“If only staff would do the job they were employed to do without me having to remind them e-v-e-r-y t-i-m-e, my life would be soooo much easier”.
This is the “if I only had a dollar for every time someone said this to me, I’d be a millionaire” comment for me as a people management and performance consultant.
So why won’t staff just do the job? Is it because the general standard of performance dropped? Is it because employees are not frightened of management anymore? Are we living in an entitlement culture? Are our education institutions to blame? Are we paying staff too much resulting in collective largesse? Or the one that makes me laugh out loud: is it because employers are too soft on staff and they should just sack ‘em!
All very interesting questions but answering any of these is unhelpful to providing the relief people managers’ need right now.
So how do you get staff on with the job? Here are 3 tips to get you out of agony and get your staff back on task:
Tell your staff what matters to you
Ever noticed how someone can walk past a piece of paper on the floor and walk on by. When you ask them about why they didn’t pick the paper up the person will say I didn’t notice it.
For some people managers this can cause a rapid rise in blood pressure accompanied by “how could you have possibly not seen that gigantic piece of paper”.
If you are one of these people managers, you will need to tell your people that picking up the paper this is hyper important to you.
It may not be the paper that sends you nuts; it may be the lack of product knowledge or something else that you think is critical to the success of your business. Whatever it is you need to communicate this to your staff. This way they can they better understand what needs to be done and the intensity of the issue for you.
Don’t assume that everyone knows and values what you do, even when it is common sense.
Do they know how to be successful?
A position description does not provide the direction to success.
Here’s a recent example of what I mean: A manufacturer had a small team of salespeople with exactly the same position description and key accountabilities. The problem was that the each of them was not meeting targets. I came into find out what was happening.
I asked each employee what a good salesperson was and each of them came up with very different answer. Everything from someone that spends a lot of time with their clients, to not being too pushy when a client said no and one of them even said that they did not know who the competitors were because it was irrelevant.
I asked the leaders in the business what a good salesperson was and they said someone that meets their targets.
There was no question that the staff were doing their best, but their activities were not resulting in sales. They needed more than a list of position accountabilities they needed to know how to use their skills to succeed.
The quickest, easiest and best way to give staff a pathway to success is make a list of the top 10 practical steps that, done well, lead to a successful outcome.
The success list could include filling in a form properly to enable follow up or taking a client for coffee or providing objective data on your offerings against your competitors – your best and brightest are already doing this so just map them. Once you’ve got the list keep improving on it.
Do I do a good job?
Do you have a performance plan for each employee based on what is important to you and the business, not just what’s on an off the shelf position description?
Nearly every business I work with has position descriptions in place and almost none have performance plans. Performance plans offer an opportunity to regularly reset expectations and give staff the much-needed feedback that will help them to succeed.
I’ve worked with bosses that refuse to say thank-you and well done in fear of the employee getting a big head. The only time the employee hears about their performance is when it’s dropped below expectations. Do that often enough and the employee shuts down and so does their productivity.
Don’t set expectations through fear. Set expectations upfront through a performance plan.
A performance plan can be a simple recorded discussion that answers these questions and reviewed regularly.
- What do you need to focus on to be successful in this role?
- What will you / can you do to make this role successful?
- What you need to do more of?
- What you need to do less of?
- How will we know that you have been successful in this role?
As always, if you want me to help you get your staff performing at their best contact me through my website.
Please share this with others that might need a bit of practical, hopefully entertaining advice.
About the Author:
Andrea Tunjic is a leadership coach with 25+ years’ experience helping businesses grow confident, capable people leaders. Her Essential Leadership Skills program is designed for everyday managers navigating the messy middle between doing and leading. Learn more at andreatunjic.com.au.
