This blog is about trying to find a balance between a laissez-faire approach to management and micromanaging, particularly in a staff of highly skilled and qualified individuals. How do we develop accountability while at the same time not giving the impression that we are breathing down the necks of our staff? How do we balance the needs of the individual staff member with the need for team cohesiveness. The following are a few (not exhaustive) suggestions. I welcome your feedback on any others you may offer.
1. Communicating expectations and roles clearly
A beginning point for enhancing employee performance is clarity of roles and expectations. Sound recruitment processes usually include the development of a job description that clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities to the prospective employees. These job descriptions then form the basis for performance appraisals, particularly if they are articulated further within an employment contract. However, job descriptions (and any consequent employment contract) on their own are very two dimensional and lack context. Very few positions work in isolation and there are always boundary issues where roles overlap and/or meet. Once a person is employed, they need to be given clarity about where they fit within the organization and how their role contributes to the whole vision. This not only minimizes confusion and wasted resources but also may provide staff with motivation, knowing they are playing an important role within the wider organization.
Where possible, such definition of roles, including boundaries between staff, should be in writing. Who can remember everything they have been told in a verbal briefing? These are also living documents to be regularly reviewed as roles develop and relationships change.
2. Building an organizational culture
Organizational development theory advances the benefits for organizational performance when employees are built into cohesive, united working units. These unified teams are produced not only via exercises where we all figure out how to get a giant log from point A to point B across obstacles but more crucially via:
- identifying common organizational goals
- the ongoing ability to define working relationships between team members
- putting mechanisms in place for gathering and analyzing feedback from all staff
- a process for staff members to be part of determining solutions to organizational issues
Having been a little cynical in my comment about the log moving exercise, I should add that teams appear to forge strong bonds when members are jointly involved in solving problems and working through project difficulties together. I believe that the results will be more long-lasting for a business or nonprofit when that project has some meaning or relationship to the goals of the organization. Whatever goal is set for the organization as a whole needs to be integrated into the psyche of each staff member and owned by them as much as by management.
3. Identifying mechanisms for accountability
One of the most common mechanisms for incorporating accountability that I have witnessed in organizational assessments I have completed has been the annual performance appraisal. This has sometimes taken on gargantuan proportions as an exercise by including 360 feedback processes, self-assessments and a range of interviews. The concept of reviewing past objectives and in establishing new ones for the year ahead are laudable principles but a year is too long as a primary tool for accountability. A great deal can go wrong in a year. I have witnessed one nonprofit eat through all of its reserves of $1million in one year and become indebted another million dollars. I saw another significant nonprofit implode in that time frame through poor management.
Accountability mechanisms should be built into the day to day functioning of an organization, a natural part of the work flow. What does this look like? Examples may be weekly face to face or virtual meetings where staff contribute those aspects that went well in that week and obstacles they faced. They do not need to be lengthy exercises but should enable all levels of the organization to remain on top of developments. You might even consider a daily check in of 15 minutes as a planning and review exercise to prioritize the day. Management would profit greatly from making these conversations open ones between all staff and encouraging a spirit of cooperation so that all members feel free about offering solutions to overcoming obstacles.
Image copied from topofmind.com
In some organizations time constraints and the nature of projects dictate that staff work more individually. In these instances, management may identify smaller tasks that can be completed as a team so that overall vision and unity is maintained. It is a tough task keeping employees aligned to the organization's goals and overall vision if they are working completely in isolation or having a working relationship with only their supervisor. During a talk I heard from a pilot, he described that even being one degree off the flight path can result in a plane being hundreds of miles from the intended destination. Regularly checking in to recalibrate and keep in alignment with the team as a whole will pay dividends for any organization. Keeping staff on the same wavelength or engaging them in a small project will build personal relationships between staff which will be valuable during any times of potential conflict at a later time. Such an exercise could assist management to identify potential problems between staff members as they try to work together on something, a kind of mini-lab. This does not have to be a project directly related to the goals of the organization but could also be a service project for example.
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| Image copied from customerthink.com |
4. "Consequences" for Performance
While staff work at unique speeds and skill levels, to truly enhance organizational effectiveness there need to be specific consequences that are understood and enforced. These range from rewards for great performance to deciding on consequences for non-performance. At this point, management needs to identify these at a very individual level because those "consequences" that motivate one will not work as well with another. We might consider finding a parallel within the business sector for the "5 Love Languages" by Dr Gary Chapman (1995) used in intimate relationships. We need to pay attention to research on what languages individual employees use to feel rewarded and motivated for their work (the subject of another blog?)
In summary, being able to maximize staff performance should follow some key principles: Clarity of roles both individually and in relation to others in the organization, building a strong, unified organizational culture, identifying processes for introducing accountability for achieving organizational goals and finally finding some way of tying success or otherwise towards those goals with consequences or results that are individual to the employee.
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