In order to improve performance what, specifically, do your leaders need to be able to do?

In order to improve your business results you will need to improve the performance of your key people. That means a certain amount of targeted training. But, training them to do what, specifically? The development aims for your managers should be to develop them all to be better able to:

1. Set goals and achieve targets consistent with the company’s vision.
2. Set, demonstrate and maintain high personal standards
3. Communicate with accuracy and clarity
4. Plan ahead to PREVENT problems developing
5. Make accurate decisions based on a logical assessment of the facts, ( not gut- feel-guesses)
6. Handle conflict with unhappy customers and suppliers
7. Handle conflict within the team
8. Handle “poor performance” issues
9. Develop self motivation and self confidence
10. Develop high a degree of motivation and confidence in others

Let’s investigate, a little, each one of the above.

1 Set goals and achieve targets consistent with the company’s vision.
Your company has a long range strategy- it’s VISION for the future. In order to achieve that vision, your managers need to break it down into a series of smaller, tighter short range goals. Failure to reduce visions into tangible goals will render the Grand Vision, an unrealizable fantasy.

2 Set, demonstrate and maintain high personal standards
In order to achieve goals, the manager has to set, maintain good standards. And the best way to do that is to be a role model for all the standards required. He (she) should be a living example of the standards expected. Failure to do so will render the management useless because they will not be respected.

3 Communicate with accuracy and clarity
Having a goal is only the first step: the manager must be able to explain WHAT the goal is and WHY it is important. Any ambiguity in the explanation will cause:

Misunderstandings
Errors
Confusion

Therefore, accurate language in both the written and spoken form is essential.

4 Plan ahead to PREVENT problems developing
All goals require a good plan. A goal without a practical plan for its attainment is worthless. Many people don’t plan: they say “I can’t plan here: it is too chaotic!” I say “It is chaotic because you are not operating to a plan”. Your managers must be able to plan ahead to avoid problems next month; next year. Failure to plan will be the cause of panic.

5 Make accurate decisions based on a logical assessment of the facts, ( not, gut- feel-guesses)

Indecision or poor decisions will cost your organization time and money. The reason that some people avoid decisions is because they are afraid of making a wrong decision: And the reason for that is: some do not know HOW to make LOGICAL decisions.

Failure to understand the principles of logic will render the person indecisive and nervous; too slow to react and too reliant on gut feel to make a good decision. Your team should know the laws of logical decision making.

6 Handle conflict with unhappy customers
Not all your customers are happy, all the time. Some are annoyed. So, you need to be able to handle complaints

Quickly
Fairly and
Without too much fuss.

Failure to respond to complaints quickly will cost you more time, money and a loss of reputation. Your managers need to know how to handle complaints.

7 Handle conflict within the team

Conflict can occur within the team: issues of character clashes: they must be handled by the manager;

Properly
According to named principles

Failure to manage conflict will render your team less effective than it might be, because they will spend too much time squabbling amongst themselves instead of providing value to your customers.

8 Your managers need to know how to handle performance issues.

Sometimes people do not do what they should do. And they do some things that they know they should NOT. Your management teams need to know how to tackle poor performance. They cannot ignore it. They cannot go in, with all guns blazing.

They must handle performance issues carefully and according to named principles:

9 Develop self motivation and self confidence
Team leaders and managers are often under immense pressure at work. Consequently some become de motivated, and depressed. They need to know how to stay emotionally strong during tough times. This is mental toughness and durability and can be learned. Failure to learn how to handle pressure and stress will cause the manager to fall ill or lose motivation and drive.

10 Develop a high degree of motivation and confidence in others
Even if the manager can self motivate, he (she) must be able to inspire positive emotions in others. The team is affected by:

The goal
The environment
Their knowledge
How they feel

If they feel dis-spirited, they will not perform well. Therefore the leader must have the ability to lift the spirits of the others in the team.

Summary
In order to improve performance what, specifically, do your leaders need to be able to do? They need to develop the ten skills listed above and put the skills into practice as a daily habit pattern of thought and action.

Corporate performance management improves the capability of a business. It provides three important values to the business. They are information delivery, performance oversight, and performance effectiveness. These values help to understand, manage and improve the business. Corporate performance management system coordinates the performance of managers, staff, customers and suppliers within an integrated environment.

The basic elements of corporate performance management are providing information and strategy planning. CPM can provide the core decision makers direct access to required information. With a clear understanding of the facts of the business, informed decisions can be taken for boosting the performance. Performance oversight signifies an overall view of the business details. CPM provides the required performance oversight to the management which helps in optimizing the business. Performance effectiveness helps business executives as well as decision makers to set clear goals and work towards achieving them. CPM assures the necessary performance effectiveness.

Corporate performance management system combines the management process in a single, interactive and collaborative work space. Scorecards and reports can improve finance, operations and workforce. Web based collaboration and distribution capabilities improve the communication process. Corporate performance management system can reduce planning, forecasting and reporting time through data capture and analysis. It integrates business strategies, business measures and business actions.

Corporate performance management provides accurate financial information about the day-to-day activities of people, equipment and process. It can develop comprehensive plans and customized reports. It helps the organization to maintain profitable inbound and outbound relationship with the customers. CPM can reduce problems associated with reporting financial and operational data.

Corporate performance management finds use in the pharmaceutical and health science sectors. It can be used for clinical performance management and product demand forecasting. In the financial sector, CPM is applied in mortgage banking, incurrence claims and risk reporting. Corporate performance management is important in manufacturing areas. It is important in supply chain planning and manufacturing performance management. CPM application is important in aerospace and defense management. Other important CPM areas are retail performance management, vendor management, police performance management and the public sector.

In Human Resource (HR) and management circles nowadays there is much talk about Strategic Human Resource Management and many expensive books can be seen on the shelves of bookshops. But what exactly is SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Development), what are its key features and how does it differ from traditional human resource management?

SHRM or Strategic human resource management is a branch of Human resource management or HRM. It is a fairly new field, which has emerged out of the parent discipline of human resource management. Much of the early or so called traditional HRM literature treated the notion of strategy superficially, rather as a purely operational matter, the results of which cascade down throughout the organisation. There was a kind of unsaid division of territory between people-centred values of HR and harder business values where corporate strategies really belonged. HR practitioners felt uncomfortable in the war cabinet like atmosphere where corporate strategies were formulated.

Definition of SHRM

Strategic human resource management can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. In an organisation SHRM means accepting and involving the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation and implementation of the company’s strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel.

How SHRM differs from HRM

In the last two decades there has been an increasing awareness that HR functions were like an island unto itself with softer people-centred values far away from the hard world of real business. In order to justify its own existence HR functions had to be seen as more intimately connected with the strategy and day to day running of the business side of the enterprise. Many writers in the late 1980s, started clamoring for a more strategic approach to the management of people than the standard practices of traditional management of people or industrial relations models. Strategic human resource management focuses on human resource programs with long-term objectives. Instead of focusing on internal human resource issues, the focus is on addressing and solving problems that effect people management programs in the long run and often globally. Therefore the primary goal of strategic human resources is to increase employee productivity by focusing on business obstacles that occur outside of human resources. The primary actions of a strategic human resource manager are to identify key HR areas where strategies can be implemented in the long run to improve the overall employee motivation and productivity. Communication between HR and top management of the company is vital as without active participation no cooperation is possible.

Key Features of Strategic Human Resource Management

The key features of SHRM are

There is an explicit linkage between HR policy and practices and overall organizational strategic aims and the organizational environment
There is some organizing schema linking individual HR interventions so that they are mutually supportive
Much of the responsibility for the management of human resources is devolved down the line

Trends in Strategic Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management professionals are increasingly faced with the issues of employee participation, human resource flow, performance management, reward systems and high commitment work systems in the context of globalization. Older solutions and recipes that worked in a local context do not work in an international context. Cross-cultural issues play a major role here. These are some of the major issues that HR professionals and top management involved in SHRM are grappling with in the first decade of the 21st century:

Internationalization of market integration.
Increased competition, which may not be local or even national through free market ideology
Rapid technological change.
New concepts of line and general management.
Constantly changing ownership and resultant corporate climates.
Cross-cultural issues
The economic gravity shifting from ‘developed’ to ‘developing’ countries

SHRM also reflects some of the main contemporary challenges faced by Human Resource Management: Aligning HR with core business strategy, demographic trends on employment and the labour market, integrating soft skills in HRD and finally Knowledge Management.

References

Armstrong, M (ed.) 192a) Strategies for Human Resource Management: A Total Business Approach. London:Kogan Page
Beer, M and Spector,B (eds) (1985) Readings in Human Resource Management. New York: Free Press
Boxall, P (1992) ‘Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication?’ Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.2 No.3 Spring.
Fombrun, C.J., Tichy, N,M, and Devanna, M.A. (1984) Strategic Human Resource Management. New York:Wiley
Mintzberg, H, Quinn, J B, Ghoshal, S (198) The Strategy Process, Prentice Hall.
Truss, C and Gratton, L (1994) ‘Strategic H

Performance objectives have been around forever (think Moses!) but I still meet business owners and managers who are confused about what they are and why they are important. And, clearly, when business owners and managers are confused they are much less likely to utilise performance objectives for improving employee performance, employee satisfaction and business performance. That’s a shame. Here’s my take on the two issues – the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of performance objectives (P.O’s)

What are ‘performance objectives’?

P.O’s are simple written descriptions of what good performance in the job looks like; performance related to the ‘what’ of the job – the quantity, quality and time elements – and to the ‘how’ of the job – the behaviours. The purpose of P.O’s is to ensure that your employees know exactly what they need to do in order for your organisation to meet its goals. P.O’s clearly define what good performance looks like for the employee’s job. The idea is that once you and your employee have agreed what good performance looks like, using P.O’s, then they will meet those objectives. You will, of course, be monitoring and measuring their performance against the objectives, and giving feedback, to ensure that they are meeting those objectives

Why are performance objectives so important?
Research shows that;

Having clear objectives with effective measures improves performance by over 30%. What difference would 10, 20 or even 30% improvement in performance make to your results, your team, your business?
Teams who say that they know what was expected of them are found to be both more productive, more profitable and had higher satisfaction ratings than those who didn’t. P.O’s are the easiest way to help your employees understand what is expected of them
Employees who say they lack any real commitment to their job give one of the key reasons for that lack of commitment as not knowing what was expected of them.

In short, performance objectives improve performance. The performance of the employee and performance of the business. They also improve employee motivation and job satisfaction. And there’s more…

And what about you as the manager?

A couple of key points:

If you get clear with your employees on what you want from them, you’ll get more from your employees of what you need from them. Many business owners and managers seem to think that their employees should just know what they need to do, what’s expected of them. Well maybe they should, but often they don’t
Your employees can’t give you what they don’t know what you want. So much of the frustration I see and hear from employees sounds something like ‘I just want to know what my boss wants from me. Why doesn’t she just tell me?’
When you agree performance objectives with your employees you put in place the ‘foundation stone’ of effective employee management. How can you give your employees the feedback they want and need (and which they tell us they want a lot more of) unless you have objectives? What else would you be giving feedback on if not the employee’s performance against objectives?