Managing Performance

In an earlier post, I talked about the importance of setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely or Time-bound) goals. Now let's talk about regular conversations with your employees about their goals and their progress against their goals.


I recommend that you meet monthly with each of your employees. If you have too many direct reports to meet monthly, then meet every other month. In no circumstance should you meet with each of your direct reports less than once a quarter. The structure of these meetings will always be the same.

1) Greeting and Social
2) Review of progress against goals since last meeting
3) Reconciliation of planned progress with actual progress
4) Plan for progress until next meeting
5) Review action plan and close

By setting these regular meetings in place, and reviewing progress against plan on a regular basis, you can provide the resources your employees need to be successful, or reset the plan.

These regular meetings also give you the opportunity to make a timely intervention if an employee is not performing to plan. Things happen in everyone's life that disrupt our ability to meet our commitments. Sickness, death in family, new babies, weddings, graduations; both happy and sad events can distract from the time and energy needed to be successful at work.

What should you do if an employee consistently fails to meet their goals? The first step is to evaluate if the goals were too much of a reach, or if workplace demands have changed and the goals need to reflect that. If the goals are appropriate, you will need to ask the employee to help you understand why they are not meeting your expectations. You are limited in the direct questioning you can do, employees have a right to privacy that you can't abridge. If there is no reason forthcoming for the failure to meet expectations, you can use what you know to outline a plan.

"I see you have been out sick for 10 days in the last month. It is only natural that you would fall behind. How long do you think it will take you to catch up? What can I do to help you get through the backlog?" Usually acknowledging that the employee is only in the same situation that anyone would be in, and showing that you are willing to help, will get the employee to help you help them.

Sometimes, If a typically good performer is really struggling, there could be bigger issues in their lives that render them not able to perform. There are a number of ways to handle these situations, but great care must be taken to not further damage someone already in a bad situation.

It may be appropriate to reallocate work, or to give the struggling employee an assignment that they can escape into and get a reprieve from the challenges in their lives.

It may be appropriate to suggest a leave of absence, or consultation with medical or employee assistance.

No matter what, you can't ignore it.  As leaders, we can have the opportunity to help our employees through their most difficult times.  By taking the time to build an environment of caring and trust, you create the platform for the resolving performance issues in the most beneficial way possible.