Natasha Kearslake, Author at Organic P&O Solutions

How to ensure Performance Reviews are effective

Regular performance reviews (a.k.a. staff appraisals) are essential in any organisation. They provide a dedicated space for business owners and line managers to discuss performance with team members one to one, help to identify performance-related issues early and provide insights that mean training and interventions focus on what is needed for the future.

There are no hard and fast rules about how performance reviews should be run, but following some basic guidelines can help deliver positive outcomes for all involved.

1. Make them regular

But how regular is regular? Online, you’ll find advice ranging from as often as once a week to as little as once a year. In reality, there’s no right answer – weekly will be logistically impractical for some businesses, while annually allows far too much time for even micro issues to escalate into real problems. The more frequent you can make them, the better, but in the end, it will come down to what works best for you and your team.

Remember though; reviews don’t need to be formal or take up lots of time. The more often you hold them, the less time you’re likely to need. For example, a 15-minute weekly or 30-minute monthly catch up should be sufficient. But whatever frequency you settle on, keep to a regular schedule. This way, everyone will have clarity about the process and will know what to expect and when.

2. Align feedback with your business goals

The key purpose of reviews is to check each team member is performing effectively – and that their contribution to your business goals is optimised. But a review discussion can be wide-ranging, and it’s easy to find yourself distracted by tangential issues. So keep the objective of the process front of mind throughout and focus your feedback to align with what will deliver your business goals.

3. Give clear, honest feedback

Inevitably, the review process will involve discussing difficult issues occasionally. While these exchanges might be awkward, you should not shrink from giving and receiving frank, honest feedback. Being anything less than candid will only lead to confused messaging and leave scope for a problem to escalate. Every successful relationship is founded on honesty, and a relationship between a business owner or line manager and an employee is no exception.

4. Tailor feedback to the individual

The review process is like tuning an engine for the best performance, but your team are not inanimate mechanical components. Each is an individual with a personality and character shaped by their background and life experience. Therefore, it’s essential to tailor the way you engage, using dialogue to suit the recipient.

Make time to plan each review, both in terms of content and approach. Consider what you want to say and how you want the employee to feel. Take into account what motivates and drives them and how they respond to praise and constructive criticism.

And finally, what do you know about their personal circumstances? Perhaps there’s a new baby at home, or maybe they’re a carer. All this knowledge is relevant and will help to inform your conversation so you achieve the outcome you need.

5. Accentuate the positive

At the end of the review, it’s crucial you leave your employee feeling valued and motivated.

It’s a question of positioning. A good manager will identify what didn’t work and find ways to recognise and praise what they want to see more of. If there’s an aspect of performance where you want to see an improvement – rather than spending too much time analysing an individual’s shortcomings or weaknesses (and risk being drawn into a ‘blame game’), focus instead on what you want them to do to improve. Tell them about the strengths you see in them, how they can use these to enhance their performance. Let them know you have complete confidence, explain how you will support them, and leave them feeling good about themselves.

6. Be clear about how goals are to be achieved

On its own, a goal is just a statement of intent – it requires a plan of action to make it happen. Rather than simply stating a goal, it’s important you clarify how you see it being achieved. When you agree a goal in a review, discuss and break down the activities required to get there. In doing so, you’ll create a clear and aligned focus and vastly improve the likelihood that the goal will be reached.

7. Check understanding at each stage

Prepping for a review requires thinking carefully about what you want to say and the key messages you want to convey. But it’s easy to believe you’ve made yourself clear when in fact, this isn’t the case at all.

Many things can get in the way of clear communication. If you skirt around an issue rather than getting to the point, the employee may be confused. And being too direct can have the same effect if you don’t allow time for information to be processed and questions to be asked. It may be that the employee is so focused on what they want to say that they don’t hear you clearly, or they could be nervous or anxious. Of course, this works the other way around as well. It could be you that’s listening but not hearing. Whatever the reason, if one party is not hearing and understanding clearly, the result will be mismatched expectations and disappointment when an anticipated result isn’t forthcoming.

Ensure you actively engage your listening brain during the review process and make space after each key point is made – on either side – to reiterate, review and reflect.

When we deliver training around this at Organic P&O Solutions, we encourage asking the question, ‘What did you hear?’. The response can often be surprising and very useful in making sure a point has been received and understood in the way it was intended.

8. Allow time for change

Don’t expect change to be instant. Breaking old habits and embedding new ones happens organically, with the help of time and repetition. Exactly how long change may take will depend on a wide range of variables. Look online, and you’ll find that 21 – 28 days is widely stated as the time it takes for a person to accept and implement a new habit. The reality is far more nuanced and what is certain is that it takes much longer for a new habit to become a permanent change in behaviour. For example, the moment it stops happening, whatever the timescale, if it has stopped happening, it’s not a habit anymore!

In brief then, you need to be patient because change is a process, not an event. As a manager, it’s essential to understand this and recognise and acknowledge incremental changes throughout the cycle.

Get More Out of Your Team!

At Organic P&O Solutions, we help business owners and managers implement more effective performance reviews to get the best out of their people.

Call us today to discuss how we can improve your performance process through a bespoke one to one or group training and development programme tailored to meet your needs!

Overcoming Fear of Failure & Embracing New Challenges: What I Learnt in the Mountains!

How are you at dealing with challenges that take you outside your comfort zone and require you to go beyond your usual points of reference?

When you have to do something new, something you’re not familiar with or don’t understand, it’s natural your ‘fight or flight response will kick in, causing you to feel nervous, anxious – perhaps even frightened.

In the workplace, where organisations must continually respond to threats and opportunities, and the people working in them have to adapt and evolve, change is a constant. Constant change creates uncertainty, and that creates stress.

Understanding how you behave in stressful situations, the reactions that are triggered and how you can manage them is crucial. It’s why each year, our client Berkeley Construction takes their new apprentices out of the workplace and into the great outdoors for a week of team-building and personal development exercises. Working with our client, we use behavioural observations made during these activities to inform the learning and development programmes we deliver to their apprentices.

In February, I joined a group of first-year apprentices in the Lake District, undertaking a wide range of adventure experiences, including mountain climbing, abseiling and kayaking. I was there primarily to observe, but as an active participant as well, the five days I spent in Eskdale provided me with insights into how I personally respond when mentally and physically tested. By coincidence, this was something I had a further opportunity to reflect on just a few weeks ago, when I went on a ski holiday with friends from my BNI networking group.

The first time I went skiing, it reminded me how we all learn in different ways and inspired me to draft my blog, 4 Insights That Will Boost Your Learning Power. This time – only the second time I’ve skied – my experiences gave me an opportunity to reflect on how I deal with stressful situations.

My mountain adventures in the Lake District and the Alps both helped to reinforce some important lessons about the process of learning to overcome fear of failure and embrace new challenges:

Stress testing is best done in a safe space

We all respond differently to stress. Understanding where you go mentally and physically when dealing with a stressful situation will help you recognise warning signs and put coping mechanisms in place, ensuring you stay in full control.

Learning these things about yourself is best done in a safe, non-work environment. Finding settings outside of work where you can safely activate stress triggers, see how you respond, and practice managing responses will help you develop skills you can transfer to work situations.

Scrambling up cliffs and throwing oneself down icy mountains might be extreme examples, but under skilled supervision, they certainly helped teach me a lot about my own instinctive responses.

My ski experience also gave me a real insight into why, in new environments, we might not always comply with logical instructions. Many of the critical actions that keep you upright while skiing – like leaning forward when going downhill and out when making a turn, are counter-intuitive. I knew these things because I had a great instructor, but despite knowing what I had to do, there were times early on when fear took over and made me doubt what I’d learnt – with inevitable results!

Developing muscle memory takes time

It was interesting to see the different approaches to skiing in our mixed ability group. While I worried I hadn’t put enough time and effort into preparing myself properly, the more advanced skiers never questioned their fitness levels or capabilities. It took me a while to overcome this feeling and to recognise I wasn’t asking anything of my body that it wasn’t’ already capable of doing.

I noticed too that while I was comfortable putting lessons learnt into practice on wide, gentle slopes, as soon as the environment changed to narrower, steeper gradients with more significant drops to the side, all my training was – initially at least, forgotten. In my head, the consequences of crashing overrode all I’d been taught. Instead, I automatically reverted to the brace position, incapable of implementing the techniques I knew would get me down the mountain safely.

What became clear was that learning was a process. I needed to constantly remind myself that I did know how to deal with the new environment I was in, that I did have the skills but not, as yet, the experience that only comes with practice.

After my lessons were over for the day, I’d practice the techniques I’d learnt on safer, less steep slopes. They quickly became second nature as learning transitioned into embedded muscle memory – in my head as much as my legs – and I felt able to trust my instincts in more testing environments.

Trusting those with experience & knowledge is vital

Both experiences reinforced the importance of trusting those who are teaching a skill we want to learn. Of course, this is especially true when there is a physical risk to our person, but it applies equally in a business environment.

On one of my ski lessons, the weather suddenly closed in around us at the top of a run, and visibility became very poor. Normally, I’m pretty unflappable but without visual cues. I found myself starting to panic.

What got me to the bottom of the slope in one piece was the level of trust I’d developed with my instructor. I knew she was an expert in the skill I still had to master and that having taught me for several days, she had the measure of my capabilities, limits, character and personality and wouldn’t ask me to undertake something I wasn’t capable of doing.

By being consistent, supportive, and direct during the week about what I needed to do to improve my skiing, she’d earned my trust. As a result, I was completely comfortable following the instructions she gave me as she helped me negotiate my way to the bottom of the slope – which it transpired as the weather cleared, was significantly less steep than I’d imagined!

If she hadn’t managed my crisis of confidence sensitively and had instead simply barked instructions at me, my belief in my ability would almost certainly have been seriously damaged.

My mountain top wobble also demonstrated how nervousness and uncertainty can transfer to those going through a learning process together: how a person leading a team through a new challenge may need to manage fall-out in those around someone struggling with a task – as well as managing the individual themselves.

One of our group, who up to that point had been making good progress and was very confident, lost their nerve when they saw me panic, with the result that the instructor had to talk us both down.

The activity leaders on our Outward Bound adventure were similarly perceptive and professional in their approach, ensuring that if someone was nervous about participating in an activity, the feelings of the whole group were considered.

How often, in a work situation, do we miss subtle signals in communication because we’re so focused on getting someone to complete a task?

A supportive, sharing environment aids learning

In the Lake District and in the mountains too, I found being part of a supportive team of people all striving to overcome the same challenges and achieve shared goals helped me with the learning process.

The Outward Bound programme allowed for regular periods of review and reflection, enabling us to consolidate learning points and helping to foster a cycle of continuous improvement. And on my ski trip, although our group consisted of a wide range of abilities and we went our own ways on the slopes, we came together in our chalet at the end of each day to exchange stories, discuss experiences, celebrate success, talk through fails, and provide moral and technical support.

For me, this part of the day was an especially important component of the learning process. In the workplace, the power of providing a space where colleagues going through a learning programme together can engage in useful dialogue, share and compare experiences and generally support one another can often be overlooked.

If you have to face a new challenge or go through a difficult transition at work, you might not be aware of feelings of fear or resistance. Because you’re not physically at risk, they may be relegated to your subconscious.

We need to remember that one person’s fear may be very different to someone else’s. Fear of failure or not being good enough can come from many places, and an employer or line manager can’t be expected to know or understand everything about the feelings of those people for whom they have responsibility.

Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to recognise that we’re all on our own journey. If you or a colleague are struggling with a challenge, could a different environment bring a better understanding of your automatic responses and help uncover solutions to help deal with them?

In the mountains, the guidance and support of experts gave us the confidence to put learning into practice in safety. It enabled us to test new skills, reflect on results and push boundaries without fear, and return to our workplaces with a much better understanding of ourselves.

Can Organic P&O Solutions Help You with Bespoke Learning & Development?

Dealing with demanding challenges in an ever-changing environment means your employees and line managers are under constant pressure to take decisive – often difficult actions. The success of your organisation depends on their ability to perform under pressure.

Organic P&O Solutions’ strategic and operational Learning and Development programmes are designed to equip you and your team with the skills needed to deal with all eventualities. We can create customised topical training programmes to address your requirements – and with the lifting of Covid regulations, we’re now able to deliver them face to face again.

Call us today to find out more about our Learning and Development programmes and how they can help you!

Unlock the Power of Motivation: 6 Steps to Get the Best Out of Your People

My blogs often focus on people and teams and how they tick, but to get the most out of our people, we need to look at what creates a productive and effective workforce and how to develop a culture of performance through dialogue.

However, I’ve not yet addressed one essential driver of performance. Something that can be difficult to define, may have a very different meaning for each of us, but if missing, can impact individual and team effectiveness hugely.

I’m referring, of course, to motivation. It’s something that’s been front of mind for me recently as I’ve drafted CPD e-learning modules on the topic and because of observations I’ve made in the course of working with teams. It’s also a subject that’s cropped up in a personal context: in conversations I’ve been having with a friend who’s feeling particularly unmotivated in their job.

As employers and employees, we must try to be aware of what motivates and de-motivates ourselves and those around us. In the workplace, many of us will share some common motivational drivers – most obviously around the rewards we receive for our labour in the form of salary and benefits.

But motivation goes much deeper than this and is far more subtle. Much of it happens on a subconscious level. You know when you’re feeling especially fired up or particularly sapped of enthusiasm, but how often do you take time to analyse the cause, so you can either replicate or avoid the feeling in future? Probably not as often as you should, and the same is likely to be true when it comes to managing a team or working with colleagues. But understanding what makes yourself and others tick can be vital when it comes to getting to the root of why something isn’t working as it should or re-igniting passion where it may have dropped.

When you discuss performance with an employee, your focus will be on communicating what you want them to achieve or do differently and ensuring you get the dialogue right. For a conversation to be truly effective though, it must do more than just make your expectations clear; it needs to leave the other party feeling motivated and enthused about what you want them to do.

Here are 6 things you can do to unlock the power of motivation and help inspire individuals and teams in your organisation to deliver their best:

1. Learn what motivates your people

As the motivator, you can only light the fuse – the response must come from within the person you want to motivate, and this means making an effort to find out what motivates the individuals in your team.

Each of us is motivated by a unique and complex interplay of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Learning what these are for each of your people will be key to creating an environment that encourages everyone to deliver their best.

Identifying what these drivers are is something that both parties need to work on in the conversations they have with each other. It’s a delicate balance – while showing little interest certainly won’t help motivation levels, too much enquiry might be seen as intrusive. Only by identifying and acknowledging what these drivers are will it be possible to recognise if something is missing and, if it is, take action to rectify it.

2. Think about the makeup of your team & give recognition where it’s due

To ensure employees feel motivated, you need to help them understand exactly where they fit into the team and what you expect their contribution to be – so they can deliver their best, and you can recognise their efforts appropriately.

For example, the input of an employee in an administrative role will be very different to that of a colleague in, say, a fee-earning sales position, but their contributions will be equally critical to the team’s overall performance and must be recognised as such. It might be easy to overlook the efforts of the employee in the admin role, but if their specialist skills are not given appropriate recognition, they’re likely to feel disconnected.

3. Check perception matches intention

When you want to highlight an issue and bring about change, it’s essential to make sure any conversations you have delineate between the task being discussed and the individual. If communication is anything less than crystal clear, an individual may take constructive criticism personally – rather than understanding they’re simply being asked to improve an aspect of their work.

Similarly, perception can be blurred, and your intention may be lost if you are too general about performance. For example, saying someone is good or bad at their role is not particularly useful. Instead, conversations need to specifically communicate where performance is good and where there is room for improvement, so the employee is motivated to do more of what they’re good at and get better in the other areas.

4. Be clear about your expectations

If a performance conversation is going to motivate, you need to have clarity about the expectations you have, expressing them clearly and being sure to frame them positively.

Rather than focusing exclusively on areas where improvement is required, you should make sure dialogue also acknowledges and recognises those areas where an individual is performing well in their role. Reassuring someone that you’re generally pleased with their performance will help make them more receptive to discussing areas where you want to see improvement – or identifying issues that might be holding them back.

5. Check emotional balance is in credit

If motivation levels have been allowed to drop below a certain level for a long time, bringing them back up again might present a real challenge. A prolonged period of poor leadership might have got a team to this point, but it may take more than simply introducing good leadership to correct things if the emotional balance of some team members is very low.

We need to recognise when people have run out of motivation. It may be a matter of addressing a core issue that’s impacting motivation and helping someone to reconnect, or it might require an open and honest conversation to uncover what’s missing and take corrective action.

6. Make motivation a partnership

Motivation in the workplace should be a shared responsibility. Everyone needs to make sure that everyone else is happy and motivated and flag up when this is not the case.

Employees need to let their managers know how they prefer to work and what they need to enable them to work better. And managers need to ensure dialogue is open enough that they can pick up on relevant information – and respond accordingly.

Let Us Help You Get the Best Out of Your People!

Motivation can make the difference between a mediocre effort and an excellent performance – and it’s an easy win that should run through all aspects of your HR cycle.

If you need advice and support creating a motivational culture that helps you get the most out of your people: one that promotes the right kind of dialogue and encourages people to bring their very best self to work, Organic P&O Solutions can help. Contact us today for an initial discussion!