Staff Performance: 7 Things The Gurus Get Wrong

Introduction

You want to improve staff performance. You read:, you listen: you attend seminars, even conferences. Take care. Don’t follow everything the gurus tell you. Be particularly careful about these “management truths”.

1. Consult Employees About Their Training Needs

Your staff need proper training. No doubt about that. But training usually won’t solve performance problems. These occur mostly because people won’t do not can’t do. Identify the performance problem first. Then construct a solution. Mostly, it won’t involve training.

2. Employees Resist Change

True. But it’s interesting that change is part of everyone’s life these days. By and large we seem to cope. Please note this. Employees resist change only if they perceive it’ll disadvantage or discomfort them. Point out the benefits to them personally. Don’t go on about the “good of the business”. Stress the personal benefits. And gain their co-operation for “trialling” changes for say, 30 days and seek their input after the trial period.

3. People Learn From Their Mistakes

This too is true. What’s not said is the next sentence. “They learn to repeat them”. Habits are hard to break. It’s best to develop good work habits and practices from the start and learn to repeat them. “But, Leon,” you may be thinking, “What about that old saying about a man who doesn’t make mistakes doesn’t make anything”? Has it occurred to you that he doesn’t make anything because he makes so many mistakes?

4. Practice Makes Perfect

This is totally incorrect. It should say, “Perfect practice makes perfect“. It’s said that the difference between an amateur and a professional is this: an amateur practices until he gets it right: a professional practices until he can’t get it wrong. Structure on job training so that employees “can’t get it wrong”.

5. Start At The Beginning; Work Through To The End

Wrong! Start at the end. Work back to the beginning. Did the Mavs and the Packers – or any other basketball or football team for that matter – start by saying, “Let’s just win each week.” No. Their eye was on the prize from day one. Then they sat down and worked out what they needed to do to win it. Start with goals and how you’ll measure conclusively that you’ve achieved them. Your staff can’t build success unless they have a very clear notion of what it is and how they’ll know that they’ve achieved it.

6. Good Interpersonal Relations Matter

They do. But they’re a consequence, not a goal. Make your first priority outstanding on job performance and business success. Let staff know exactly what you want. Provide the resources to achieve it. Work isn’t a “love-in”. But it’s quite remarkable how tolerant individuals are of each others personal foibles when they’re part of a successful team. Ask any sportsperson … or employee in a truly successful team.

7. Get “Inside Their Heads”

Please, whatever else you do to improve your staff performance, don’t, please don’t play amateur psychologist. Stop trying to manage your people. Concentrate on managing their performance. Get the goals right. Get the systems right. Get the performance standards right. Concentrate on obtaining results and getting staff to motivate themselves. It’s amazing how well employees perform when they understand exactly what’s expected of them and that they’re trusted to fully meet those expectations.

Conclusion

The gurus get lots right. But they are usually writing and teaching for large business. The small-medium business is different. Few gurus specialize in that field.

What To Do Now

Choose one or two of the topics I’ve raised where you feel you could do better. Consult your employees about improvement and do something to improve it. If you need help, send me an email.