Handy hints for Senior Managers wanting to improve Performance
Published by Bill Rainey
Handy hints for Senior Managers wanting to improve Performance
The call for "better performance" comes in many ways: produce more for less, work smarter, back to basics...and so on. What it is about is better service to stakeholders, providing greater stakeholder satisfaction, being more effective and efficient.
It comes down to all employees needing to increase their own work outcomes...and this does not happen unless there is a high performing work culture in their organisation that encourages them to apply discretionary effort on a sustained basis. It is no use relying on organisational strategies and plans to get you there.
Some figures:
- Research shows that organisational strategies and plans are eight times less influential on performance than organisational culture - London School of Economics.
- Workplace culture is attributable to 60% of organisational performance overall - Prof. Malcolm Higgs.
- A highly motivated employee is five times more productive that one who is poorly motivated - Dr. S Covey.
The most effective way to get better performance is to develop a high performance working culture by improving motivation and engagement.
We all know that one of the most critical drivers of employee motivation is the nature of the manager/direct report relationship. So to get a quick fix on the health of these relationships, and to provide rich material for deeper performance management conversations, try getting your managers to ask these questions of their direct reports, and then to act on the answers:
- What do I need to do to make your job easier?
- What do I do that makes your job harder?
- What would you like me to do more of/less of?