Transforming performance management has RISKS as well as rewards. Some people invest big in coaching skills for little or no return. There is no single answer but there is a strategic approach to rethinking appraisal and performance that will help you get it right.

1. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Transforming your organisation’s
approach to Performance Management
(not tinkering at the edges)
How to get managers to have
regular feedback and coaching
conversations
and
manage performance all year round
by Hedda Bird MBA
Managing Director, 3C
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

2. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Good Performance
Management
stops people
dying
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

3. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Is your Performance Management
fit for purpose?
The intention
• Everyone knows WHAT they
should be doing
• Everyone understands HOW
they should be doing it
• Everyone is held
ACCOUNTABLE
Organisation performance should
be improving
The reality
• Goals out of date/ irrelevant
• Behaviour all over the place
• Engagement dropping
• Productivity stalling
• Performance management
processes divorced from
operations
Impact on organisational
performance hard to discern
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

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What’s going on?
A handful of well-known organisations are making announcements:
•Removing Ratings
•Forgetting Forced Rankings
•Abandoning Appraisals
•Pausing Performance Management
At the same time there is a push for a more fluid approach to deliver
•A feedback and coaching culture
•Managing of performance all year round
•A wider recognition that performance is driven by behaviour as much
as tasks
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

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Implications of these changes
Assumptions
•managers will focus on having
regular feedback and coaching
conversations
•more feedback and coaching will
increase employee engagement
•all employees will take a much
greater responsibility for their own
performance
•more feedback and coaching will
improve organisational performance
However, most research shows…
•Managers don’t ‘notice’ the points at
which to intervene
•They leave intervention in
performance issues until they have
become awkward, challenging or just
plain difficult
•Once it’s difficult, then procrastination
starts
•Even when they do aim for regular 1-
2-1s, these frequently focus on
operational issues and not
performance
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

6. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Not all approaches have been succesful
Winners
• Senior Leaders set a powerful,
motivating context for regular
feedback and coaching
• Leaders and managers at all
levels BELIEVE that frequent
feedback and coaching will
deliver the outcomes they
WANT
Losers
• Big investments in ‘coaching
skills’ are not matched by a
change in role priorities for
managers
• Regular feedback and
coaching are not DESIGNED-
IN to performance
management practice
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

7. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Use Performance Management to
TRANSFORM strategy implementation
Encourage
innovation
Research led
Take risks
Customer experience
Complete package
Service culture
Think ‘lean’
Reduce waste
Focus on cost drivers
Weak decision making
Conflicting priorities
Pet projects
Adapted from ‘The Discipline of Market Leaders’ by Wiersema + Treacy, 1995
Ref: ‘Are Leaders Portable?’, Groysberg et al , HBR 2006
Employee
engagement
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

8. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Case Study Research shows approaches
most likely to deliver success
• Begin with the most senior people
– What do they really need to be different?
– Where do they need/want to take the organisation?
Create the desire for managers to ‘talk performance’ and ‘spread the
word’
• Engage professional and technical ‘experts’ in becoming people managers
through a programme that goes straight to the heart of having great
conversations
Create the light bulb moments - It’s a skill I can learn! I need to learn it
(avoid the pain), I want to learn it (emotional pay-off)!
• Engage all employees through a similar journey…
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

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TRANSFORMATION will win the resources
(tinkering won’t)
• What do your leaders NEED…
– What do they really need to be different?
– Where do they need/want to take the organisation?
• How MUCH do they need it?
• DESIGN Performance Management to deliver this…
– It MAY include dropping objectives, removing ratings, abandoning
annual appraisals…
– Or it may not!
It WILL include your leaders and managers WANTING your
transformed approach
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

10. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Next Steps
– Use the Jumpstart programme, for re-thinking Performance
Management
– Engage senior managers and leaders with the ‘Delivering Strategy
through Performance Management’ workshop
– Secure manager buy-in to a feedback and coaching culture with ‘Carry
on Appraising’ Management Development Workshop
– Engage entire workforce with ‘It’s MY appraisal, it’s MY performance’
Forum Theatre Development Workshops
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©

11. Copyright 3C Associates Ltd | info@3cperform.co.uk | T: +44 (0) 1491 411 544
Talk to us – you are in great company
Turning experts and professionals into great people managers
www.3cperform.co.uk 3C Associates Ltd©