Traci Scherck: what motivates you to do outstanding work.

Traci Scherck: That is a really important question and we’re going to dig into that today, as we talk about performance leadership and accountability, my name is Tracy Scherck and i’m the chief talent.

Traci Scherck: officer here at elevated talent consulting so welcome to the talent optimization podcast and here’s the thing fewer than 30% of employees.

Traci Scherck: strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work and that came from a Gallup survey.

Traci Scherck: So what exactly motivates employees to do outstanding work and here’s the thing partially, it is going to depend upon who the employee is and what’s important to them, meaning, are they driven by external.

Traci Scherck: You know rewards meaning hey that Facebook post or the linkedin post with a picture that’s having them being seen and recognized publicly.

Traci Scherck: Are they someone that is really, really interested in that recognition privately.

Traci Scherck: Are they someone that needs to be told exactly what to do, or are they someone that is going to benefit more from a coaching approach.

Traci Scherck: So, as we look at performance leadership and accountability, what we know is that as leaders inside of our organizations, we have an obligation to create the container for our staff to be successful.

Traci Scherck: And instill a right choice for staff to choose to be successful and fulfilled and their role.

Traci Scherck: But as leaders, there are several things that we can do to really pay attention to how are we fostering mentoring coaching and leading our staff.

Traci Scherck: And there’s a couple different things that we love to look at right and we’re going to look at how much accountability.

Traci Scherck: Are we providing our staff and how much support are we providing them, because when we can provide that high level accountability.

Traci Scherck: And that high level of support for them to do their best work and really stretch themselves into roles and or.

Traci Scherck: tasks and or situations that they didn’t think was possible what we’re doing is a we are.

Traci Scherck: increasing their ability to perform at the highest level by still giving them that support to do that, so what exactly does high accountability look like right.

Traci Scherck: And one of the key things that we see in the consulting that we do with our clients is that high level of accountability first starts with.

Traci Scherck: Clarity on what are the goals that we’re trying to reach right like if we don’t know exactly where we’re going we’re not going to get there.

Traci Scherck: You know I love to say hey we’ve got you know, a map of the United States are going to go on vacation if I decide.

Traci Scherck: That we’re going to California and my husband decides that we’re going to Florida guess what we are going to be in a fight before we even get you know off the interstate on I 90 out of our little teeny tiny town of Wisconsin right.

Traci Scherck: So we need to understand where are we going What are those goals What are those metrics to the goals, what is the by when of those goals.

Traci Scherck: And then having those check ins with our staff to show hey here is, you know what i’m expecting but here’s also that checking those check ins provide a significant amount of support.

Traci Scherck: And the way our employees specifically mean you know when, as we talk about this performance leadership and accountability, one of the key items that we see so often in human resources, that is definitely something that.

Traci Scherck: You know kind of goes back and forth, should we do this, or should we not do this, is the annual review.

Traci Scherck: And here’s the thing with annual reviews they’re falling out of favor right so 82% of organizations conducted an annual review in 2016.

Traci Scherck: And only 54% of organizations conducted performance evaluations in your performance evaluations in 2019 and that came from a work human survey.

Traci Scherck: So when we look at what is the role of our performance evaluations and you know how do we really leave individuals to be accountable, are these one in the same are these different what is it exactly.

Traci Scherck: And you know, one of the things that we always ask our clients, when we were when we’re working with them is, why are you doing performance appraisals, what is the purpose.

Traci Scherck: Because if you can answer that question of what is the purpose of our annual performance review.

Traci Scherck: Then we can create a process to meet that need an intention, so if the purpose of an annual performance evaluation is to give feedback to employees.

Traci Scherck: guess what there’s probably a much, much better way to give feedback to staff going through and an annual employee.

Traci Scherck: Evaluation because guess what we so find is that individuals do not feel like they’re getting support through the annual performance evaluation.

Traci Scherck: Because so often guess what it is a surprise it’s not something that they are seeing as valuable and, quite honestly, if we’re giving feedback at the end of the year of something that happened two months ago.

Traci Scherck: guess what we’ve lost the learning opportunity and they can’t do anything about it right, so when we look at it for that reason, the annual performance appraisal may not be a really great tool.

Traci Scherck: So what else our performance appraisals you’ve used for and sometimes your performance appraisals are used to give merit increases.

Traci Scherck: You know, we definitely want to divorce that performance appraisal from the merit increase because guess what that really clouds the conversation that’s happening.

Traci Scherck: And we really can’t set goals you know do any reflection that’s meaningful if all we’re thinking about is what’s the dollar figure tied to this.

Traci Scherck: Another thing that we could use performance appraisals for is, we can use them as goal setting for the next year hey here’s the goals we had last year.

Traci Scherck: The, this is what changed throughout the year here’s where we’re going next year and we’re going to set some goals within that, and you know goal settings incredibly important piece.

Traci Scherck: To ensure that we have some accountability to those goals that are not, and of course we want those goals to tie specifically into.

Traci Scherck: What are the business outcomes that an organization is looking to generate that are derived from an organization’s strategic plan, and so, when we look at those performance appraisals, you know what’s the reason we’re using them for and then we’re going to look at.

Traci Scherck: Is the current process meeting the needs or intention and for most of the organizations, we work with it’s not.

Traci Scherck: So we want to kind of take a hybrid approach to say great what is the need and maybe it’s hey we want to have a formal documentation.

Traci Scherck: on an annual basis, so that we really can see where performances, but it needs to be part of a bigger picture for our for our team.

Traci Scherck: So that’s one of the key things that we can do and look at, and then the third question is is this process supporting our organization and meeting the key business outcomes.

Traci Scherck: If the answer’s no, then you really want to look at this and say how do we do that.

Traci Scherck: You know, and there was a forbes article worth 13 key HR leaders in the industry, you know weighed in on this and you know, is there a need for performance appraisals.

Traci Scherck: yeah there is a need for them, however, the way that we’re currently doing it or 50% of us are still doing it is not necessarily the best way to do it right.

Traci Scherck: So one of the key things that we see over and over and over again, is guess what regular feedback is incredibly important.

Traci Scherck: And a recent Gallup poll Steve asked the question how often do you receive feedback from your manager 7% of the respondents said daily 19% of respondents said a few times a week.

Traci Scherck: 27% said a few times a month 28% said a few times a year in 19% said once a year, or less yanks re we’re not providing that opportunity for staff to really grow develop.

Traci Scherck: If we’re not providing them feedback, in that way to do that so that’s one of the key things that we need to do is review feedback given throughout the year and.

Traci Scherck: As we do that in a performance evaluation process everything that we’re reviewing that annual performance appraisal.

Traci Scherck: should be things that we’ve talked about throughout the year and guess what let’s celebrate those successes let’s celebrate those points for that employee may have missed the mark, but you know what they did do.

Traci Scherck: We give them feedback they requested feedback and they figured out how to turn it around so that they could use that failure as a springboard to success.

Traci Scherck: And i’ll say that again when we can use our failures as springboards to success what we’re doing is we’re learning and guess what we’re all learning.

Traci Scherck: And if we’re creating a culture of accountability in leadership learning as a key piece of that.

Traci Scherck: And with that we need to ensure that within our culture we’re not hiding our mistakes, but we’re talking about them openly, so our whole team can learn from that and not just one person at a time and I get shoved under the rug right.

Traci Scherck: Another thing that the forbes article talked about when we specifically look at in your performance reviews is to focus on documented goals and that came from Tracy cope from zenefits.

Traci Scherck: You know, we also want to ensure that individuals coming into that in your performance evaluation.

Traci Scherck: know what it is that they’re walking into right because, especially for our introverted folks inside of our organization no agenda is typically a no attenda.

Traci Scherck: Are introverted individuals really need time to think and they think things through so when we can provide that agenda ahead of time or let’s do one better.

Traci Scherck: You know let’s give them the performance appraisal form and have them fill it out ahead of time and then they’re going to trade that with our manager when they’re in that when they’re in that conversation.

Traci Scherck: Because, then we can see hey what is this employee picking up, as these are amazing successes over this year.

Traci Scherck: These are areas where you know what these are my springboard areas this year and guess what these are my goals for next year, and this is how they specifically tied.

Traci Scherck: To the organizational goals and outcomes that we’re looking for what we just did there is two things one we engaged individuals beforehand.

Traci Scherck: And we also created this process from being a one way street, this is happening to you are oh my gosh this performance evaluation is happening to me to this is a two way conversation.

Traci Scherck: That, I have the privilege to have with my manager because we’ve created a collaborative partnerships.

Traci Scherck: And you know and that’s also something that jenna henrickson stated is make reviews the two way streets, and we want to look back and look forward.

Traci Scherck: So when we’re doing those things in our annual performance appraisals what we’re doing is we are creating a meaningful conversation that is one of many, many, many meaningful conversations throughout the year, so when we talk about leadership right.

Traci Scherck: and accountability we’re really looking at how do we do that on a day to day basis beyond, how do we support our managers and doing that, so I want to shift to supporting our managers for a minute.

Traci Scherck: And in the years that we’ve been you know training organizations and working with curators one of the key things that is missing so often is our managers and leaders.

Traci Scherck: Are not trained on how to give feedback and guess what Does anyone want to have those hard conversations, to give that feedback.

Traci Scherck: know, most of us will shy away from that or shirk away from that and not have those conversations because wow it’s kind of scary right so.

Traci Scherck: We need to ensure that our managers have the training to truly be great leaders that they’ve done the role playing with that.

Traci Scherck: And you know if you have not trained your leaders on how to have conversations on role playing with them hey What are those key.

Traci Scherck: items that you need to have with an employee, one of the best ways that we’ve seen this done and some of our organizations.

Traci Scherck: Is we will do our role playing with our managers and we’ll do this, a couple times a year.

Traci Scherck: But anytime a manager either self selects and says hey you know I really need to have this conversation with an employee or.

Traci Scherck: You know management leadership or HR says all right, you know we really need to to have this conversation because there’s several performance issues here that we need to address.

Traci Scherck: Is that we have them role play that with another manager and what that does is that allows them to learn, while the stakes aren’t as high as with that specific employee.

Traci Scherck: So for the HR folks that are tracking this conversation from a compliance standpoint it’s going to reduce your risk right because we’re going to give them feedback.

Traci Scherck: And the other thing we’re doing is we are modeling for those managers, how to have collaborative conversations to boost everyone’s performance, so that those things roll and they learn how to be those key leaders.

Traci Scherck: And then the next thing that we want to really look at so we’ve talked about training our managers we’ve talked about what is the way that we set up our annual performance appraisal process.

Traci Scherck: And the fact that we want this to be a look back and look forward, we want this to be you know, a review of feedback given throughout the year, meaning.

Traci Scherck: You know what there are no surprises here it’s truly a review of feedback we’re looking at.

Traci Scherck: positives and these should be equal right we’re looking at what are the positive things this person’s done we’re looking at what are the springboard moments in what are their goals here’s something really important.

Traci Scherck: There are four reasons why employees leave organizations employees leave organizations, because one they’re wrong fit for the role they’re not in the right role.

Traci Scherck: too, because they don’t have a great relationship with their manager three because of the team that they’re on and for because of the culture of the organization.

Traci Scherck: So as leaders, you have the ability to impact all four of those areas to truly engage your staff.

Traci Scherck: And when you do that you’re going to help them elevate be much more fulfilled in the work that they’re doing and.

Traci Scherck: you’re going to get better performance out of them right because they’re going to be more engaged so when we look at those key areas.

Traci Scherck: You know, you want to make sure that you’re focusing on what those are and guess what if an employee’s in the wrong role.

Traci Scherck: Then we need to be having that conversation before the annual performance review.

Traci Scherck: Right, so one of the things that we suggest is that you have some check ins that happen on a bi weekly basis with your staff have an agenda for this right you’re seeing a theme here.

Traci Scherck: We need to meet employees, where they are where their natural behavioral strengths are not what ours are as managers or leaders right.

Traci Scherck: So when we’re doing our bi weekly meetings, it may be that we’re starting to you know, look at hey is there, you know, a gap between what this job needs and who you are naturally as a person.

Traci Scherck: Meaning you’re turning yourself into a pretzel to get this job done and you’re becoming disengaged from it, and if you want a super easy button for that we have a tool, called the predictive index that can really help you figure that out.

Traci Scherck: So with that that’s just something to really think about is are they the right fit for the role and we want to build that in the next thing you want to build in is coaching.

Traci Scherck: To our managers know how to coach what is coaching, by the way right and coaching is really that process of.

Traci Scherck: Working with our staff for them to come up with their own solutions to the problems and when we coach we’re not stating to them.

Traci Scherck: hey this is how you do it we’re asking them, what do you think what would you do in this situation, what are some key things you’ve already tried, how did it work.

Traci Scherck: You know what would you do again Are there things that you want to again or that you would try differently.

Traci Scherck: And what you’re doing is you are having them think on their own you’re also creating the space for them to grow, so that they can step into much bigger positions and if you’ve never been coached.

Traci Scherck: You know, seek out someone that you can coach with or if you’re not sure what coaching is because it’s very, very different than consulting.

Traci Scherck: You know there’s many different programs that are out there, that you can do that with, and we do have a coaching program within elevated talent as well.

Traci Scherck: And then we’re going to look at what roles does each party play in that in your performance review conversation right so and guess what.

Traci Scherck: That annual performance review conversation is a culmination of the bi weekly check ins that happen all of the time right.

Traci Scherck: And the bulk of this is really falling on the manager to be an amazing leader an amazing coach and amazing mentor to their staff.

Traci Scherck: So with that Thank you so much for listening in to how we’re digging into performance management leadership and accountability, but before you go.

Traci Scherck: we’ve got two key points that I want you to leave us takeaways so for the executives listening in today.

Traci Scherck: I really want you to pay attention to what are the training programs, you have, for your managers and leaders inside of your organization to be successful.

Traci Scherck: Because if your leaders are not a being coached themselves and b being taught how to truly coach and give feedback in a way that empowers others.

Traci Scherck: That is going to be your first step and a key takeaway of today’s conversation, the second key takeaway that we have is for HR leaders, and that is.

Traci Scherck: Creating a process that is in collaboration with your leaders because here’s the deal.

Traci Scherck: You are an amazing supports the leaders inside your organization, by providing the direction and the structure and many times the sounding board and the coach to those leaders.

Traci Scherck: and make sure that you have that structure laid out and that you’re truly collaborating with those leaders because guess what.

Traci Scherck: As we’re seeing today, you know with our annual performance review we don’t want to you know throw the baby out with the bathwater, but at the same time, it needs to change.

Traci Scherck: And so, when we can collaborate with our leaders we’re going to get much more mileage and create much more positive impact.

Traci Scherck: Employee engagement and reach our business goals so with that Thank you so much for joining us today in this edition of talent optimization.

Traci Scherck: We hope that you have a great rest of your day, and if you are interested in our coaching program or and learning more about predictive index those two key things are in the show notes thanks so much and have a great rest of your day.