‘ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR’

1. Demonstrates the ability to clearly explain their thoughts and opinions

2. Expresses thoughts and opinions using ‘first person’ language

3. Verbally distinguishes between fact and opinion

4. Articulates the reasoning behind their thoughts and opinions

5. Seeks to understand the thoughts and opinions of others by asking open questions, using

probing questions to achieve clarity

6. Demonstrates understanding of the other persons thoughts and opinions by reflecting

back their understanding and summarising

7. Identifies and expresses what they see as differences of opinion and checks that others

agree

8. Seeks ideas for solutions from others

9. Offers solutions

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

DEALING WITH REQUESTS

1. Asks questions to fully understand the request to ensure clarity about: 

• The size and complexity of the task i.e. the level of detail / accuracy needed, how much research needs undertaking, what the ‘end product’ should look like e.g. a two page summary or a full report?
• The deadline – when, specifically, the task needs to be completed 
• The  importance of the task and deadline

 2. Uses relevant facts in order to make a decision on whether to accept or decline the request e.g.

• The time needed to complete the work vs. the time available to meet the deadline
• The time needed to complete work on hand of equal importance
• The relative urgency / importance of other work on hand

 3. Assesses the consequence, or cost, of accepting the request as a way of deciding whether to accept or decline e.g.

• The new task would take 2 hours (fact)
• The task I am currently working on will take 4 hours and must be completed by 5pm (fact)
• The task I am currently working on has the highest priority (fact)
• To take on the new task now would mean I would miss the 5pm deadline on the current task (consequence)

 4. When refusing a request, explains that decision to the other party by

• Explaining the difficulty in meeting the request and why – using the objective criteria.
• Explaining what the (negative) consequences would be of accepting the request.
• Explaining that they are unable to accept the request

 5. If appropriate, looks for some compromise solution e.g.

• Offering to accept the work – but with a longer deadline
• Offering to accept part of the work
• Offering ideas on how the work could be completed by someone else

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

CLIENT SERVICING

1. Demonstrates a breadth and depth of knowledge of our services / products

2. Applies sound professional practices (as agreed / set down in …)

3. Provides advice which peers / manager would consider appropriate

4. Produces accurate advice / strategic plans that address the client’s needs

5. Gains the confidence of the client by demonstrating that the advice given has been accepted and applied

6. Applies a range of strategies which have contributed to developing long-term relationships with clients

7. Demonstrates a full understanding of the clients business

8. Effectively uses time and resources so that commitments made to the client are achieved and deadlines met

9. Client feedback reflects a high level of satisfaction     

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

 ‘ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOUR’

 1. Demonstrates the ability to clearly explain their thoughts and opinions

2. Expresses thoughts and opinions using ‘first person’ language

3. Verbally distinguishes between fact and opinion

4. Articulates the reasoning behind their thoughts and opinions

5. Seeks to understand the thoughts and opinions of others by asking open questions, using probing questions to achieve clarity

6. Demonstrates understanding of the other persons thoughts and opinions by reflecting back their understanding and summarising

7. Identifies and expresses what they see as differences of opinion and checks that others agree

8. Seeks ideas for solutions from others

9. Offers solutions

Would you like to see more descriptions of behavioural performance objectives? Then take a look at ‘The Managers Toolkit – 176 Behavioural Performance Objectives’ http://www.10mmt.com/e-books/ A gold mine of information and a quick and easy way to describe what you want from your staff so that you can get what you need from your staff

Joan Henshaw is the author and presenter of the video management training series ‘The 10 Minute Management Toolkit’ – the flexible, cost effective and time effective way to help managers learn how to motivate their staff to high performance. Want to learn more about how to motivate staff to high performance? Watch videos and claim your free e-book at http://www.10mmt.com

A start point is to give your staff member time and support in preparing for the meeting. How?

Take a look at this checklist that you could use with your staff member to help them prepare:

PERFORMANCE REVIEW / APPRAISAL CHECKLIST – STAFF MEMBER

In order to prepare for our performance review/appraisal meeting I’d like you to consider the following:

1. Your performance against the agreed objectives

Please bring examples of work which demonstrates your achievement of the objectives:

• Identifying achievements and successes
• Identifying areas for improvement
• Highlighting any barriers to performance
• Including examples of special projects or work done ‘above and beyond’ the objectives

2. Review of performance objectives

Please consider:

• Any changes facing the team or business that will require new performance objectives
• Any performance objectives that are no longer appropriate or need amending

3. Areas for development

Please consider any development needs you might have. These might relate to:

• Building on your strengths
• Addressing any areas requiring improvement
• Meeting future challenges

4. Your job satisfaction

Please consider the following questions:

• What gives you the most satisfaction in your work?
• How could we ensure you maintain or improve your satisfaction?
• Are there any other ways you and I could improve your job satisfaction?
• Is there anything I could do; more of, less of, or differently in order to improve your job satisfaction?

Here’s a quick and easy way to approach writing firm objectives.

Looking at each of the tangible elements of the job, ask the most relevant of the following questions:

1. How much / how many?
2. What’s the quality standard that needs to be achieved?
3. By when?

The key here is to describe specifically what you need the staff member to achieve.

So, for question one, rather than ‘improve sales’ you would write ‘improve sales by £2k per quarter’.

Question two may be about following procedure or guidelines, or related to some contract. So rather than ‘follow procedure’ you would have ‘follow the procedure for processing client requests as described in the client contract’.

For question three, this is about having a clear deadline. For example, ‘by 30th June’ or, if it’s an ongoing task, ‘within 3 days of receipt’.

Here are some more examples:

• To achieve a sales target of £25k each quarter
• To reduce error rates by 2% by 31st March
• To process claims with 100% accuracy
• To follow the data reporting procedure as laid down in the staff handbook
• To process customer requests within 3 days of receipt
• To complete the budget reports within 4 days of the month end

As ever, it’s all about achieving clarity. The clarity that motivates your staff to high performance.

Research shows that that ‘being clear about what’s expected of them’ motivates staff to perform well. I suppose then, theoretically, then that it shouldn’t really matter how you communicate your need for new behaviours.

But of course it does matter. As I’m sure you already know, most people don’t like having new ideas which relate to the way they work, their behaviours, imposed on them. People usually have more commitment to something they co-create.

Here’s a useful framework for communicating new behaviours.

Communicating new behaviours – 3 steps

Explanation

This is all about setting the context for the change – in this case the changes you need in your staff’s behaviours.

When you want to ask your staff to make a change to their behaviours, the way they work, it’s a good idea to associate this with a change facing the business.

If you want your staff to be more effective team players, how will more effective team playing help the business meet the challenge of the change? Is it about needing to improve efficiency? Will more effective team playing improve customer service?

Most people can understand the need to make a change to their behaviours when it’s related to a bigger change – a business change. It just makes more sense to them.

Exploration

The idea here is to involve your staff in defining what the new behaviours should look like – in order to best build their commitment and motivation. Let’s take the example of ‘effective team playing’.

Options for involving your staff in defining new behaviours

1. Give them your description of effective team playing—as a draft—and ask them to make suggestions for improvement. Here’s a tip: be sure to make the description you’ve written look like a draft. Have some typos, crossing out, and so on. It’s hard to amend something that’s so perfect it looks like the finished version.
2. Give them a relevant description of effective team playing that someone else has written. For example, from a colleague, from a definition you’ve found from the internet or from my upcoming  e-book ‘176 Behavioural Performance Descriptions’ and ask them edit, amend, improve, add. (Contact me for more information on the e-book.)
3. Explain how to define behaviours and ask them to write a draft description of effective team playing.

How do you choose which option?

I’d suggest the most effective way is to ask your staff what they would prefer.

Some staff would really dislike option 1 – they want to define the behaviours (option 3).

Some staff won’t want option 3 – they’d rather you show them what you have (option 1).

Some may want you just to tell them what you want. No problem.

Agreement

This is about you and your staff member bringing together your descriptions of what effective team playing looks like and agreeing a final definition. I’d suggest you then define this as a performance objective and incorporate it into your performance review or appraisal system in the usual way.

And, of course, you’ll need to agree any coaching or support your staff need in applying these new behaviours into practice.

In summary, it’s all about clarity and ‘adult to adult’ conversation.

Proudfoot Consulting‘s Productivity Survey for 2007 (PDF, 3.1MB) shows that in the UK 33.3% of the time spent in work is unproductive. Taking into account that they estimate that the optimum ‘labour utilisation’ time is considered to be 85% this means that UK businesses are wasting just over 18% of working hours.

Here’s what they say about the reason:

“Whatever business you’re in, pay particular attention to the calibre and capabilities of those who directly supervise frontline workers. Poor worker supervision has always been a prominent reason for wasted working time in our Business Reviews and in the last two years has risen to become the dominant factor.”

That’s just short of a day a week, then, lost to poor supervision. Not good practice in any circumstance but in the current economic climate, potentially disastrous.

Before we explore this issue further I should point out that this report is based on research of large businesses (with turnover in excess of £100m). Clearly, managing staff in a smaller business can be very different. For example, there’s less likelihood of there being a long ‘chain of command’ and it’s clearly more difficult for staff members in a small enterprise to be unproductive, at least intentionally.

However, I’d say it’s worth all businesses, whatever the size, periodically taking a critical look at how they manage their staff.

Here are a few questions you can use to assess your people management practices (based on my model of effective people management):

1. Are your staff crystal clear on what’s expected of them? Have you described and agreed what good performance looks like for their job? Are these agreed descriptions written as performance standards or objectives?
2. Do you monitor your staff’s actual performance against the standards or objectives on an ongoing basis? Are your staff involved in monitoring their own performance?
3. Do you and your staff review together their performance on a regular basis (every three months is standard good practice)? Do you give them objective, evidence- based feedback? Do you agree on areas of outstanding performance and how these can be built upon? Do you identify and agree any areas of improvement?
4. Do you discuss your staff’s job satisfaction with them so that you can, together, develop ways to maintain or enhance their satisfaction?

Do you now feel like having a lie down?

I do know this all sounds like an awful lot of work and it certainly does take some time commitment to manage your staff effectively. However, research does demonstrate again and again that not only does effective people management positively impact productivity and business performance but it also positively impacts your staff’s job satisfaction.

A win for the business, a win for your staff and not nearly as hard as it sounds with the right tools and techniques.

So what’s going on?

Putting aside the fact that it’s likely that some of our survey participants feel they should be praised for turning up every morning, my view is that managers are sometimes reluctant to give praise because they’ve had experiences of being praised themselves in ways that, frankly, haven’t motivated them at all.

And, of course, they’re not over keen on having the same effect on their staff.

It’s actually quite easy to deliver praise badly – praise that is seen as patronising or manipulative by the recipient. But done well, it’s dynamite.

Here are five ways to do it well.

1. Prepare the praise

It’s interesting that many of the managers I know will spend literally hours preparing to give criticism, but only a matter of minutes (if at all) preparing to give praise.

The result? A passing comment (literally) on the lines of ‘nice job Doug, keep it up.’

Say what? Which job? The whole job? Keep what up? Not only is this type of praise confusing but, by and large, it’s not wildly motivating. Top tip: spend as much time preparing to give praise as you would to give criticism.

2. Be specific

Describe exactly what you are praising and why. Try the following method:

• When you…
• What happened was…
• And the result is…

For example:

“When I showed the client the research you had done on their business she said she was really impressed by the insights you had provided. The result is she wants us to make a proposal for a further piece of business. That’s a really good outcome for us so thank you and well done.”

3. Show genuine interest

Ask questions to better understand what the staff member did. For example, what preparation they did for a successful presentation, how they managed to design such effective visual aids.

Describe how you feel about what they’ve done e.g. pleased, impressed, excited (the hug and kiss might be slightly over doing it).

4. Let the praise stand alone

Don’t be tempted to mix the praise with criticism, for example:

“That was a great presentation. If only your written work was as good.”

Deal with the written work issue at a different time unless, of course, you’re a fan of the tall poppy syndrome.

5. Do it quickly and time it well

Give your praise as soon after the event as possible – it has far more impact.

Be careful not to give the praise at a time when it will appear conditional or a ‘softening up’ process, such as just before you delegate a task or ask for the person to work late.

Public or private?

There’s an old saying ‘praise in public, criticise in private’.

Though I wholeheartedly agree with the latter I’m not totally convinced by the former.

Of course the principle is sound. We want other staff to hear the praise and understand what we are praising because we hope that they will want to emulate those behaviours or achievements. But not everyone is comfortable being singled out in this way and some people find accepting praise in front of their colleagues embarrassing.

My advice would be to deliver the praise in private. You can then ask the staff member if they are happy for you to share the praise with their colleagues – say in the next team meeting – and take it from there.

And a few final tips

If the performance you are praising is exceptional, you will probably want to bring this to the attention of your boss and possibly higher.

If you have a reward system which is credible you may want to utilise this.

In any event, it’s a good idea to follow up your conversation with the staff member in writing (a note will do) and to copy that note to your performance files.

As an example, a client has recently asked me to develop a ‘Leadership Skills’ training programme and to outline a plan for ensuring that the learning from the programme would lead to the delegates improving their leadership behaviours.

This is a summary of the plan I have designed for them:

The Plan

Step 1: Define what ‘Leadership Skills’ means at Agency A.

Step 2: Develop performance standards that describe what leadership skills look like in practice.

Step 3: Assess the delegates’ current skills and competency against the performance standards.

Step 4: Prioritise and define as learning objectives the outcomes from the assessment.

Step 5: Design and deliver the training. Introduce the leadership skills performance standards as part of the training. Deliver the training in three sessions with the delegates implementing the skills learnt in each session as workplace projects.

Step 6: Provide coaching to delegates as they implement the skills in the workplace projects.

Step 7: Deliver a review workshop that includes:

1. The identification of any ongoing learning needs and how these will be met.
2. Communicating how the performance standards will be integrated into the performance review system.

Step 8: Ongoing coaching of the delegates by their line manager and management of performance against the leadership performance standards.

Summary

The key is in anchoring the training and learning to performance standards which are then integrated into the performance review system. This means the application of the learning from the training into the workplace is a ‘must do’ rather than, as is sometimes the case, an optional activity. Supporting the delegates in their practice of the skills is, of course, vital.