Management - Developing Employees

Common Sense ManagementDeveloping Employees, Nick Krym 05-25-07

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Agenda• Building Commitment

• Managing Performance

• Providing Feedback

• Working with SMART Performance Plans

• Mentoring

• Coaching

• Delegating


From Conventional Wisdom to Common Sense

• Golden rules– Treat everyone the same rule and a criminal offense of playing

favorites– Treat everyone the way you want to be treated– Put most of your attention to the weakest members of the team

• The legends of complete turn around– Changing employees (God syndrome)– Developing employees (Prophet syndrome) – Leading people on self-discovery path

• CSM:– Generally people do not change, don’t meddle with the core– Call for change could be external, the change comes from within – Pay most attention to top producers and contributors– Treat them the way they want to be treated– Create personalized environment for top performance


Development Track• Building Commitment

• Motivation

• Delegation

• Encourage self-development

• Mentoring

• Coaching


Employee Performance Unleashed• One of a manager’s primary responsibilities: performance of employees

reporting to him / her– Adhere to organizational policies and procedures – Meet multiple organizational benchmarks and expectations– Drive specific elements of performance towards specific goals

• What Constitutes Employee Performance?– Professional Contribution (artifacts themselves, quality, productivity, etc.)– Team Contribution (professional impact on overall team’s professional activities,

e.g. idea generator, gatekeeper, etc.)– Job-related Behaviors (attendance, communication with team members, stress

tolerance, policy compliance, etc.)

• What does NOT constitute employee performance issues?– “Attitude”– Extracurricular activities– Self improvement– Compliance with unwritten rules– More… Examples?


Enigma of Commitment and Motivation• Motivation

– Commitment

• Building employee commitment is the key to getting sustained and strong performance, and retaining good employees. Employees show this commitment by at least three behaviors:

– drive and focus on one's work; – typically supportive and constructive behavior; – willingness to make sacrifices to help the team or organization achieve its goals.

• Five Pillars For Building Commitment– Focus - Clear goals, expectations, and values are established.– Involvement - Employees have input into planning, problem solving, and decision making that affect their

job.– Development -Development of knowledge, skill, and experience that build competence and confidence

occurs.– Gratitude - Recognition and appreciation are shown for employee efforts and accomplishments.– Accountability - Responsibility is given and producing results at high standards expected and upheld.

• Hierarchy of motivation– Achievement– Advancement– Recognition– Work itself– Money


Delegating Basics• Delegating

– The process of transforming the responsibility for a specific activity or task to another member of the organization and empowering that individual to accomplish the task effectively. The process of assigning and entrusting responsibilities and assignments to others.

• Benefits– Provides more assistance and coverage on responsibilities.– Generates more and better ideas and solutions.– Allows for better use of manager's time.– Decreases stress level for manager.– Opportunity for employee to grow, e.g. develop analytical, decision making and problem solving skills.– More involved and empowered workforce means increase in productivity.– Provides managers the opportunity to accomplish more complicated, difficult, or important tasks.

• Main Rules of Delegation– Scalar Principle: a clear line of authority must run throughout the organization.– Principle 1: Delegate to a person with demonstrated competence.– Principle 2: Match the employee to the task. – Principle 3: Be organized and communicate clearly.– Principle 4: Transfer authority and accountability with the task.– Principle 5: Choose the level of delegation carefully.– Rule of Thumb: Do What You Do Best; Delegate the Rest


Delegating Basics, cont.• The Process of Delegation

– Assigning responsibility. Responsibility refers to the employee’s obligation to complete the activities that he or she has been assigned.

– Granting authority. Authority is the formal right of an employee to marshal resources and make decisions necessary to fulfill work responsibilities.

– Establishing accountability. Where there is accountability for performance, employees understand that they must justify their decisions and actions with regard to the tasks for which they have assumed responsibility.

• Reasons for Failing to Delegate– The “time crunch.”– Lack of confidence in the abilities of

subordinates.– Managers try to avoid the potential pitfalls of

dual accountability.– Managers may be insecure about their own

value to the organization.– Lack of delegation skills.

• Reasons that cause delegating not to work– Let’s discuss

Responsibility Authority

Accountability


Delegating – Step by Step• Pre-delegating

– List out all projects, duties, and tasks you perform– Categorize List

• Items can totally reassign• Items can share or reassign in part• Items you keep

– Validate constraints

• Delegating– Establish Framework of reference – reasons for delegating– Clearly Describe Assignment To Be Done– Define Parameters, Set a Deadline– Establish Benchmarks– Agree on Resources / Provide Resources For Support– Agree on Consequences– Make sure person understands what you want– Establish checkpoints for review of progress - Inspect What You Expect– Provide feedback and positive reinforcement for what was done right

• Post-delegating– Lessons learned / Provide feedback and positive reinforcement for what was done right

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Delegating Template• Establish Framework of reference – reasons for delegating• Assigning responsibility.

– Describe Assignment To Be Done – As needed, overview of what's involved – Purpose and objectives – Results expected– Define Parameters, Boundaries and Constraints – Budget – Timelines – Kind of feedback or information you need

• Granting authority. – Agree on level of authority and decision making – Agree on Budget / Staff / Materials / Access to information, resources, etc. – Inform others when is needed

• Establishing accountability.– Agree on Consequences – Adjustments in person's priorities and tasks as needed – Establish checkpoints for review of progress - Inspect What You Expect

• Check whether assignment was understood

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Managing Performance• Managing Performance For

Results:– Set goals and expectations– Provide necessary support and

guidance– Give ongoing constructive

feedback– Conduct periodic and annual

review of overall performance– Adjust goals and expectations as

necessary

• Setting Performance Expectations– Broad level performance

expectations• Define the level of performance

you seek from your staff.• They answer the question, in

clear and specific terms, what is important to you as a manager about staff performance related to the main issues of performance.

– Performance expectations per important project or assignment

• Outcomes/results to be delivered• Timelines• Manner/conduct

• Tools– SMART Performance Plans– Significant Event Lists– eMail

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The Mentoring and Coaching Tools• Sharing Set

– Sharing knowledge and experience– Sharing observations– Providing suggestions and advice when sought– Giving the big picture– Mentoring with messages

• Challenge To Do For Themselves Set – Coaching with questions – Ask for their plans– Ask for their recommendations– Give challenging assignments– Ask for self-evaluations

• Avoid– Telling staff how to do their jobs– Providing (and, as a result, imposing) solutions to them– Making decisions they could make for themselves– Giving frequent advice– Criticizing

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Mentoring with Messages• Power of Message

– Transformation Vocabulary – Phenomenal power of metaphors – Messages translate into beliefs and convictions

• Target– Technical / professional abilities– Business knowledge– Understanding of organizational culture– Personal development and maturity– Management skills

• Tips & Traps– Empowering and Disempowering Messages– Conflicting messages– Vague and cryptic messages– Build your quotation emporium– Build a list of empowering metaphors for each aspect of your work

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Coaching With Questions• The Purpose – Use questions and active listening to stimulate employee thinking, develop

capability, and build commitment.

• Situations For Coaching With Questions– To learn to do something better– To evaluate and make decisions– To create solutions– To develop plans

• How To Ask Questions– Close-ended Questions

• When did you…• Do you believe that …

– Open-ended Questions• Tell me about the time…• Describe your position in regards…• Please elaborate on…• In your own words how would you…

– Positive and nonjudgmental tone, not blaming or problem dwelling or interrogating.– Often "you" oriented. They are asked with the assumption that people can contribute ideas.– They move the conversation in a logical flow, i.e., steps in a problem solving process, from the general to

the specific, etc.– One question at a time.

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Coaching With Questions, cont.• Facilitate the discussion by active listening:

– Paraphrase – "So what you're saying is ..."– Reflective paraphrase – "Sounds like you're frustrated about this because ..."– Probe – "Tell me more about that idea.

• Tips:– State the overall purpose or positive outcome you are seeking with the discussion and get

the employee's agreement before proceeding with the questions.– Conduct in place of privacy, ensure zero no interruptions. Allow appropriate time for the

session.– Instead of reacting to what you don't like in what the employee says, listen patiently and

feedback what you hear. Then ask the person to evaluate the pluses and minuses of the thought, or state your concern and ask it to be addressed.

• Do NOT use questioning– To provide information the employee needs to know.– To give constructive feedback on performance.– When the person lacks knowledge and experience related to the issue at hand.– Avoid

• Long-winded questions• Guessing-game questions• Vague global questions• Hypothetical questions• Long ramp-ups into questions

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Coaching With Questions, exercise• Jeff is a very intelligent developer with great set of technical skills and vast

experience. Last night Linda a junior developer who’s been in a team for about a year came to you complaining that Jeff re-wrote her code “behind her back”. She broke in tears saying that Jeff had been finding faults in her code, for no reason criticizing her, and making her life difficult.

• You have just given constructive feedback to Jeff. He was willing to listen to the feedback and wants to work through the challenge he is facing. Conduct a coaching discussion to mentor him; in particular, by Coaching with questions.

• To prepare:– Assume that you have gone through the discovery and found that

• Linda’s code was far from perfect• Jeff is very openly critical to many, usually for a “good” reason• Jeff done “behind the back” changes to code of others on several occasions

– Write your objective for the discussion.– Write two to three open-ended questions to guide the conversation towards

achieving its objective.

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Resources• Coaching and Mentoring for Dummies, by Marty

Brounstein

• Managing Teams for Dummies by Marty Brounstein

• Managing for Dummies, by Bob Nelson, et al

• Turbo Coach, by Brain Tracy, et al

• Awaken the Giant Within, by Tony Robbins

• Organizing for Quality, Productivity, and Job Satisfaction, by Pamela S. Lewis et al

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Delegating – Drill Down• Describe Assignment To Be Done

– Purpose and objectives– Results expected– As needed, overview of what's involved– NOTE: Stress results you want rather than how to do assignment.

• Define Parameters– Budget– Timelines– Kind of feedback or information you need– Level of authority and decision making

• Provide Resources For Support– Budget– Materials– Access to information, resources, etc.– Staff– Adjustments in person's priorities and tasks as needed– Training as needed– ALSO, inform others who needs to know