Yes, Managers Are Hurting Employee Performance

by Kelly Riggs

Harold S. Geneen, the successful and controversial leader who transformed ITT back in the 60s and 70s, once said, “It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.”

Only performance is reality.

That’s right. You’ve probably heard it said like this: “Talk is cheap.” Get the idea?

Geneen was saying that what counts in business is performance – not promises of performance, not excuses for a lack of performance, and certainly not mediocre performance. It’s the results that matter; what people actually produce in the workplace.

High performance means better work is done, better work being done means more business, more business means more money for both the employees and management. This is why it’s crucial to get hr consultancy if you think your business is currently seeing low performance rates from staff. It will surprise you how simple changes can completely change a business’s dynamic. It’s also important to identify why you’re suffering from poor performance. Using a epmo software to bring together the various departments and activities of a business (including all the various projects) could too, help in the smooth functioning of the business.

The problem is that sub-par performance is often created by MANAGERS. Yes, that is correct. Poor performance is often a result of what the manager does – or, more accurately, does not do.

Sound crazy? Let me show you how.

Two Ways Managers Create Poor Performance

When managers don’t do their jobs well, they create the opportunity for poor performance to rear its ugly head. There are two signs that this has occurred, so you can easily know if a manager is guilty. You will hear one of two things from an employee:

“I didn’t know….”

“I didn’t know how…”

These two major excuses can completely be eliminated from an employee’s vocabulary if a manager does his or her job well.

I didn’t know.
I didn’t know when it was due.
I didn’t know you wanted that.
I didn’t know how many.
I didn’t know who to ask.
I didn’t know that was more important.
I didn’t know the next step.

I didn’t know how.
I didn’t know how to proceed.
I didn’t know how to operate the equipment.
I didn’t know how to input the data.
I didn’t know how to complete the form.
I didn’t know how things work.

These failures represent two very basic issues – communication (“I didn’t know”) or training (“I didn’t know how”). Both items are completely within the manager’s control, and he/she deserves the blame for the performance deficit.

The key is not to assume an employee knows, or knows how. The idea is to make absolutely sure.

First, communicate consistently and clearly. Once is never enough. Create clarity for every single project and responsibility. Start with face-to-face communication; then reinforce by email and plenty of repetition.

Second, train. And test. A good manager never assumes that an employee knows how. He/she trains the employee and then tests for competency. This is not insulting to employees – this is good management. Once you are sure they know how, you can rest assured they can do their jobs – without your direct and constant oversight (which is what you hired them for, I’m fairly certain). The alternative, to assume they know how, is to invite disaster.

Eliminating these excuses will dramatically improve employee performance. Now you know that, and you should know how to address it.

A More Important Problem

All that being said, there is another employee performance issue that – hard to believe – creates even more significant problems for a company. That problem is when a manager fails to respond appropriately to poor employee performance. This is why it is a good idea to use something like a risk management cycle to see where things need to be improved upon, to hopefully avoid a problem in the future.

When an employee (or team member, or associate, or whatever) fails to perform as expected, or agreed, or at the minimum standard, the issue MUST be addressed. Sadly, most managers don’t (or won’t) actually address the issue directly. Instead, they ignore the problem, or in some way justify their own inaction.

This failure ensures that mediocre performance will continue, AND, it creates morale or cultural problems for the rest of the team (I hope this is obvious, but if not, I would be happy to explain).

Of course, the opposite is true as well. When employees do fantastic work and/or exceed expectations, they should be appropriately recognized, encouraged, and rewarded. If that doesn’t happen, it creates a whole different set of cultural problems.

Again, these are problems created by managers. To overcome this, managers should take something like professional development courses regularly throughout their career to ensure that they are meeting the standards required to be a good manager.

So, if “only performance is reality,” why aren’t managers held responsible for poor performance in these areas?

Something to think about.