Leadership plays a crucial role in every organization. In past blog posts, we’ve discussed how important your employees are — and that’s absolutely true. Employees are the gears operating your company’s mechanisms. Leaders, however, build those mechanisms. They source the parts (hiring), align them toward a goal (organizational planning), and ensure they work optimally to maximize productivity and profitability (performance management).
Today, we’re going to focus on the performance management aspect.
Are your leaders coaching employees properly?
First, let’s look at the 10 Rockefeller Habits:
- The executive team is healthy and aligned.
- Everyone is aligned with the #1 thing that needs to be accomplished this quarter to move the company forward.
- Communication rhythm is established and information moves through organization accurately and quickly.
- Every facet of the organization has a person assigned with accountability for ensuring goals are met.
- Ongoing employee input is collected to identify obstacles and opportunities.
- Reporting and analysis of customer feedback is as frequent and accurate as financial data.
- Core values and principles are “alive” in the organization.
- Employees can articulate the following key components of the company’s strategy accurately: the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG), the Core Customer, the 3 Brand Promises, and the Elevator Pitch.
- All employees can answer quantitatively whether they had a good day or week.
- The company’s plans and performance are visible to everyone.
If you’ll notice, all of those involve coaching. The leaders need coaching, too. The people at the very top of the pyramid must create and implement a system which A) trains their managers on proper coaching strategies, and B) gives them the opportunity to put those newly-acquired skills to good use. If the people at the very top need training — well, you may need some outside help.
In short, the list above breaks down to a few key components which, if present, will provide a boost to your managers, your employees, and your bottom line:
- Logical organizational structure: Basically, you need to have a defined hierarchy. Who reports to whom? What’s everyone’s role within this hierarchy? If, for some reason, you don’t have this, this would be a good time to flesh things out.
- Well-defined and well-publicized organizational goals: Every organization needs clear, challenging (but not impossible) goals aligning their workforce. It’s always wise to involve your employees in the goal-setting process. First, employees will actually set challenging goals, and because they were involved in the goal-setting process, they’re guaranteed to work hard to fulfill those goals. Secondly, it increases employee satisfaction and engagement. Everyone wants to be heard. Employees with a voice feel like they’re contributing to something that they helped establish — which is satisfying!
- Constant performance feedback (including progress updates toward organizational goals): In this case, “performance feedback” applies to a variety of situations. For instance, the company should receive feedback about its performance from customers. Just as importantly, managers should strive to provide sufficient feedback to their employees. The employees should always be aware of how they’re doing individually, and how their team is progressing toward accomplishing company goals. By keeping a close eye on their employees, the manager may also spot deficiencies in performance and provide corrective action (discipline, training, or whatever he or she feels is necessary to remedy the situation).
When your goal is accomplished, don’t forget to celebrate. Employees who generate all of that profit for your company deserve your respect and appreciation. Always remember that at-will employment goes both ways!
If you need help with the coaching process, we’ll be happy to help! You can read more about our process on our website. If you’re interested, let us know and we’ll be happy to help!