Challenge:

As part of a cost containment initiative, some federal agencies have been mandated to establish Performance Management Systems in an effort to control personnel costs.

Our client customized an on-line performance management tool to create a competency-based performance management system that reflected the agency's values and the competencies and skills critical to the organization's success.

While they were happy with the new system, they felt they could benefit from some outside guidance and training to help optimize the system and bring staff up to speed on some of the skills required to effectively write and deliver performance appraisals.

Solution

Working closing with the executive staff we designed a 1-day off-site session to address performance management best practices and essential skills. In addition, it was very important to create a session that would seamlessly integrate with the on-line performance tool used by the agency. The goal was to ensure that participants could easily see how any new learning and tools mapped to the existing system, thereby increasing knowledge transfer.

Key Learning Objectives

• Learn to think and talk in terms of the desired performance as opposed to creating messages based on calling attention to performance deficiencies.
• Find the right words to describe behavioral aspects of performance such as interpersonal skills, temperament, attitude, motivation, etc.
• Present honest feedback and appraisal comments in a manner that minimizes awkwardness and defensiveness.
• Translate performance improvement needs into written goals designed to clearly communicate specific measurable outcomes.
• Maintain control over the direction and outcome of the discussion by anticipating and responding effectively to employee reactions to feedback, including typical objections.
• Prepare them to anticipate, manage and control a difficult performance conversation.

Results

All participants left the session with increased confidence about their ability to successfully implement the agency's new performance management system.

The session was particularly useful for the more than 50% of participants who were new to the middle management role. Although - as the chief executive pointed out - effective performance management is more of an art than a science, so even long-time managers added some new tools to their toolboxes.

The Performance Feedback Method that was introduced gave participants a different approach to delivering difficult feedback. For those that had a tendency to avoid difficult feedback conversations if offered a method of crafting messages they were comfortable delivering. For those who had no problem bringing performance issues to the table, it offered them a softer approach they could utilize when appropriate.

The session was acknowledged as a step in the right direction towards in a learning process that is on-going for all good managers.