Is Your Team Aligned to the Team Purpose? You May be Surprised!

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If someone asked you to rate from 1-10 how aligned your team is what might you say? If you are like most business leaders, you likely would reply with a relatively high rating and trust that the priorities of your team members mirror your own. The truth is that our optimistic assumptions regarding alignment often do not accurately reflect reality. This is especially true when dealing with virtual teams. This week’s blog will briefly explore this concept and discuss a method that helps leaders do a better job of monitoring their team’s alignment that is particularly helpful for teams working remotely.

Team alignment means being on the same page in terms of your team’s common purpose and highest priorities. Teams with high levels of alignment will have a clear and shared understanding around what is most important right now. This shared understanding will be reflected in team member’s daily tasks and activities. When teams are misaligned members will work in different directions to achieve what they believe is most important. This results in a group of busy individuals rather than a high performing team moving towards a common goal.

Overestimating the Level of Alignment

As business leaders, we often take for granted the concept of team alignment. Unfortunately, the level of team alignment is often difficult for leaders to accurately judge by themselves. Typically, when polled team leaders who have oversight of the team grade their alignment in the range of 90-100%. This estimation tends to be overly optimistic when investigated fully.

This phenomenon of unrealistic optimism was experienced first-hand when working with one of our past clients. The key contact for the client was a business leader that supported multiple teams. When asked to rate the alignment of teams, the client rated it at 90% or better. During the implementation of training on team alignment, team exercises were undertaken to explore the level of alignment before moving on to how to leverage what was perceived to be a strong sense of common understanding. Through the answers and input offered from team members, the level of alignment was determined to be closer to 70%. The key contact for the client was surprised by the questions people asked during the exercises and the lower level of alignment.  In our experience, the actual level of alignment is typically lower than the team leader assumes.  Without this exercise, our client would have continued to maintain an incorrect assumption about where team members placed their highest priorities. While this particular team worked in the same office, the discrepancy in alignment may have been far worse had they been working remotely because there would be fer cues to suggest misalignment.

Alignment is More Important when Working Remotely

Issues in team alignment become far more prominent when teams move to a virtual environment. This is because it is harder to monitor and maintain team alignment when working virtually compared to in the same workspace. This is due in part because of the higher levels of spontaneous interactions between the leaders and team members who share a common workspace. Spontaneous interactions can help reveal areas of misalignment and reinforce the key priorities/purpose of the team. It is harder for spontaneous interactions to occur when working remotely. Without these interactions, leaders may take longer to notice that their team members have not been working on what is most essential. This results in wasted time and energy that could have been directed elsewhere.

Take Action to Measure Alignment

To mitigate this, leaders must take steps to actively engage team members to access their level of alignment to the priorities and purpose of the team. Begin by writing down the most important goals, projects of objectives in order of highest to least importance and follow up by scheduling time to independently survey each team member. Confirm team members’ understanding of their priorities and objectives in order of importance. We have assisted clients with an exercise to compare priorities for team members in order to reveal areas in which team members are placing too much attention and areas that require greater focus. The exercise of intentionally comparing priorities between team members is a great way to identify what is required to increase team alignment. By making this a regular part of your management process you will ensure that team members continue to work on the right things.

Key insights

Team alignment is one of the common problems that will develop unnoticed when your teams move to a virtual environment. Without proper alignment, your team members may be busy working from home on the wrong things. Take action today by building a strategy to compare your key priorities to the list of priorities of each team member. For a more in-depth analysis of your team’s alignment as well as other common problems reach out to one of our expert consultants at Virtual Leadership Matters.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Becoming a Virtual Meeting Guru

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It has been one year since many leaders were forced to shift to frequent use of virtual platforms for meetings. It is likely that everyone has at one point this year felt “zoomed out”. Perhaps we have facilitated meetings that made us wonder if attendees were actively paying attention behind their screen or simply scrolling through their email. When poorly run, remote meetings are more susceptible to poor attendance, lower attention span and less efficient discussion than meetings held in person. It is easier for attendees to “check out” of virtual meetings to work on something else while the meeting is happening. It is much harder to “check out” when meeting face-to-face because everyone would see you playing with your phone during the meeting.  Meetings held via virtual platforms are more susceptible to participant disengagement and require more diligence to avoid this pitfall.

Meetings held remotely also have their benefits. Attendees are participating at their workstation as opposed to going to a physical meeting room, and this means that they can easily access relevant documents from their computer during a meeting or move between meetings through a few clicks of a button, saving on valuable workday time. The key to running effective remote meetings is proper planning and organization. This blog will explore our best practices to run effective virtual meetings.

Establish a Clear Purpose for Your Meetings  

The need for establishing a clear purpose for every meeting has always been important.  However, when meetings move to a virtual environment, clarity of purpose is critical. A clear understanding of why participants are coming together will not only help you better plan out your meeting agenda but will also help them better prepare and contribute during the discussion. In our experience, there are three basic types of meeting.  They are categorized according to their end goal. They are:  

  • IS – Information Sharing: The goal of this type of meeting is to educate participants on information relevant to their roles.  The meeting should be set up to ensure that participants are able to ask questions to ensure understanding of the information being conveyed.
  • DI – Discussion Items Requiring Input: This type of meetings provides participants with the opportunity to provide input on a particular topic.  These types of discussions usually precede decision making.  The purpose is to maximize the pool of information that will be used to make a decision. 
  • DM – Decision to be Made: For this type of meeting, participants focus on making a decision. A critical component of success for the decision-making meeting is to have the decision maker(s) in the meeting.  We have encountered countless situations where the meeting organizer told participants that the purpose of the meeting was to make a decision, only to find out at the end of the discussion that the decision maker was not at the meeting.  This often causes significant delays, frustration and re-hashing of the same discussion.

Meetings can focus on one of the three categories or can have different parts that fit different categories (i.e. part of the meeting focuses on Input on an important topic and another part of the meeting involves decision making). During the planning of the meeting, it is important to decide which category each part of your meeting falls under. Knowing the end goal of your meeting will help you identify who should and should not attend.  Also, once you have decided on the type of meeting you are holding, you can communicate this to participants ahead of time so that they understand the focus and expectations of their role in the meeting.

Invite the Right Attendees

After you establish a clear purpose, invite only those people who can meaningfully contribute to, or benefit from, the meeting’s end goal. If the purpose is information sharing, invite only participants that would find the subject matter directly relevant to their role. Aim for all information shared to be relevant to at least 50% of meeting attendees. If the meeting purpose is to come to a decision, make sure that all relevant decision-makers are invited and present before beginning the meeting. For discussion input meetings, you can widen the participation pool beyond decision-makers to those that can provide additional relevant information. Avoid unnecessary participants from attending meetings by asking two questions:

  1. What value does this participant get from the meeting?
  2. What value does this participant give to this meeting?

If there is not a clear answer to both of these two questions, then attending the meeting is likely not the best use of their time and they should not be invited.  Similarly, if there are people who get value from and/or give value to the meeting purpose, they should be included on the invitation list.  Most importantly, if you are the organizer of the meeting, your invitees should know what you expect of them as you think about the answer to the two questions above.

Choose the Right Platform

The communication platform you use for your virtual meeting is another important factor to consider when planning your meetings. The more complex or sensitive the meeting agenda is the richer the communication platform should be. Richer communication platforms incorporate multiple senses (i.e. audio and visual) incorporating more than just words with tone and body language cues. Use platforms that have video capability (i.e., Zoom, MS Teams, WebEx, Google Meet, GoTo Meeting, etc.) for complex/sensitive meetings and leave more routine topics for audio conference calls.  This will be covered in more detail in a future blog on virtual communication tips.

Use Your Meeting Time Wisely

Get the most out of your meeting time by preparing in advance.  Begin by writing out all of your agenda topics and allocate a time range to each (i.e, 5-10 mins). Be mindful of how many agenda items you include as they will often take longer than expected to complete and it is important to end on time.  As part of your planning, assign priority levels to your meeting topics so that you can skip over lower priority items if you find yourself running short on time. Respect the time of your attendees by arriving fully prepared, a few minutes early. If possible, it is beneficial to end the meeting a few minutes before the hour or half-hour to help participants transition to their next commitment or scheduled meeting. Remember the adage – those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Key Insights

Meetings in a virtual environment highlights the need for proper preparation. Begin by establishing a clear purpose for your meeting and communicate this with all attendees. Ensure all your meeting attendees have a clear role to play in the end goal of your meeting. Choose your communication platform based on the nature of the topics and feedback from participants. Organize your agenda items by time and priority level and respect the agreed-upon meeting start/end time. Proper preparation will not only make remote meeting more efficient which will save time in the long run by requiring fewer meetings to achieve the desired end goal.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Effective Communication Strategies for Virtual Teams

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The better a team communicates, the more effectively it can operate and maximize results. This is especially true for remote teams that do not have the ability to communicate in person. There are key adjustments that should be made when managing a team remotely to keep an optimal level of communication. This blog will explore actionable steps team leaders can take today to develop their team communication.

Establish a Rhythm to Your Virtual Meeting Schedule

The first action you can take to enhance team communication is to establish a schedule of agreed-upon times for your remote meetings. Team members working remotely will often have a greater variance in their daily work schedules compared to working in the same physical work environment. As a result, it is unrealistic to expect full attendance from all team members if you regularly hold spontaneous team meetings. By establishing regular meetings well in advance, you will ensure full attendance and engagement from those you manage. At Virtual Leadership Matters, we recommend that managers outline a strategy with respect to the communication platform used for various meetings. When the complexity and emotional sensitivity are high, a video call platform such as Zoom should be used for these meetings.  Having said that, not all meetings need to be on a video platform. Conference calls work very well – particularly for short check-in meetings where participants can access the meeting using a phone as opposed to need to be at a computer.

Establish Structure to Meetings

Once a schedule is established, structure your meetings in a way that makes the best use of everyone’s time. When including the whole team, ensure that the purpose of your team meeting is to communicate with the whole team and not just one or two team members at a time. Prepare for your meetings ahead of time by creating a meeting agenda that is relevant to everyone attending. If a team member feels that the meeting material is not relevant to them, they will often lose interest and place their attention on other tasks or may begin “multi-tasking” in the background. This can result in participants missing important information when the meeting agenda returns to a topic of relevance to them. Running meetings where attendees are not truly present or engaged is a poor use of time and energy. As a rule of thumb seek to make all material discussed relevant to at least 50% of attendees for any given topic.

 Prioritize Team Purpose

Team purpose is a topic we recommend including in every virtual team meeting. Team purpose outlines the overarching objective that team members share and that directs their efforts. Without a clear understanding of purpose, the efforts of team members may be dispersed in different directions and may result in poor team performance. Clarity around purpose is one of the first things to devolve when a team begins working remotely. This is in part because managers will likely have fewer interactions with team members throughout the day. It is impossible to “manage by walking around” when leading a virtual team, so team purpose must be continually communicated during scheduled team meetings. Our previous blog offers a more in-depth look into purpose HERE .

Creating Norms for Communication

Another tip for increasing the effectiveness of team communications is to establish communication norms for team members to follow while working from home. A great way to start this process is to introduce an email charter for your team. An email charter outlines best practices for email correspondence between team members. Here are a few potential items to include in your team’s charter:

  • Constructing clear email subject lines
  • Reduce the number of “CC’s” by only including recipients that are absolutely necessary
  • Eliminate responses that lack new content that adds value
  • Avoid using “reply all” unless all recipients have an action as a result of the communication  
  • Schedule blocks of time for your emails and disconnect for periods of uninterrupted work.

Involve your team members in the development of this charter for additional ideas and come to mutual agreement on the guidelines. Lead by example in your email correspondence and recommunicate these expectations on occasion during team meetings.

You should also set expectations around when to use other communication platforms. Team members will come to you with many topics, some mundane and others complex. As mentioned earlier, we recommend using more engaging channels such as video or audio calls when discussing complex/sensitive topics and leave email for more mundane matters. Use your judgment and input from team members to find what works best and make changes when you feel that team members may be “burnt out” on the use of one particular platform. 

You may also consider setting communication norms based on the ideal timing that enables the recipient to focus on the communication. An email or call may be better received and processed by the recipient at 9 am compared to 5 pm. Hold a discussion with team members to identify periods in which they are unable to take a call or read an email. After you have a good sense of the team’s work schedules look for optimal times that are best to send and receive emails, calls, etc. This information will impact your decisions on the rhythm of the meeting scheduled discussed earlier.

Lastly, identify an urgent communication platform to use when you need to connect to someone ASAP. We recommend avoiding the use of email as the platform for urgent messages for two reasons. First, emails are not necessarily continuously monitored and there is a risk of greater delays in response time. Setting up a system that expects team members to continuously monitor emails can have a significant negative impact on personal productivity because individuals are constantly distracted by emails. Secondly, a team member’s email inbox likely has more messages than other communication channels (i.e. phone) making it more difficult to find the really urgent messages amongst all of the unread messages.  It is like throwing a needle into a haystack and expecting people to see it right away. Have a discussion with team members to find the channel that makes the most sense (i.e. phone, text, internal messaging, etc.) and commit to answering all communication from that platform as quickly as possible.

Key insights

Maintaining team communication is an essential task for team leaders managing teams that work remotely. To develop remote team communication, start by setting regular meeting times that work for all schedules. Cover only material that is relevant to attendees and include team purpose as one of your high-priority topics for every agenda. Set communication standards for sending emails and pick another platform for more urgent/complex topics. Involve team members in discussion throughout this process and use feedback to make adjustments where necessary.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Managing Stress While Working Remotely

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Stress is something we have all experienced in varying degrees and forms. It can manifest itself as a feeling/emotion or as physical tension in our body. It may be triggered by an event at work or simply a thought that leaves you feeling nervous for the rest of the afternoon. Stress can be positive in short bursts and push us to accomplish our goals and meet deadlines. However, constant stress can lead to burnout at work and negatively impact our long-term health. This blog will highlight ways we can best manage our levels of stress while working remotely from home.

Expectations Versus Reality

In many cases, business professionals experience heightened levels of stress during transitions between working in the office and working remotely. This stress is often triggered by the newly discovered gap between the reality of working from home and the expectations we place on ourselves and colleagues.  The wider the gap is between reality and expectations, the greater your level of stress will be.

For example, an employee has recently transitioned from working in the office to working full-time from home. Both the employee and manager expect the same level of effort and output while working from home as they did in the office. While working remotely the employee experiences changes in their routine that represent their new reality.  There can be distractions in the form of interruptions from family members, an ongoing tug to do household duties while at home, difficulties in getting a hold of people you would normally connect with spontaneously and an increased level of email coming into the in-box. Because of this, the employee’s ability to focus and remain productive may diminish.  As time goes on the employee’s level of stress may continue to rise, further harming their ability to perform.

This example illustrates a common scenario of how stress can be triggered while working remotely. The reality of the employee’s situation changed when they moved to a new working environment. Applying the same expectations resulted in a wider gap and lead to an unproductive level of stress. We can rectify this by making changes to our working environment or adjusting our expectations.

Narrowing the Gap

Firstly, we can narrow the gap by adjusting our expectations to our new working environment. The employee and manager should revisit their expectations regarding work schedules, communication and how to stay in touch while respecting the fact that working from home may require some time shifting. For example, perhaps the expectations surrounding the employee’s daily work schedule can be reshaped to better fit the employee’s assessment of the best times for them to work productively from home. This may mean spending some time with family during the day and shifting the “work time” to early morning or evening to accommodate the reality of the situation and to acknowledge that the employee likely has the best answer regarding an at-home work schedule that will maximize their productivity.  For Managers, it’s not about changing overall expectations regarding performance and achievement of outcomes, it is about potentially changing expectations regarding how the outcomes are achieved.  The objective is to approach our new situation in the most resourceful way.

The gap between reality and expectations can also be narrowed by striving to create a better working environment at home. The employee might ask to buy or borrow additional equipment that is readily accessible at the office, that they do not have access to from home. Next, they could also set up their dedicated workspace in a place of the house that is isolated from noise and distractions.  Thirdly, employees can communicate with their family members to establish periods of uninterrupted time for work and schedule quality family time outside of these periods. Once again scheduling changes should be communicated with the manager to establish clear expectations.

Physical Exercise

There are many additional ways to manage stress.  Stress influences our physiology in the form of hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. While these hormones play legitimate roles in your body’s function, they can be harmful when maintained at high levels over long periods. One way we can lower our levels of cortisol and raise our mood is through physical exercise. Schedule times for physical exercise throughout your day. Aim for at least 10 mins two or three times a day and choose a method of exercise you genuinely enjoy.

Mindfulness

Another approach we can take towards managing stress is to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being actively aware of one’s thoughts, emotions and body sensations occurring in the present moment. While practicing mindfulness you will often enter a state of greater calmness and relaxation. A simple way you can practise mindfulness is to focus on your breathing. Sit comfortably, close your eyes and focus your awareness on the rhythm of your breathing. Practicing mindfulness acts as a great “reset” during a hectic day.

Mindset: Focus on What you Can Control

We often tend to worry and stress over things in life that we have no control over. When we do this, we can unwittingly impact our mood with negative thoughts and waste mental capital worrying about what may or may not happen. The truth is that no amount of worrying will ever affect something we cannot control. Instead, focus your energy on what you can impact and seek to make a positive change there. The Serenity prayer accurately depicts this mindset:

God grant me the

Serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can; and

Wisdom to know the difference.

When we shift to this mindset, we can let go of unnecessary stress in our lives and invest more of ourselves into areas that matter.

Key Insights

Stress is a dynamic force that we must all manage, especially while working remotely. Analyze the gap between your expectations and the realities of working from home. If you judge that your stress level is too high, then narrow this gap by adjusting your expectations or improving your working conditions. Schedule in time for exercise and mindfulness to lower your cortisol and raise your mood. Focus on what you can control and let go of worrying over what you cannot. When we learn to manage stress, it begins working for us rather than against us as we move towards our goals.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Building Relationships in Virtual Environments

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Building healthy and productive relationships with co-workers is an essential aspect of managing employee performance. Nurturing a better professional relationship will make it easier to manage people remotely and achieve desired outcomes. The landscape of developing these relationships has changed as more employees continue to work remotely. In this blog we will discuss the key differences between building relationships remotely versus in person. Next, we will explore actionable steps you can use today to better develop your professional relationships with your employees working from home.

Building Relationships In-Person vs Remotely

Let us begin by discussing the differences between building relationships with employees remotely versus in person at the office. The first difference is the regular occurrence of spontaneous encounters between colleagues that work in the same office building. This can occur while walking past each other in the hallway, meeting in common areas such as the lunchroom or simply dropping by a colleague’s office for a quick word. These mini-interactions compound overtime and progressively help develop interpersonal relationships between coworkers. These spontaneous interactions are more difficult or not possible when working remotely.  As a result, employees may feel less connected to their remote team, their boss or their company when working from home.

Another difference that impacts building relationships remotely versus in person is scheduling. Colleagues have a more common schedule when working in the same building compared to working separately from home. This is because working from home offers more flexibility and autonomy over how employees go about their workday. For example, a parent working full time in the office will schedule activities with their family later in the evening when they come back from work. However, when working from home they may choose to schedule some quality time with their family during the day and work later in the evening. The disparity between work schedules in a remote team can hinder communication. You may call a colleague only to go to voice mail because they have adjusted their lunch or discover multiple emails that arrive in the morning because a co-worker was working later in the evening.  To mitigate these challenges, managers would be better served to set up a schedule with predetermined times to check in with their employees.

Connecting with Employee’s Remotely

A check-in can begin by discussing with your employee what a successful week looks like while working from home. Once this outline of the week is created, identify times throughout the week for each check-in. Include your employees in the process of setting these meetings to accommodate a degree of autonomy for the employee’s scheduling strategy and to avoid any differences in your schedules. These check-ins can be as brief as 10-15 minutes while still providing enough time to address key issues and build a professional relationship.

The next step is to structure these scheduled interactions in a way that builds the relationship and helps employees succeed. One common mistake some managers make is to focus solely on verifying that assigned tasks have been completed. Establishing accountability is important, however it may not contribute very much to building the relationship. Checking up on employees too frequently can be taken as a sign of mistrust by those you manage. As a result, your relationship may actually weaken over time.  The difference can be as simple as focusing on checking in as opposed to checking up.

Check-ins go beyond simply having employees account for their activities during the time since you last spoke to them. It is more important to ensure they are achieving outcomes as opposed to keeping busy.  Building a strong relationship will build commitment to the desired expectations and outcomes. When you check-in, connect with the intention of building the relationship rather than just demanding accountability. During check-ins, go beyond work topics and inquire into other areas. This might involve asking about their family, their hobbies outside of work or something as simple as their favourite sports team. Inquire into what is happening for them on a personal level rather than what they have been doing for you as your subordinate. 

Check-ins should also include finding ways to help your employee succeed. Deliberately inquire into what obstacles your employees are currently facing in their assigned work and explore possible solutions together. Additionally, seek to discover tasks/areas of work your employee has an innate interest in. Look for opportunities to assign work that they naturally find more interesting. Doing so will often increase the employee’s enjoyment and productivity.  

This approach was used successfully by one of our clients and resulted in a 50% increase in the output of two employees. Our client worked in a financial services company and was managing two employees that worked remotely. After some discussion regarding the value of identifying each employee’s interests in the work they do, the manager connected virtually with the employees to explore their level of interest in their assigned work.  Our client soon discovered that each employee had an innate interest in the other’s tasks. By simply swapping the roles and tasks between the two employees, output was dramatically increased. This change was only possible after the manager made a deliberate effort to listen to their employees and discover opportunities to help them succeed.

Key Insights

Investing in building relationships with your employees will not only improve your ability to manage remotely but also increase the output of your employees. Managing in a virtual environment does not allow for spontaneous interactions so it is the responsibility of the manager to set deliberate times to connect their employees. Check-in on how your employees are doing, rather than just what tasks they have completed. Discover their interests and look for opportunities to assign roles and tasks in accordance with their interests where possible. It is helpful to approach each conversation with the goal of being “soft on style” without being “soft on expectations”.  Frequent check-ins will build over time and help develop productive professional relationships.

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Managing Employee Performance – Mindset & Ownership

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This blog is a continuation of the topic of “Managing Employee Performance Remotely”. This blog will explore the question of “who owns the management of employee performance” in an organization. It will also explore how this drives the mindset required to be more effective at the management of employee performance in today’s “new normal”.

Ownership of Employee Performance Management

Throughout my career, I’ve had many conversations with managers about who owns the management of employee performance. I can recall a specific conversation I had with the Vice President in a division where worked. I was the senior HR leader and had been recently promoted to the role. Within the first week, one of the Vice-Presidents, who was a fellow member of the executive team, dropped into my office to tell me how happy he was that I was there.  He wanted me to make sure that all his managers completed and submitted their forms from the annual performance review meeting.

The look on his face was priceless when I told him that the management of employee performance was not my responsibility. Rather, it was his. I suggested that he was responsible for ensuring that every employee in his department received feedback.  It was also his responsibility to ensure that the managers reporting to him who had employees reporting to them, were also responsible for having ongoing dialogue and completing an annual review with their direct reports.

Of course, my remarks were followed by an assurance that I was happy to help support him and his staff in any way I could in the achievement of fulfilling their responsibility to assess the performance of the employees who reported to them. This conversation ended with his assertion that I was responsible for making sure that the forms were collected and that the interviews took place. The Vice President then left my office so that he could speak to the head of the division to straighten things out.

The Manager Who the Employee Reports to Owns Performance Management

My suspicions are that the conversation he had with the head of the division surprised him. I had already had a conversation with the head of the division regarding who owns performance management to confirm that he agreed with the idea that ownership of employee performance management belongs to the managers who the employees report to. He explained to the Vice President that what I had told him was correct. The Vice President returned to my office and asked “what do I do now?”

We had a really good conversation about the role of human resources management and how they are responsible for owning the administration of a performance process and for helping managers with performance management by coaching them on how to have good conversations with the employees regarding their performance.

My intention was to land a key message which is that people who manage the performance of others own the relationship between the manager and the employee. They are responsible for helping the employee succeed. It would be a mistake for the human resources practitioner to try to take over ownership of that relationship and the responsibility for making it work. Certainly, there is a responsibility for the HR practitioner to train and/or coach managers to assist them with the management of those relationships. However, the manager is responsible for making the relationship work and providing ongoing feedback to the employee.

More Important Than Ever When Managing Remotely

Owning the management of employee performance is especially important when employees work at a distance. The process and conversations involved in managing the performance of remote workers present unique challenges and the person that the employees report to is best positioned for overcoming these added barriers.

When both parties work in the same workspace, it is easier a manager to observe an employee’s performance and initiate a conversation.  These in-person conversations are a great way to build employee engagement and ongoing meaningful dialogue. When working remotely, it is more difficult to observe performance.  Managers must observe the measures of performance – the outcomes and achievements resulting from the job description activities of the employee.  In-person conversations must be replaced by other channels of communication such as the phone or a video-based communication platform.  Managing employee performance remotely requires additional diligence and energy to achieve to same level of employee engagement.  Ongoing conversations to get agreement on how to measure success will enable better performance and make it easier for the manager to give feedback relative to expectations that are co-created.

With all of the challenges relating to managing performance remotely, ownership of the process must rest on manager’s shoulders because managers are best positioned for this job. Managing performance goes go hand in hand with managing the relationship between a manager and their employees. Managers often have a clearer sense of the specific needs, challenges and expectations that go along with the roles their employees fill compared to an HR practitioner in the same company. This insight is crucial to understanding and managing performance. As a manager, you can only manage what you know and often the person that knows the most about the employee’s performance is the manager they report to. 

Two Important Mindsets to take away

Managers who understand that they own the relationship with employees who report to them and that they are responsible for helping the employees succeed, are motivated to make the process work because of the benefits they can provide to the employee, to themselves as the manager, and to the whole team and organization. Managers who believe that this is a paper chase often don’t commit to the process because they don’t believe that they own it and/or they don’t see the benefits of doing it well.

As the first blog in the series states, the entire performance management process should be focused on helping employees succeed. So, when it comes to managing employee performance, managers that adopt an “ownership” mindset will be more committed to the process of setting expectations, observing performance/outcomes, providing regular, timely feedback and building the employee’s competence and confidence.

A second important mindset is to embrace the concept that people make their own choices. In order to maximize employee success, you need to tap into intrinsic motivation. This inspires great performance as opposed to relying solely on external motivation. Performance is better when people act out of inspiration versus responding to consequences. As a manager, you want to light the fire inside as opposed to light the fire behind. Employees will achieve greater success where there is commitment as opposed to compliance.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Remotely Managing Employee Performance – It’s Not About the Forms

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This blog is the first in a series focusing on the topic of “Managing Employee Performance Remotely”. This is a hot topic with many organizations because, for many organizations, the process often creates more problems than it solves. Additionally, there are unique challenges to managing employee performance while they work remotely from home.

Research indicates that many organizations have chosen to abandon what they describe as the “annual performance appraisal” process because of the problems it seems to create. This blog will address some of the key challenges faced by organizations today in managing employee performance remotely.

Understand the purpose of managing employee performance

The first step in an organization’s need to better manage employee performance remotely is to understand the purpose of the process. The primary purpose should not be focused on filling out forms or creating a perception that a documented, numerical rating is the main driver of compensation.

With the rise of remote working we see more companies focusing on including additional forms in their performance management process. When the process focuses too heavily on the completion of forms, it becomes a paper chase where managers often do not feel responsible or accountable for the process and the potential value it can bring. No matter how many additional teleworking forms your employees fill out, this alone will never be enough to effectively manage their performance.

Other companies incorrectly focus their process on compensation. This approach often devolves into a focus on the “annual performance appraisal” meeting. This is where managers and employees seem to debate a performance rating because it is so closely connected to how much of a pay increase an employee will receive. Even the language of describing the annual meeting as a “performance appraisal” is problematic because managers should not be “appraising” performance on an annual basis. They should be appraising performance on an ongoing basis – every day or at least every week. To get the most value out of a performance management process, organizations need to ensure that it’s not about the forms, it’s about the conversations that help an employee succeed.

Employee Success

The entire performance management process should be focused on helping employees succeed. The definition of employee success combines the achievement of the organization’s expectations that have been communicated to them as well as the achievement of the goals and expectations that employees have set for themselves. It is important to note that documentation of performance is important and there is nothing wrong with connecting pay with performance. Having said that, the key is to focus on conversations that help success.

The documentation and compensation are by-products of quality conversations and quality performance assessments as opposed to being the main focus. A key opportunity for many organizations is to shift the internal mindset and the focus of the system and language relating to managing employee performance. For some organizations, the first step in shifting the mindset may be as simple as changing their language from “annual performance appraisals” to “annual performance reviews”. This ensures that managers understand that feedback is an ongoing process and the annual meeting is a review – sort of like a highlight reel – that focuses on performance feedback that has already been shared with the employee.

These review meetings can take place more frequently than once a year, however, the purpose is still to review the collective dialogue that is taken place during the performance review period.

It’s Not About the Forms

If an organization focuses its attention on equipping managers to engage in regular dialogue with employees, they will be much more likely to achieve the objective of helping employees succeed. In-person dialogue is the ideal method to promote employee engagement during conversation. This of course may not be possible when your employee works from home. A Hierarchy of communication methods based on levels of engagement is shown below.

Utilize live video platforms such as zoom (with all cameras on) to achieve higher engagement during conversations with your employees working from home. Leave phone calls and emails for communications that do not require meaningful dialogue. By focusing on regular dialogue, the organization will reinforce that the process is not about the forms.

The forms that organizations use as part of their employee performance management process should assist the manager in capturing an overview of the ongoing performance feedback discussions that the manager has had with the employee. These discussions will focus on the employee achieving their full potential by offering reinforcement of desired behaviours and constructive analysis of what needs to be corrected. The forms can offer a process for capturing performance feedback throughout the year to avoid issues such as recency bias. The forms can also be used to hold managers accountable for their performance assessments to reduce or eliminate other forms of rater bias.

Once the organization has embraced that the purpose of managing employee performance is to help employees succeed in meeting their accountabilities, the execution of the process will improve. Subsequent blogs will address each of the component parts of an effective program for managing employee performance.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

Maximizing Personal Productivity – Staying Ahead of the Curve and Shifting the Time Management Mindset

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Does it seem like you need to constantly check your smart phone and you feel overwhelmed by too many emails, too many texts, too many phone calls, too many interruptions and the feeling of not having enough time? Then you need to invest a few minutes of time to find out about “Maximizing Personal Productivity – How to Stay Ahead of the Curve”.  This blog will introduce some simple truths that will help you manage your workload more effectively and spend more time on the things that will maximize your productivity.

Maximizing Personal Productivity starts by exploring the mindset and the process required to take control of how you spend your time in order to achieve the goals you really want and need to achieve.

Time Management: Time is a Fixed Resource

Mindset, can be defined as “a set of beliefs or attitudes that a person holds”.  For decades the concept of personal productivity has been primarily labelled “time management”.  This has led people to think of managing time as a resource in the same way you would manage other resources like finances.  The flaw in this comparison is that time is a fixed resource.  Money is not.  Financial management can involve borrowing extra money to spend now or saving money to spend later. There may be times when you have absolutely no money and no capacity to immediately get any.  Time on that other hand is not a resource to be managed in the same way finances are.  There is always time – it’s just that it is a fixed amount every day, and you have to spend it. 

There is No Such Thing as “I Don’t Have Time”

Let me give you an example of how the mindset issue comes into play with leaders and managers who have very challenging workloads. When questioned by a boss or colleague why they didn’t do something that the other person expected them to do, the answer is often “I didn’t have time”.  This answer seems to somehow suggest that the problem is external to the person and is due to a lack of a resource.  If you don’t have any money, then you can use that as an excuse for not spending.  It is a lack of resource issue.  With time, you have 24 hours every day.  There is no such thing as “I didn’t have time”.   The reality is that you didn’t choose to take the time for that task.

“I decided to take time do something other than…”

Think of it this way, if your spouse asks you to pick up some things from the grocery store on your way home from work and you arrive home empty handed, it seems easier to say “I didn’t have time to go to the store”.  The more truthful answer is “I decided to take time do something other than go to the store”.  Although that answer could have you sleeping on the couch, it is really what has happened.  Now, if the reason that you didn’t decide to take time to go to the store was that you needed to complete a report for the CEO where you work, that – if not completed – could change the trajectory of your career, you may have an easier time explaining your choice to your spouse.

How You Spend Your Time is a Choice

The point in all of this is that how you spend your time is a choice.  If you want to maximize your personal productivity, you need to adopt a mindset that it’s all about how you choose to spend a fixed resource. It’s your choice. 

When I present this scenario to clients, it often results in a response such as “my boss tells me what to do and I don’t really have any choice. I have to work at least 10 hours a day to get it all done.”  What I find is that when we explore decision-making process for spending time, the client has more discretion than they think.  There is always room for improvement.  However, in some cases the client really has taken on a job that has a volume of work that is so onerous that they feel they can’t do other things that are important to them.  If you find yourself in a situation like this, you need to recognize that the choice to stay in that kind job is ultimately what needs to be evaluated. It’s a choice.  Sometimes our big decisions lead to feeling like we have no control over the little decisions.

Develop this Mindset to Make the Best Choices

In summary, developing the mindset of “how I spend my time is a choice” leads to the opportunity to employ a process and strategy for making the best choices possible with respect to how you spend your time.  This will enable you to manage your workload more effectively and spend more time on the things you want to spend time on.

Once you change your mindset, you will be able to follow a simple (not necessarily easy) process to master the decisions you make regarding your workflow and how you spend you time to Maximize Personal Productivity.   Check out our webpage Maximizing Personal Productivity and sign up for the two-session virtual training program on “Maximizing Your Personal Productivity” that will give you the tools to achieve the goals that are most important to you.

As always, I welcome your feedback. You can connect with me via email or telephone or leave a comment right here on the site.

Until next time,

Dave

The Author

David Town, CHRL, ACC, is a facilitator and coach of leadership and management principles that enable individuals and organizations to build greater leadership competency, resulting in higher performance and higher employee engagement. David has a particular focus on effective leadership of virtual teams. David is a member of the Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA), the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is Co-Founder and Principal of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.

The Two sides of Remote Working

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The Desire to Work Remotely

Most of us are six months into social distancing and the remote working that goes with it.  Don’t let the working from home dishearten you, there are many benefits, which is why so many workers have adapted to it since the arrival of COVID-19.   A study by Zapier found that 74% of people would be willing to quit their job to work remotely and another study by Buffer found that 98% of remote workers would like to continue doing so, at least some of the time, for the rest of their career.  Accordingly, 97% would recommend remote working to others and up to 70% were happy with the amount of time they worked remotely.

The Benefits of Working Remotely

The most cited reasons for satisfaction for remote workers included the ability to have a flexible schedule (32%), flexibility to work from anywhere (26%), not having to commute (21%).  And, employers have referenced a range of benefits they are keen on too; increased employee engagement, boosted organizational efficiency, improved organizational flexibility, ability to hire from a wider talent pool,  more resiliency in the face of issues that can compromise on-site working (natural disasters or illnesses), decreased commutes which adds up to lower stress and transportation costs and in some cases improved employee productivity.  A study by Stanford found that employees are far more productive when working from home than when working from the office.  All summed up these benefits certainly can make employers and employees happier.

The Drawbacks of Working Remotely

For the reasons listed above there may be a strong preference for remote work above and beyond the obvious safety fundamentals associated with COVID-19.  However, there is another side to it with drawbacks that need to be considered.

  • Less social interaction. Workers have less social interaction with their coworkers, which is why it is important to keep them engaged. Introverts may prefer the social distance, but a lack of social interaction can lead to other problems
  • Decreased oversight. Managing remote workers is certainly possible, and some businesses have done very well operating entirely remotely. However, since workers are not physically located in the same place, managers must attempt to focus on outcome-based performance management as opposed to activity checking.  This is a whole different management style to assume.
  • Decreased ability to concentrate. When working from home, family members or pets can often prove distracting. 
  • Increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Working alone, instead of in an office with others, can quickly transform feelings of solitude into feelings of isolation and loneliness which has an  emotional impact.

Addressing the Drawbacks of Working Remotely

Fortunately, most of the drawbacks covered here can be remedied with the right approach.  For example…

To combat social isolation, workers can connect frequently with others via phone or visual technologies.

Establishing healthy and creating a dedicated home workspace with acceptable ergonomics can help block out distractions

Clearly, remote working is not going to be easy to sustain for all organizations and it is not going away anytime soon.  With the right leadership approach and strategy, employees and organizations can both realize significant gains from a remote working, a new fundamental in the times we are in.  Virtual Leadership Matters Inc. helps clients with this new reality everyday.

The Author

David Smith, BComm, CMC, ACC, RPM has over 30 years of experience as an organizational leader and a decade as certified executive coach, facilitator and management consultant. He has served as a corporate executive (CEO), business owner and entrepreneur in multiple start-ups in different industries including one of Canada’s ‘50 Best Managed Companies’ and is Co-Founder of Virtual Leadership Matters Inc.