February 17, 2025 • 28 mins
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Could the traditional approach to performance management be setting you up for failure? Uncover the hidden gaps between leadership and employees that often lead to frustration and inefficiency in the workplace. Our latest episode confronts the daunting nature of performance management head-on, transforming it from a burdensome task to a catalyst for growth.
Get equipped with strategies to align individual potential with organisational goals, ensuring a win-win scenario for all parties. Through this insightful discussion, you'll gain a fresh perspective on how to manage underperformance without it detracting from nurturing your high-performing team members.
Performance management is not just about checking boxes; it's about fostering genuine development through constructive feedback and emotional resilience.
We delve into the importance of honest communication and the dangers of relying solely on positive feedback. Our conversation highlights the necessity of ongoing support and understanding the broader context of employee performance, from organisational culture to individual behavior.
Reflect on your own experiences and struggles, and consider how these insights can transform your approach, making room for growth, understanding, and thriving in your role. Whether you're a manager or an employee, there's something valuable for you here.
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I am a Confidence and Success Coach for leaders, Organisational Development Consultant and independent Leadership Circle Profile® Certified Practitioner. Information shared about this tool is courtesy of Leadership Circle®, all rights reserved. www.leadershipcircle.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jolynne Rydz (00:00):
I didn't realise that's what you wanted.
Has anyone ever shared thosewords with you?
Throughout my career, therehave been countless times that
I've been called in to coachsomeone who's been
underperforming and more oftenthan not, eventually these words
flow out of their mouth Ididn't realise that's what you
(00:23):
wanted.
And in the same instance,leaders say but I've told them
so many times, why don't theyget it?
Does that sound familiar to you?
Have you ever had anunderperformer in your team?
(00:46):
If you have, you probably knowthat it takes so much time.
It takes energy.
It takes countlessconversations with HR seeking
advice on what you can do, whatyou can't do.
It takes paperwork as well tomake sure you're doing the
process correctly.
And if you feel that way,you're not alone.
Some research done by thecompany Robert Half found that
managers spend on average 10hours a week managing
underperformance, and more thanthat.
(01:09):
It can keep you awake at night.
It can be really stressful,wondering how is this going to
work out?
Am I going to be able to getthis person where they need to
be?
Are they going to get it?
And it can be heartbreakingwhen you put so much time and
effort into it and they don'tget there and what can happen is
that you've spent 80% of yourtime working on this one to two,
(01:33):
you know small group of peopleand the 80% of your team that
are great performers getneglected and they don't get the
resources and the skills andthe wisdom and insight and
coaching that they need from you.
And no matter how much trainingsometimes you give someone, no
matter how many conversationsyou have about this, no matter
(01:54):
how many times you show them thereality of the results and
where you need them to get to,sometimes they just don't get it
and aren't getting there.
And I get it.
That can be so frustrating.
And, on the flip side, maybeyou're a HR leader or someone
working in HR and you do all ofthis work in terms of putting
(02:16):
training out there, doing awhole performance management
process and systems andwondering just why managers are
reluctant to do it, because youknow that once it's done and
when it's done well andconsistently, life is so much
easier for everyone.
And maybe you've even beenasked to overhaul the system
when the system isn't the realissue and it seems like an
(02:37):
incredible waste of effort, timeand money when it's not the
real issue.
Maybe let's flip the coin again.
You're the employee andperformance management feels
like just this heavy processinstead of something that maybe,
when you're planning for whatyou're doing for the year that
it can be incredibly inspiringabout what you can do Maybe some
(03:00):
fear creeps in about, oh, arethey going to up the goal again
and will I be able to reach it?
What will that mean for me if Ican't, which can be incredibly
heavy.
And then again, when someone isunderperforming, the whole
process around that is oftenvery taboo.
And then, when it's taboo, thatcan create this angst and this
(03:22):
fear and this anxiety becausepeople it's not transparent, and
anxiety because people it's nottransparent.
And for many reasons it's nottransparent.
And so maybe, if you're theleader, you got into leadership
because you wanted to make abigger difference, you wanted to
help others grow, you wantedmore responsibility, maybe you
wanted more money, more status,you wanted career growth.
(03:43):
These are all such normalthings and inevitably, as a
leader, somewhere along the way,you will come across one, two,
multiple, maybe many, dependingwhat field you're in, what kind
of organization you're workingin as well, where people aren't
performing where you need themto be.
So I wanted to create thisepisode because it's one of the
(04:05):
common challenges I find leadersface in terms of wanting to
performance manage, but wantingto do so in a way that just
feels more congruent and in away that it's actually a win-win
for everyone.
And to do that, we really needto unpack some of the reasons
why it sucks, yeah, why we avoidit, why we have this almost
(04:28):
anxiety towards performance.
Managing someone Likeperformance management should be
an incredible thing.
It should be.
How do we uplift someone?
How do we maximize theirpotential and bring that out?
How do we align it with thegoals of the organization, align
their passion, their potentialand then give them the right
skills and tools and structureand environment to go make that
(04:50):
happen.
For me, that's what performancemanagement should be, but I
know that it's not the feeling.
The sentiment around that inreality is often far from that.
So let's unpack this togetheris often far from that.
So let's unpack this together.
There are so many reasons whymanaging performance is really
hard, so many.
I could talk about this probablyfor a whole week.
(05:12):
I could do a whole weekworkshop on it if you really
wanted, but I won't Not righthere, so I'll go through five
today, and the first one is theone that I see time and time
again whenever there are issueswith relationship in a team,
issues with the performance andjust general angst between,
(05:38):
usually, a leader and the directreport.
Often, if you can trace it back, I can literally map it out and
trace it back to there being alack of clear expectations at
the start.
That's it, a lack of clearexpectations.
And then it builds and builds,and builds and builds and then
explodes for many differentreasons, but it's a pattern I've
(06:00):
seen over and over again andthat's why I wanted to share it
with you.
But it's a pattern I've seenover and over again and that's
why I wanted to share it withyou.
So you know that task that HRteams often get you to do, maybe
once a year, maybe more often,about goal setting and yes, it
can be time consuming and yes,it can be embarrassing if you
don't actually know how to dothis well or don't have the
tools or the skills to do thaton both parties.
(06:22):
So it can be embarrassing forthe leader but it can also be
embarrassing for the employee.
I often see employees get giventhis, you know this form or
this document or this system,and say you know, go put your
goals in.
That can be really hard,depending on the level of
clarity they have already aboutthe strategy of the organization
, how their role fits into that,how their team fits into that.
(06:45):
There's so much context that'sneeded to really get a clear
picture, and one that'smeaningful, so you're not just
measuring the quantity ofsomething.
For example oh, you've sent 10emails a week.
You know what's the realmeaning.
Maybe you've resolved 10customer complaints a week.
That has much more meaning thanthe other one.
(07:05):
So that embarrassment cansometimes show up.
And then what happens if peopleavoid this, or they maybe don't
give it the time that itdeserves is the paths can
diverge over time and sometimesit's not even done.
I know many people who'veexplained that they're having
trouble at work because theyjust really don't know what
(07:26):
they're meant to be doing, andeven when they ask, it's not
clear.
So it's about both partiesrealizing what is actually the
goal and checking with eachother that it's clear, and often
we give training to leaders toset these expectations and
manage performance and,depending on your organization,
(07:47):
sometimes the employees don'tget it, and I think that's an
incredible oversight, becausewhen you unleash the capability
of employees to engage in thisprocess really well, and when I
say really well, more thanunderstanding the process and
what they need to put in on theform, but really seeing it as an
opportunity for their growthand for them to unleash all of
(08:11):
their strengths in what they doand feel really fulfilled in
what they do and aligned Likethat unlocking.
That is incredible and it's notsomething that I think we can
expect someone to do without thetraining and support to do that
.
So back to that past diverging.
So if you imagine, let's say,we're in the bush and we've got
(08:33):
this goal, an orienteering goal,we've got a degree that we need
to measure to get there and wehave two compasses and one of
them slightly needs a bit oflove, slightly off and we
somehow misread the compasses byone degree.
So you can start at the samepoint and as you start walking
you're generally pretty close towhere you need to be going.
(08:54):
But as you walk and as you walkyou can start to see that the
space and distance between thetwo people they're walking
further and further apart.
And then, once you get to theend, which is generally the end
of the performance cycle, youhave this conversation about how
things went and each partythinks it was going great, but
(09:18):
then when you talk in reality,it was far from where you wanted
to end up, just because of thatminor tweak right at the very
start.
So it's really no different.
That clarity at the start is so,so key.
So the first step to overcomethat is to clarify and check the
understanding.
Have you ever set a goal withsomeone and they've just or
(09:40):
asked them to do something andthey've just smiled and nodded?
That's not enough.
We need to actually get them torepeat something and they've
just smiled and nodded?
That's not enough.
We need to actually get them torepeat back to us.
So, asking a question like sowhat's your understanding of
what we need to achieve here?
And hearing how they languageit, and if you detect that they
haven't got it right, you needto stay in that moment and
(10:00):
really get the clarity untilyou're both really saying the
same thing and understanding thesame thing.
Now the second reason whymanaging performance can be
really hard is when youencounter disbelief.
That no one's ever said this tome.
I don't know if you remember aTV show reality TV show if
(10:21):
you're in Australia, or it'salso international called
Australian Idol TV show ifyou're in Australia, or it's
also international, calledAustralian Idol, and on the
Australian version many seriesago, there was this contestant
that showed up year after yearafter year and, poor thing, they
loved what they did.
They loved it.
They were having a ball whilethey were on stage, but they
were actually not very good.
(10:41):
They weren't very goodperformer, they couldn't
technically do the job very welland yet they thought they were
amazing.
And then what happened was theycut to an interview with the
participant, with the contestantand with their mum, and their
mum was gushing about howamazing they were.
And they're incredible.
And, of course, as a parent,sometimes we do want to and we
(11:05):
do have rose colored glasses ofsomeone that we love being
incredible at what they do.
And if that's your only sourceof feedback, people that will
only give you good feedback.
It can be incredibly shockingand disbelieving when someone
hears the opposite, that they'renot doing it right or they're
(11:25):
not doing it well enough, andthey can start to internalize it
like, oh, that means I'm notgood enough, or they can push it
back to you and you become thebad guy, you become the bad
person.
They might feel attacked andthat can make us feel, as
leaders, that we want to maybeback down because it's easier to
(11:46):
not give them the feedback,because they might get really
reactive.
Or we don't want to get in asituation where someone thinks
which I've seen time and timeagain that someone lodges a
bullying complaint, soperformance management has
started and the employee feelslike they're being bullied and
sometimes they are, but oftenthey're not.
(12:08):
They haven't been given thesupport to be in a mindset where
they can receive the feedbackin a meaningful way and take
action on it without activatingthe ego, activating that
protection mechanism that wantsto defend, deny, justify, run
(12:29):
away, hide under the covers.
So that disbelief is literallya sign that someone's ego has
been activated.
And often it's because theyhaven't gotten the real
constructive feedback.
And sometimes this is a resultof people passing on the issue.
You know, oh, that person's toohard to deal with, let's bump
them to a different department.
(12:50):
You know, you've seen that.
Or trying to be nice by onlysaying encouraging things and
brushing off, or ignoring themore difficult conversation of
what's not working well and whyand how can we support them to
do that?
So the antidote to this one isto be brave and kind.
(13:12):
So be brave enough to sharewhat is actually a gift to share
with someone.
Hey, I think you're amazing asa person and I reckon you can do
an even better job if you did X, y and Z.
You're currently doing A, butwe need B right.
There's actually gift andkindness in that.
(13:33):
So never think that it's mean.
It's only mean if you have thewrong intent in the way that and
in giving the feedback and thatmaybe you're not equipped
enough to do it well in a braveand kind way.
So be brave and kind, give thefeedback and if you don't have
(13:53):
the tools, go find them or chatto me Now.
The third reason why managingperformance can suck is that we
can be really unsure how theperson can react.
There can be a lot of emotioninvolved and this one sort of
builds on number two with thedisbelief.
Disbelief is almost anemotional reaction there, but
(14:13):
it's uncomfortable because we inour society are taught to
bottle our emotions or deflectthem, particularly in the
workplace.
You know it's often seen asunprofessional if you're too
emotional, but the fact of thematter is we are human and
emotion is simply a signal thatsomething needs action.
And if someone is reactingemotionally it's because deep
(14:35):
down.
You've just triggered somethingthat deep down they were maybe
hiding or ignoring or runningaway from something that they
knew actually needed to shiftand you've brought it to the
surface.
So that can be really raw andthat can be really uncomfortable
.
And what can happen sometimes.
Where this really goes wrong iswe continue performance managing
(14:55):
the person going down theprocess that we're told to go
down when the person isn't readyyet.
And what I mean by ready isthat we need to get them to a
mindset where they're not inthreat.
As soon as they're in threat,someone's ability to perform
unless they are a fight tosurvive person, their ability to
(15:16):
perform is going to decreasebecause they're going to want to
hide or freeze or flee.
So this kind of performancemanagement only works for the
people who will get in there andfight because they know they
can do it, and that's only oneproportion of the population.
So it's really important thatwe can recognize whether the
(15:38):
person's actually ready, becauseuntil they're ready, their
feedback and what they need tolearn and what they need to
shift isn't going to sink in andthey actually can't act on it.
It's like trying to build ahouse right, you've poured the
concrete slab, but you're soeager to get the result of a
house that you just put theframe up on the same day before
the concrete set.
(15:59):
So of course you can't screw inthe screw and the information
that needs to stick.
It won't stick because theconcrete's still soft and then
as the concrete sets, it's goingto be crooked.
That house is not going to lastbecause the foundation wasn't
there.
So the third thing that you cando to overcome this is to hold
the space to let the emotionflow out of the person.
(16:22):
You can pause it and continueif it seems like it's getting
too much, but you're continuingit in a very short timeframe
onwards so they are not let offthe hook.
And the really key thing hereto hold the space is to see the
person.
So when that person in front ofyou who isn't meeting the
standard that they need to, whenthey feel seen, heard and
(16:44):
understood, that's when they'reready to work with you and learn
.
Until you do that, if you don'tdo that, they are going to feel
attacked, judged, unsupported,maybe even like you've betrayed
them, like these are all reallyheavy feelings that you cannot
think straight and operate wellin when those are there.
(17:07):
So we've got to make them feelseen, heard and understood and
hold that space.
So the fourth reason whymanaging performance can suck is
that we can tend to set andforget.
So what I mean by this is wecan have a tendency as leaders
to treat people like an alarmclock.
Right, let's set the buttonshere.
(17:27):
This is what they need.
This is when they need to ring.
All right, go away and do it.
An alarm clock will go away anddo it.
It will ring at the time you.
When they need to ring Allright, go away and do it.
An alarm clock will go away anddo it.
It will ring at the time you'veprogrammed it to ring.
But the thing is, people are notalarm clocks, right, we are
more like onions.
Yeah, we have these beliefs, wehave these layers of self-worth
identity.
We have different abilities inour way to communicate what's
(17:51):
really going on for us.
We have different levels oftrust and ability to be
vulnerable.
We have different culturaldrivers about how we show up and
communicate and whetherperformance, and maybe even a
job, is actually a real sourceof pride.
And on the opposite side, shame.
And once shame kicks in, thatcan be really hard to recover
(18:14):
from the trick here.
If one of the reasons is set andforget, the antidote to set and
forget is consistent care, socaring about how this person can
achieve what they need to, whatwe need them to.
How can we support them?
How can we guide them?
How can we give them meanyfeedback?
We guide them.
How can we give them meanyfeedback on all the good things,
(18:36):
no matter how small it isSometimes it's tiny, sometimes
it's as simple as you know, youmade eye contact today.
That was really great for theteam morale or sometimes it is
as simple, as you replied to mewhen I asked you how this was
going.
It may seem small to you, butit's important that you
acknowledge that to them thatmight actually be a very new and
(18:57):
difficult step that they'venever, no one's ever asked them
to do, or they've actually hadsome resistance around doing in
the past for various reasons.
So what tends to happen wherethis can go wrong is we have a
reticular activating system inour brain and what this tends to
do is it looks for things thatmatch the filter that we've got.
(19:18):
So, for example, let's sayyou're wanting to buy a red
Corolla.
You start researching redCorollas and then suddenly
there's so many out on the road,like you cannot believe why
there's suddenly so many redCorollas.
Now the thing is, the number ofred Corollas on the road hasn't
magically changed because youdecided to buy one.
Your brain has just lifted thatfilter to look for red Corollas
(19:40):
.
They were always there, youjust didn't see them.
And when we're in a performancemanagement process with someone,
it can be so easy to look forall the faults that they
continually do and they add upand they add up and we keep
finding them, maybe.
And so when we can switch it tolook and find for the mini
(20:01):
feedback, the mini progress, thesigns that they are getting it,
the signs that they do want todo this, the signs that they do
have the capability, with theright support and time and
training and headspace, when wecan look for that, our brain
will start to see what's goodabout this person.
And obviously, with everythingI'm saying, it is obviously
(20:22):
their responsibility as well,but I'm trying to give you some
tools that can where you can go.
Okay, I've done my absolutebest in this process, regardless
of the outcome that happens atthe end.
So the fifth reason whymanaging performance can suck is
maybe it's not about them.
Yes, I'm going to go herebecause it needs to be said.
(20:45):
So there are so many reasons whythe poor performance of the
individual is not actually aboutthem.
It might be partially aboutthem, but often I've seen it's a
mismatch between them andeverything around them.
So you've got to look at thewhole system picture between
them and everything around them.
So you've got to look at thewhole system picture.
So let's start with system.
(21:08):
Are they operating in a systemthat's not conducive to getting
them the job done, for example,someone that needs to push a lot
of change through?
Is there a lot of bureaucracyand approvals that are designed
to manage risk, which is usefulin some ways, but sometimes it's
too much.
We manage too much risk andthen we end up with all these
approval levels that are therefrom a place of fear rather than
(21:32):
adding value.
So what's the system aroundthis person and their role like?
Is it empowering them, or arethere tweaks that could be made
there?
Because sometimes this persondoesn't know that or is not able
to articulate that, or has beentaught that they can't
articulate that for fear ofbeing called negative, and I've
seen that happen a lot as well.
(21:53):
The other thing is the tools.
I remember many years ago I wasonce in a job that I remember
one of the tasks we had to do wewere migrating systems.
We had to manually enter, takeall the data out from the first
system and enter it in thesecond system.
This is thousands and thousandsand thousands of lines of data,
(22:14):
right, so it didn't align withme.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it for a numberof reasons it was going to put
my team under immense wellbeingstress, which impacted their
wellbeing, and wellbeing isincredibly important value of
mine.
They were more efficient andcost effective.
When you actually did thenumbers of the staff, time that
(22:35):
it was going to take and thecost of engaging someone to do
that data migration, it didn'tfinancially make sense and so
actually, the result was for me,I decided to leave that
organization.
I haven't told them this.
So if they're listening andyou're wondering why I left,
that's actually one of thereasons why I left.
So the point of me sharing thisis that sometimes the tools
(22:56):
that we have are not the toolsthat could best empower us to do
our jobs well.
So, instead of manuallytransferring data entry, I could
have been looking morestrategically at how do we make
sure this new system is engagedand used to its fullest and
there's an easy transfer andchange process.
We also touched a little bitabout personal resistance there,
(23:19):
which I wasn't going to, butthere you go, it's come out.
Hopefully you find that helpful.
Another reason that it mightnot be about them is the culture
.
Is it okay in your organizationto ask for help, or do people
judge you as incompetent?
Do people compete foracknowledgement and the praise
(23:39):
and recognition?
Do they maybe withholdinformation because they're
either because they feel theyneed to or because they are just
too busy to give it to you?
And maybe there's a busynessculture there that you have to
be seen as busy to get throughso you don't get the real work
done.
Do you maybe have to hidemistakes?
(24:00):
Because anytime someone's madea mistake in the past, they've
been absolutely grilled andthrottled and not given the
opportunity to use it as alearning.
So then everyone hides theirmistakes and people get stuck
all on their own trying tofigure it out, which often, you
would know, is not very helpful.
I mean, just today I was withthis beautiful group of people
(24:21):
fleshing out an issue that Iknew if I had sat on my own and
tried to figure it out myself.
It would have taken months, butwithin 20 minutes we had come
to some real clarity on an issuethat I was facing, and that's
the power of doing that together.
So sometimes it's not about them.
Another way it's not about themis if there's a mismatch
(24:44):
between expectation and reality.
So this employee came inthinking the job was X, but in
reality it was Y, and for manydifferent reasons that mismatch
of expectation could havehappened Again.
See, there's so many layers tothis.
I gotta not dive too deep.
And now this is going to be thereally controversial one.
(25:06):
If it's not about them, is ityou?
Yes, so, as a leader, can you,hand on heart, say that they can
truly be open about what theirchallenges are, that you've
provided that grounding now,obviously, yes, on their end
they might have some own theirown stuff.
That they truly be open aboutwhat their challenges are?
That you've provided thatgrounding?
Now, obviously, yes, on theirend they might have some own
their own stuff that they needto work through.
But have you done everythingwithin your power to make it
(25:29):
known that they can be open withyou?
Come to you when there'schallenges.
Are they empowered to come toyou with problems and solutions
and can you, hand on heart, saythat you've done your best to
really get that clarity at thestart?
Give them all the tools thatthey need or explain why they
can't have them.
Give the emotional support thatthey need, give acknowledgement
(25:51):
, create a safe space, work onthe alignment between their
values and purpose and theorganizations and modeled great
feedback.
Because if you can't, there is apossibility that part of the
reason that this is so hard isit's you.
So if this is grating for you,great, because that means
(26:12):
there's something in there thatyou can learn.
So the way to overcome this isto ask yourself what else could
be causing the issue.
So no system, no team, no topic, no person is off limits,
because when you can see thewhole picture of how this
employee is operating and whytheir performance might not be
(26:34):
where it's at, that's when youcan truly get to the root cause
and shift that.
Too often I see that peopleperformance manage just the
technical delivery of the taskwithout understanding all the
context of the human behaviorbehind it, the culture, the
systems they're working within,the interaction of different
(26:56):
stakeholders and how that couldbe affecting the person and
their ability to do their job.
So this is stuff that Iabsolutely love doing and could
do every day, all day.
So if you want to find out moreon how you can do this, feel
free to book your strategysession and we can deep dive
into what is your biggestchallenge with performance
(27:17):
management right now.
It might be a person, it mightbe a whole team, it might be
maybe not knowing where to start, but we can identify what is
your biggest challenge and whatyou need to do to take that next
step forward.
So I'd love to speak to you.
You can reach out on the DMs orbook your strategy session
today and until next time,remember you were born for a
(27:40):
reason.
It's time to thrive.
I didn't realise that's what you wanted.
Has anyone ever shared thosewords with you?
Throughout my career, therehave been countless times that
I've been called in to coachsomeone who's been
underperforming and more oftenthan not, eventually these words
flow out of their mouth Ididn't realise that's what you
(00:23):
wanted.
And in the same instance,leaders say but I've told them
so many times, why don't theyget it?
Does that sound familiar to you?
Have you ever had anunderperformer in your team?
(00:46):
If you have, you probably knowthat it takes so much time.
It takes energy.
It takes countlessconversations with HR seeking
advice on what you can do, whatyou can't do.
It takes paperwork as well tomake sure you're doing the
process correctly.
And if you feel that way,you're not alone.
Some research done by thecompany Robert Half found that
managers spend on average 10hours a week managing
underperformance, and more thanthat.
(01:09):
It can keep you awake at night.
It can be really stressful,wondering how is this going to
work out?
Am I going to be able to getthis person where they need to
be?
Are they going to get it?
And it can be heartbreakingwhen you put so much time and
effort into it and they don'tget there and what can happen is
that you've spent 80% of yourtime working on this one to two,
(01:33):
you know small group of peopleand the 80% of your team that
are great performers getneglected and they don't get the
resources and the skills andthe wisdom and insight and
coaching that they need from you.
And no matter how much trainingsometimes you give someone, no
matter how many conversationsyou have about this, no matter
(01:54):
how many times you show them thereality of the results and
where you need them to get to,sometimes they just don't get it
and aren't getting there.
And I get it.
That can be so frustrating.
And, on the flip side, maybeyou're a HR leader or someone
working in HR and you do all ofthis work in terms of putting
(02:16):
training out there, doing awhole performance management
process and systems andwondering just why managers are
reluctant to do it, because youknow that once it's done and
when it's done well andconsistently, life is so much
easier for everyone.
And maybe you've even beenasked to overhaul the system
when the system isn't the realissue and it seems like an
(02:37):
incredible waste of effort, timeand money when it's not the
real issue.
Maybe let's flip the coin again.
You're the employee andperformance management feels
like just this heavy processinstead of something that maybe,
when you're planning for whatyou're doing for the year that
it can be incredibly inspiringabout what you can do Maybe some
(03:00):
fear creeps in about, oh, arethey going to up the goal again
and will I be able to reach it?
What will that mean for me if Ican't, which can be incredibly
heavy.
And then again, when someone isunderperforming, the whole
process around that is oftenvery taboo.
And then, when it's taboo, thatcan create this angst and this
(03:22):
fear and this anxiety becausepeople it's not transparent, and
anxiety because people it's nottransparent.
And for many reasons it's nottransparent.
And so maybe, if you're theleader, you got into leadership
because you wanted to make abigger difference, you wanted to
help others grow, you wantedmore responsibility, maybe you
wanted more money, more status,you wanted career growth.
(03:43):
These are all such normalthings and inevitably, as a
leader, somewhere along the way,you will come across one, two,
multiple, maybe many, dependingwhat field you're in, what kind
of organization you're workingin as well, where people aren't
performing where you need themto be.
So I wanted to create thisepisode because it's one of the
(04:05):
common challenges I find leadersface in terms of wanting to
performance manage, but wantingto do so in a way that just
feels more congruent and in away that it's actually a win-win
for everyone.
And to do that, we really needto unpack some of the reasons
why it sucks, yeah, why we avoidit, why we have this almost
(04:28):
anxiety towards performance.
Managing someone Likeperformance management should be
an incredible thing.
It should be.
How do we uplift someone?
How do we maximize theirpotential and bring that out?
How do we align it with thegoals of the organization, align
their passion, their potentialand then give them the right
skills and tools and structureand environment to go make that
(04:50):
happen.
For me, that's what performancemanagement should be, but I
know that it's not the feeling.
The sentiment around that inreality is often far from that.
So let's unpack this togetheris often far from that.
So let's unpack this together.
There are so many reasons whymanaging performance is really
hard, so many.
I could talk about this probablyfor a whole week.
(05:12):
I could do a whole weekworkshop on it if you really
wanted, but I won't Not righthere, so I'll go through five
today, and the first one is theone that I see time and time
again whenever there are issueswith relationship in a team,
issues with the performance andjust general angst between,
(05:38):
usually, a leader and the directreport.
Often, if you can trace it back, I can literally map it out and
trace it back to there being alack of clear expectations at
the start.
That's it, a lack of clearexpectations.
And then it builds and builds,and builds and builds and then
explodes for many differentreasons, but it's a pattern I've
(06:00):
seen over and over again andthat's why I wanted to share it
with you.
But it's a pattern I've seenover and over again and that's
why I wanted to share it withyou.
So you know that task that HRteams often get you to do, maybe
once a year, maybe more often,about goal setting and yes, it
can be time consuming and yes,it can be embarrassing if you
don't actually know how to dothis well or don't have the
tools or the skills to do thaton both parties.
(06:22):
So it can be embarrassing forthe leader but it can also be
embarrassing for the employee.
I often see employees get giventhis, you know this form or
this document or this system,and say you know, go put your
goals in.
That can be really hard,depending on the level of
clarity they have already aboutthe strategy of the organization
, how their role fits into that,how their team fits into that.
(06:45):
There's so much context that'sneeded to really get a clear
picture, and one that'smeaningful, so you're not just
measuring the quantity ofsomething.
For example oh, you've sent 10emails a week.
You know what's the realmeaning.
Maybe you've resolved 10customer complaints a week.
That has much more meaning thanthe other one.
(07:05):
So that embarrassment cansometimes show up.
And then what happens if peopleavoid this, or they maybe don't
give it the time that itdeserves is the paths can
diverge over time and sometimesit's not even done.
I know many people who'veexplained that they're having
trouble at work because theyjust really don't know what
(07:26):
they're meant to be doing, andeven when they ask, it's not
clear.
So it's about both partiesrealizing what is actually the
goal and checking with eachother that it's clear, and often
we give training to leaders toset these expectations and
manage performance and,depending on your organization,
(07:47):
sometimes the employees don'tget it, and I think that's an
incredible oversight, becausewhen you unleash the capability
of employees to engage in thisprocess really well, and when I
say really well, more thanunderstanding the process and
what they need to put in on theform, but really seeing it as an
opportunity for their growthand for them to unleash all of
(08:11):
their strengths in what they doand feel really fulfilled in
what they do and aligned Likethat unlocking.
That is incredible and it's notsomething that I think we can
expect someone to do without thetraining and support to do that
.
So back to that past diverging.
So if you imagine, let's say,we're in the bush and we've got
(08:33):
this goal, an orienteering goal,we've got a degree that we need
to measure to get there and wehave two compasses and one of
them slightly needs a bit oflove, slightly off and we
somehow misread the compasses byone degree.
So you can start at the samepoint and as you start walking
you're generally pretty close towhere you need to be going.
(08:54):
But as you walk and as you walkyou can start to see that the
space and distance between thetwo people they're walking
further and further apart.
And then, once you get to theend, which is generally the end
of the performance cycle, youhave this conversation about how
things went and each partythinks it was going great, but
(09:18):
then when you talk in reality,it was far from where you wanted
to end up, just because of thatminor tweak right at the very
start.
So it's really no different.
That clarity at the start is so,so key.
So the first step to overcomethat is to clarify and check the
understanding.
Have you ever set a goal withsomeone and they've just or
(09:40):
asked them to do something andthey've just smiled and nodded?
That's not enough.
We need to actually get them torepeat something and they've
just smiled and nodded?
That's not enough.
We need to actually get them torepeat back to us.
So, asking a question like sowhat's your understanding of
what we need to achieve here?
And hearing how they languageit, and if you detect that they
haven't got it right, you needto stay in that moment and
(10:00):
really get the clarity untilyou're both really saying the
same thing and understanding thesame thing.
Now the second reason whymanaging performance can be
really hard is when youencounter disbelief.
That no one's ever said this tome.
I don't know if you remember aTV show reality TV show if
(10:21):
you're in Australia, or it'salso international called
Australian Idol TV show ifyou're in Australia, or it's
also international, calledAustralian Idol, and on the
Australian version many seriesago, there was this contestant
that showed up year after yearafter year and, poor thing, they
loved what they did.
They loved it.
They were having a ball whilethey were on stage, but they
were actually not very good.
(10:41):
They weren't very goodperformer, they couldn't
technically do the job very welland yet they thought they were
amazing.
And then what happened was theycut to an interview with the
participant, with the contestantand with their mum, and their
mum was gushing about howamazing they were.
And they're incredible.
And, of course, as a parent,sometimes we do want to and we
(11:05):
do have rose colored glasses ofsomeone that we love being
incredible at what they do.
And if that's your only sourceof feedback, people that will
only give you good feedback.
It can be incredibly shockingand disbelieving when someone
hears the opposite, that they'renot doing it right or they're
(11:25):
not doing it well enough, andthey can start to internalize it
like, oh, that means I'm notgood enough, or they can push it
back to you and you become thebad guy, you become the bad
person.
They might feel attacked andthat can make us feel, as
leaders, that we want to maybeback down because it's easier to
(11:46):
not give them the feedback,because they might get really
reactive.
Or we don't want to get in asituation where someone thinks
which I've seen time and timeagain that someone lodges a
bullying complaint, soperformance management has
started and the employee feelslike they're being bullied and
sometimes they are, but oftenthey're not.
(12:08):
They haven't been given thesupport to be in a mindset where
they can receive the feedbackin a meaningful way and take
action on it without activatingthe ego, activating that
protection mechanism that wantsto defend, deny, justify, run
(12:29):
away, hide under the covers.
So that disbelief is literallya sign that someone's ego has
been activated.
And often it's because theyhaven't gotten the real
constructive feedback.
And sometimes this is a resultof people passing on the issue.
You know, oh, that person's toohard to deal with, let's bump
them to a different department.
(12:50):
You know, you've seen that.
Or trying to be nice by onlysaying encouraging things and
brushing off, or ignoring themore difficult conversation of
what's not working well and whyand how can we support them to
do that?
So the antidote to this one isto be brave and kind.
(13:12):
So be brave enough to sharewhat is actually a gift to share
with someone.
Hey, I think you're amazing asa person and I reckon you can do
an even better job if you did X, y and Z.
You're currently doing A, butwe need B right.
There's actually gift andkindness in that.
(13:33):
So never think that it's mean.
It's only mean if you have thewrong intent in the way that and
in giving the feedback and thatmaybe you're not equipped
enough to do it well in a braveand kind way.
So be brave and kind, give thefeedback and if you don't have
(13:53):
the tools, go find them or chatto me Now.
The third reason why managingperformance can suck is that we
can be really unsure how theperson can react.
There can be a lot of emotioninvolved and this one sort of
builds on number two with thedisbelief.
Disbelief is almost anemotional reaction there, but
(14:13):
it's uncomfortable because we inour society are taught to
bottle our emotions or deflectthem, particularly in the
workplace.
You know it's often seen asunprofessional if you're too
emotional, but the fact of thematter is we are human and
emotion is simply a signal thatsomething needs action.
And if someone is reactingemotionally it's because deep
(14:35):
down.
You've just triggered somethingthat deep down they were maybe
hiding or ignoring or runningaway from something that they
knew actually needed to shiftand you've brought it to the
surface.
So that can be really raw andthat can be really uncomfortable
.
And what can happen sometimes.
Where this really goes wrong iswe continue performance managing
(14:55):
the person going down theprocess that we're told to go
down when the person isn't readyyet.
And what I mean by ready isthat we need to get them to a
mindset where they're not inthreat.
As soon as they're in threat,someone's ability to perform
unless they are a fight tosurvive person, their ability to
(15:16):
perform is going to decreasebecause they're going to want to
hide or freeze or flee.
So this kind of performancemanagement only works for the
people who will get in there andfight because they know they
can do it, and that's only oneproportion of the population.
So it's really important thatwe can recognize whether the
(15:38):
person's actually ready, becauseuntil they're ready, their
feedback and what they need tolearn and what they need to
shift isn't going to sink in andthey actually can't act on it.
It's like trying to build ahouse right, you've poured the
concrete slab, but you're soeager to get the result of a
house that you just put theframe up on the same day before
the concrete set.
(15:59):
So of course you can't screw inthe screw and the information
that needs to stick.
It won't stick because theconcrete's still soft and then
as the concrete sets, it's goingto be crooked.
That house is not going to lastbecause the foundation wasn't
there.
So the third thing that you cando to overcome this is to hold
the space to let the emotionflow out of the person.
(16:22):
You can pause it and continueif it seems like it's getting
too much, but you're continuingit in a very short timeframe
onwards so they are not let offthe hook.
And the really key thing hereto hold the space is to see the
person.
So when that person in front ofyou who isn't meeting the
standard that they need to, whenthey feel seen, heard and
(16:44):
understood, that's when they'reready to work with you and learn
.
Until you do that, if you don'tdo that, they are going to feel
attacked, judged, unsupported,maybe even like you've betrayed
them, like these are all reallyheavy feelings that you cannot
think straight and operate wellin when those are there.
(17:07):
So we've got to make them feelseen, heard and understood and
hold that space.
So the fourth reason whymanaging performance can suck is
that we can tend to set andforget.
So what I mean by this is wecan have a tendency as leaders
to treat people like an alarmclock.
Right, let's set the buttonshere.
(17:27):
This is what they need.
This is when they need to ring.
All right, go away and do it.
An alarm clock will go away anddo it.
It will ring at the time you.
When they need to ring Allright, go away and do it.
An alarm clock will go away anddo it.
It will ring at the time you'veprogrammed it to ring.
But the thing is, people are notalarm clocks, right, we are
more like onions.
Yeah, we have these beliefs, wehave these layers of self-worth
identity.
We have different abilities inour way to communicate what's
(17:51):
really going on for us.
We have different levels oftrust and ability to be
vulnerable.
We have different culturaldrivers about how we show up and
communicate and whetherperformance, and maybe even a
job, is actually a real sourceof pride.
And on the opposite side, shame.
And once shame kicks in, thatcan be really hard to recover
(18:14):
from the trick here.
If one of the reasons is set andforget, the antidote to set and
forget is consistent care, socaring about how this person can
achieve what they need to, whatwe need them to.
How can we support them?
How can we guide them?
How can we give them meanyfeedback?
We guide them.
How can we give them meanyfeedback on all the good things,
(18:36):
no matter how small it isSometimes it's tiny, sometimes
it's as simple as you know, youmade eye contact today.
That was really great for theteam morale or sometimes it is
as simple, as you replied to mewhen I asked you how this was
going.
It may seem small to you, butit's important that you
acknowledge that to them thatmight actually be a very new and
(18:57):
difficult step that they'venever, no one's ever asked them
to do, or they've actually hadsome resistance around doing in
the past for various reasons.
So what tends to happen wherethis can go wrong is we have a
reticular activating system inour brain and what this tends to
do is it looks for things thatmatch the filter that we've got.
(19:18):
So, for example, let's sayyou're wanting to buy a red
Corolla.
You start researching redCorollas and then suddenly
there's so many out on the road,like you cannot believe why
there's suddenly so many redCorollas.
Now the thing is, the number ofred Corollas on the road hasn't
magically changed because youdecided to buy one.
Your brain has just lifted thatfilter to look for red Corollas
(19:40):
.
They were always there, youjust didn't see them.
And when we're in a performancemanagement process with someone,
it can be so easy to look forall the faults that they
continually do and they add upand they add up and we keep
finding them, maybe.
And so when we can switch it tolook and find for the mini
(20:01):
feedback, the mini progress, thesigns that they are getting it,
the signs that they do want todo this, the signs that they do
have the capability, with theright support and time and
training and headspace, when wecan look for that, our brain
will start to see what's goodabout this person.
And obviously, with everythingI'm saying, it is obviously
(20:22):
their responsibility as well,but I'm trying to give you some
tools that can where you can go.
Okay, I've done my absolutebest in this process, regardless
of the outcome that happens atthe end.
So the fifth reason whymanaging performance can suck is
maybe it's not about them.
Yes, I'm going to go herebecause it needs to be said.
(20:45):
So there are so many reasons whythe poor performance of the
individual is not actually aboutthem.
It might be partially aboutthem, but often I've seen it's a
mismatch between them andeverything around them.
So you've got to look at thewhole system picture between
them and everything around them.
So you've got to look at thewhole system picture.
So let's start with system.
(21:08):
Are they operating in a systemthat's not conducive to getting
them the job done, for example,someone that needs to push a lot
of change through?
Is there a lot of bureaucracyand approvals that are designed
to manage risk, which is usefulin some ways, but sometimes it's
too much.
We manage too much risk andthen we end up with all these
approval levels that are therefrom a place of fear rather than
(21:32):
adding value.
So what's the system aroundthis person and their role like?
Is it empowering them, or arethere tweaks that could be made
there?
Because sometimes this persondoesn't know that or is not able
to articulate that, or has beentaught that they can't
articulate that for fear ofbeing called negative, and I've
seen that happen a lot as well.
(21:53):
The other thing is the tools.
I remember many years ago I wasonce in a job that I remember
one of the tasks we had to do wewere migrating systems.
We had to manually enter, takeall the data out from the first
system and enter it in thesecond system.
This is thousands and thousandsand thousands of lines of data,
(22:14):
right, so it didn't align withme.
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't do it for a numberof reasons it was going to put
my team under immense wellbeingstress, which impacted their
wellbeing, and wellbeing isincredibly important value of
mine.
They were more efficient andcost effective.
When you actually did thenumbers of the staff, time that
(22:35):
it was going to take and thecost of engaging someone to do
that data migration, it didn'tfinancially make sense and so
actually, the result was for me,I decided to leave that
organization.
I haven't told them this.
So if they're listening andyou're wondering why I left,
that's actually one of thereasons why I left.
So the point of me sharing thisis that sometimes the tools
(22:56):
that we have are not the toolsthat could best empower us to do
our jobs well.
So, instead of manuallytransferring data entry, I could
have been looking morestrategically at how do we make
sure this new system is engagedand used to its fullest and
there's an easy transfer andchange process.
We also touched a little bitabout personal resistance there,
(23:19):
which I wasn't going to, butthere you go, it's come out.
Hopefully you find that helpful.
Another reason that it mightnot be about them is the culture
.
Is it okay in your organizationto ask for help, or do people
judge you as incompetent?
Do people compete foracknowledgement and the praise
(23:39):
and recognition?
Do they maybe withholdinformation because they're
either because they feel theyneed to or because they are just
too busy to give it to you?
And maybe there's a busynessculture there that you have to
be seen as busy to get throughso you don't get the real work
done.
Do you maybe have to hidemistakes?
(24:00):
Because anytime someone's madea mistake in the past, they've
been absolutely grilled andthrottled and not given the
opportunity to use it as alearning.
So then everyone hides theirmistakes and people get stuck
all on their own trying tofigure it out, which often, you
would know, is not very helpful.
I mean, just today I was withthis beautiful group of people
(24:21):
fleshing out an issue that Iknew if I had sat on my own and
tried to figure it out myself.
It would have taken months, butwithin 20 minutes we had come
to some real clarity on an issuethat I was facing, and that's
the power of doing that together.
So sometimes it's not about them.
Another way it's not about themis if there's a mismatch
(24:44):
between expectation and reality.
So this employee came inthinking the job was X, but in
reality it was Y, and for manydifferent reasons that mismatch
of expectation could havehappened Again.
See, there's so many layers tothis.
I gotta not dive too deep.
And now this is going to be thereally controversial one.
(25:06):
If it's not about them, is ityou?
Yes, so, as a leader, can you,hand on heart, say that they can
truly be open about what theirchallenges are, that you've
provided that grounding now,obviously, yes, on their end
they might have some own theirown stuff.
That they truly be open aboutwhat their challenges are?
That you've provided thatgrounding?
Now, obviously, yes, on theirend they might have some own
their own stuff that they needto work through.
But have you done everythingwithin your power to make it
(25:29):
known that they can be open withyou?
Come to you when there'schallenges.
Are they empowered to come toyou with problems and solutions
and can you, hand on heart, saythat you've done your best to
really get that clarity at thestart?
Give them all the tools thatthey need or explain why they
can't have them.
Give the emotional support thatthey need, give acknowledgement
(25:51):
, create a safe space, work onthe alignment between their
values and purpose and theorganizations and modeled great
feedback.
Because if you can't, there is apossibility that part of the
reason that this is so hard isit's you.
So if this is grating for you,great, because that means
(26:12):
there's something in there thatyou can learn.
So the way to overcome this isto ask yourself what else could
be causing the issue.
So no system, no team, no topic, no person is off limits,
because when you can see thewhole picture of how this
employee is operating and whytheir performance might not be
(26:34):
where it's at, that's when youcan truly get to the root cause
and shift that.
Too often I see that peopleperformance manage just the
technical delivery of the taskwithout understanding all the
context of the human behaviorbehind it, the culture, the
systems they're working within,the interaction of different
(26:56):
stakeholders and how that couldbe affecting the person and
their ability to do their job.
So this is stuff that Iabsolutely love doing and could
do every day, all day.
So if you want to find out moreon how you can do this, feel
free to book your strategysession and we can deep dive
into what is your biggestchallenge with performance
(27:17):
management right now.
It might be a person, it mightbe a whole team, it might be
maybe not knowing where to start, but we can identify what is
your biggest challenge and whatyou need to do to take that next
step forward.
So I'd love to speak to you.
You can reach out on the DMs orbook your strategy session
today and until next time,remember you were born for a
(27:40):
reason.
It's time to thrive.
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