observe certain basic and fundamental procedures so that the end results of the coaching interviews will be consistent throughout the company. In order to do this you need to:
Avoid an atmosphere of stress.
Plan the interview; decide on a time and place. Get all of the facts and plan the approach.
If the employee has earned a good report, say so at the beginning of the coaching interview. This breaks the ice and reassures the employee. This establishes that the interview will progress on a positive note.
If you are conducting a critical interview, either overall or for a particular task, make sure the employee appreciates and understands the reasons. A good approach in this instance is to be critical towards the action or task that is creating the problem and not the individual being evaluated. This makes the employee feel less defensive and more welcoming of criticism.
The coaching interview is an informal summary of the more formal performance review that should be conducted on a semi-annual basis for maximum effectiveness. The interview should contain no surprises for the employee, either as to the ratings on the review or as to any comments leading to such ratings. Apart from discussing past performance and weaknesses of the employee, the coach should look ahead to the tasks and opportunities for the coming year and the employee's aspirations for the future. To this regard, coaches should consider and discuss:
What changes do they see occurring in the work situation in the next 12 months that are likely to affect the employee?
What are the employee's reactions to these changes as they may affect his/her own position?
What sort of job position within the company, does the employee want to do, both now and in the future?
Does the employee think he/she could gain additional skills through training by the company (or outside of it), and if so, what sort of skills?
Remember many employees may not be aware of long-term job opportunities within the company. The employee will welcome your guidance and direction. In any event, lack of ambition to move upward must not be necessarily assumed to be symptomatic of apathy, provided the employee shows an active interest in maintaining and/or improving his/her current job position. The employee's views should be recorded and kept on file in addition to the performance review notes.
Before the coaching interview, the coach should review the problem(s) and decide what aspects should be discussed. In the case of reprimand, only one subject should be covered and discussed. Isolated incidents should require no more than a single short session, while general behavior patterns will require more extensive sessions.
Conducting the Coaching Interview
The employee must be informed that his/her performance is not up to par and corrective action is necessary. The evaluation or warning notice must be reviewed with the employee. Use tact. The idea of the coaching interview is to cure, not kill. Never allow personal feelings to enter the discussion. Keep the interview strictly business.
Whenever possible, use job descriptions and/or company policy or procedure manuals to show or illustrate the nature of the problem. Always use documentation when available, provided it is pertinent and relevant. The heart of the coaching interview is to explain to and have the employee accept the fact that he/she has erred and is wrong. Now you can both discuss ways and means to correct the problem. Remember: The purpose is to correct the problem and turn weaknesses into strengths through behavior modification and/or retraining.
The supervisor must obtain a commitment from the employee to not only improve their performance but on specific goals and tactics they will use to do so. To this, follow-up is essential. It is imperative that the employee knows, through the supervisor's actions, that sincere interest is involved in the employee's improved performance.
Ensure the coaching interview ends on a positive note. The supervisor should be encouraging to the employee giving them a "can do" sense. The end of the interview should be a time not only to reiterate the discussion, but to motivate the employee to take the necessarily steps to improvement.
Conclusion
Where the employee has the skills, knowledge and ability necessary to perform up to expectations, the coaching interview will normally provide the means of salvaging an employee who otherwise might have quit or been terminated. Where more probing and intensive interviews would be helpful, by all means use them.
Originally published April 13, 1998.
© 2000, Smartpros Ltd. All Rights Reserved.