Tag Archives: Reviews

How Do You Encourage Employees to Take Full Responsibility for their Jobs? Five Points

Situation: A CEO is discouraged because employees are neither taking initiative nor holding themselves accountable for results. They see potential problems, but don’t act to either prevent or resolve them. They continually bring situations to the CEO and expect the CEO to solve the problem or save the day.  What have others done to shift responsibility and accountability to staff? How do you encourage employees to take full responsibility for their jobs?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • There are two important questions to ask:
    • Is this a situation that includes a large number of employees or just a few? If it’s just a few then these situations can be handled individually. If more than a few then systemic changes may be necessary.
    • Are all employees clear on their responsibilities and what is expected of them? Is there written documentation on responsibilities associated with specific roles or individuals? Has this been communicated to individual employees during performance reviews?
  • It is essential that direction and individual responsibility be clearly stated and understood. Encourage dialogue once direction or instruction is given to test understanding. Important direction should be documented in writing.
  • Have clear core values been established that guide both the company and individual responsibility and decisions? Have these core values been publicized and posted in break  areas as well as work areas? Use the core values to assess employees’ work to reinforce emphasis.
  • Assure that employees are clearly empowered to make decisions. This is particularly  important if employees have been subjected to micromanagement in the past.
  • Ask for and encourage dialogue, both in one-on-one situations and in team and company meetings. Make employees part of the decision process so that they feel ownership over their responsibilities. Assure that excellent performance is recognized, rewarded and publicized.

[like]

The New Manager Isn’t Cutting It. Not My Fault!? Four Important Questions

Situation: I recently hired a new high level manager. To integrate the individual into the company the original set of assignments was limited in scope – to help the manager get to know others within the company. This manager seems to over-analyze things. Long hours are spent carefully drafting plans but there is little action. Did I select the right person, and how do I manage them without micromanaging?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • It looks like this person is working long hours but not necessarily productive hours. This is costing you time and money – both yours and your employees. The question is whether the root cause is the individual’s behavior or your own expectations and behavior.
  • Ask yourself the following questions:
    • Have you clearly outlined your expectations in terms of what is to be delivered, the time in which it is to be delivered, and any constraints around the projects for which this person is responsible?
    • Have you provided necessary resources, and empowered the individual to make the decisions necessary to bring projects to completion?
    • Have you scheduled regular update meetings with this individual and openly discussed project progress and obstacles to completion?
    • Have you set appropriate expectations with your other staff as to the authority of the new individual, and are you honoring those expectations in your own behavior?
    • If you have done these things, and the individual is not performing, then it is time to ask whether you hired the right person.

Key Words: Manager Performance, Objectives, Expectations, Delegation, Planning and Review  [like]

The Dreaded Performance Review: Two Methodologies

Situation: We set objectives for employees; however these objectives frequently aren’t met, and there are lots of excuses for not meeting objectives. Most frustrating, employees are eager to share good news, but hide bad news and performance issues. What do other CEOs do to prevent these problems?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • A service company’s method:
    • Frequent measurement of performance against objectives.
    • Key metrics are monitored with top staff in weekly meetings that last tops one hour. We use a problem solving approach to address obstacles and to correct performance.
    • The CEO watches the direction, and staff makes the changes to make corrections to direction.
    • The trick is in the metrics. Metrics must measure meaningful performance and be tied directly to the company objectives.
  • A light manufacturing company’s method:
    • Historically the CEO had a problem holding on to non-performing individuals for too long.
    • He addressed this by instituting objectives and eliminating non-performers. The result: reduced complacency, and improved morale because performing employees were tired of taking up the slack for non-performers.
    • Documentation of non-performance and establishing a solid case for eliminating the employee are critical to avoiding wrongful termination suits.
  • General Observation: if a company has objectives, but lacks meaningful metrics to measure performance against objectives or a regular review process to assess performance against objectives, then the objectives are meaningless.
    • The CEOs’ experience is that establishing meaningful SMART (Specific, Measurable, Appropriate, Realistic, Time-Bound) objectives and regularly assessing performance in a collaborative atmosphere are the most important ingredients to an effective performance management system.

Key Words: Performance, Objectives, SMART Objectives, Employee Reviews, Performance Reviews  [like]
<a href=”http://www.hypersmash.com/dreamhost/” id=”QT10304143″>DreamHost review</a>