Preventing “Post-Mortem” Performance Management

Face-to-face informal performance discussions are one of the most difficult aspects of talent management, because they often involve discussing employees’ weaknesses or errors. This specific type of feedback can essentially be a “post mortem” of a mistake that was made, and can damage relationships. But organizations have a critical need to respond when a most needed skill is also a weak skill set. So it’s important to get these informal conversations right. We recently hosted a Webinar with Julie White, Ph.D., Senior Managing Partner with Impact Achievement Group. Here are her thoughts:

When a manager or supervisor sits down with an employee to discuss a problem, he should have two goals: to resolve the performance problem and to maintain respect for the individual. This can be a balancing act, especially when the conversation gets heated or the employee feels attacked or undermined. A unique four-step conversation model can dramatically help this process. It involves:

• Describe the specific situation – remember to comment on the behaviour, not the person. Also illustrate the gap between the behaviour and the expected behaviour – be concrete, factual, and specific.
• Effect – clearly explain the effect of the situation. A good rule of thumb is that if you can’t state the bottom-line impact of the behaviour you probably should’t bring it up. But if you can draw a line to a negative organizational outcome you know you’re not just being picky about performance.
• State specific future expectations. This is an important step because it’s where you can get buy-in from your employee. You want to listen to their point of view, understand any relevant causes of the current behaviour, and be very clear on what change is expected. Set them up to succeed.
• Consequences – communicate the consequences if they do not improve or change their behaviour. Consequences must be legitimate and you must have authority and willingness to follow through.

Failure to get improvement or change as a result of a difficult performance discussion will result in “Groundhog Days” – a cycle of similar conversations with little or no improvement. The issue is now spiralling into failure to meet the commitment, and the manager/employee relationship is likely damaged beyond repair.

A good employee performance and talent management solution, one that includes detailed journaling, goal setting and dashboarding, can help this process significantly. It provides the concrete examples and feedback mechanisms needed to make these conversations much more than “post mortems”.