Employee performance can be impacted by a number of factors – skillset, resources, appropriate goals, personal challenges, team dynamics, and more. Managers who simply hire employees, assign them tasks or goals, and maintain minimal communication will struggle to build a team of high-performing employees. Employees, no matter how experienced and committed they are to their job, can struggle to perform to expectations without an engaged manager.
Bill Campbell, a former football coach, Apple board member, Silicon Valley mentor, and business coach who passed away in 2016, has been quoted, “Managers need to be honest, humble and willing to learn.” His motto was that “your title makes you a manager, your people make you a leader.”
Communication with employees should be consistent, frequent and engaging. Managers cannot assume to know how an employee feels or realize that the employee is being impacted in some way until it’s too late and performance is affected. Outside of regular team/project meetings, managers should take the time to check in with employees.
Performance without context is meaningless and can only lead to further frustration and decreased motivation if not addressed early. This is when a manager takes on the role of a coach. The primary job of any manager is to help people be more effective in their job.
When completing employee assessments in the Truvelop app, add comments and context. Context matters, and the more of it you provide in your evaluations, the more informative and useful your data becomes over time. In each evaluation, contextual data on team member performance, attitude, and maintenance can be recorded for future reference.
It is more important, however, for managers to check in with employees. Why are they struggling? What barriers are they facing? Opening up that conversation with questions and offering to help work through solutions fosters a stronger level of trust between the Manager and Team Member, increasing engagement.
Managers can increase communication and coaching moments by using the Spark functionality, recognizing wins big and small, providing encouragement for employees that can boost morale.
Unfortunately, too often managers are never provided any training and struggle to understand their role and how to help team members. With the Truvelop app, managers can use the insights on the Team Member dashboard to help guide management strategies. Additionally, the Proactive Management Cue Cards help managers focus on developmental opportunities with suggested ways to encourage or engage with employees based on performance and evaluation data.
Contact us today to learn more about our modern approach to performance management and development that actually improves the manager and employee relationship. Don’t just take our word for it, see what our Customers have to say.
