Any manager is only as good as they enable their team to be. So, how do you make sure they have the skills required to have open and genuinely useful performance reviews and conversations?
The traditional approach is to send managers on training courses relating to performance appraisals, giving feedback and coaching. Yet while effective feedback and coaching can improve employee performance, the evidence is mixed on whether training courses effect change back in the workplace. They can help, but they don't reliably do so.
From our own research into why this type of training may not work (Leadership OS: The Operating System You Need to Succeed, 2019), we’ve identified four critical gaps in traditional performance review support for managers.
Identifying poor performance is one thing; addressing it is quite another.
1. Identifying and addressing underlying issues
First off, most training solutions focus on building skills. While skills are useful, underlying them can be deeper, personality-based issues. If left unresolved, these problems can stop managers from being able to use the skills you’ve invested in them developing.
The two most common underlying issues are anxiety about the potential for conflict, and a lack of sensitivity or ability to understand others' perspectives. Spotting these is vital to ensure managers can make the most of any skills-building course, and differentiating which issue is at play will influence how you support them.
Dealing with conflict-avoidant managers
If managers are reticent or anxious about raising issues then conflict resolution skills can help. Especially those focused on how to partner with people on problems, or positioning performance feedback as a positive duty of care responsibility.
Dealing with managers who lack sensitivity
Alternatively, if a lack of sensitivity in the manager is the key issue, then feedback and training on better managing their impact on others is needed.
There is almost always an underlying issue of some sort, too – a reason why a manager doesn't already engage in performance conversations that go beyond simple skills. The issues are usually known by HR as well, if not always openly spoken about, because they invariably affect multiple aspects of a manager's functioning.
So, the key here is to ensure these issues are surfaced and addressed.
Managers play some role in their employees' poor performance.
2. Identifying and addressing the managers' role
This one is harder. In the majority of cases, managers play some role in their employees' poor performance.
Take the example of a senior leader I recently worked with. He came to me because he was struggling to get his team to be more proactive and show more initiative. In discussing the issue with both him and his team, however, what became clear is that his natural style was to be directive, controlling, critical, and not accept debate or challenge. In other words, he didn't leave much room for people to show any initiative. This inadvertently undermined any confidence they had about doing so safely.
In such a case, it’s important to help the manager better consider their impact on the team and create the conditions in which their team can perform better.
3. Authorship and accountability
Managers can sometimes become defensive when discussing their potential contribution to a team member’s poor performance. But as they are almost always involved to some degree, addressing it is critical if you want performance reviews to be as effective as possible.
To help your managers think about their role without being defensive use the following technique, which I learned years ago while working with violent criminals and their victims: Distinguish between accountability and authorship.
A criminal is 100% accountable for acting criminally. Full stop, end of story. But many of them have difficult family histories, which undoubtedly contributed to their criminal actions. So, this simple distinction enabled me to work with them on the authorship of their situation – how it came about – without in any way deflecting from accountability for their behaviour.
Likewise, with the victims of crime, it is often useful to help them consider how they may have inadvertently rendered themselves vulnerable to being a victim, without in any way implying they had any accountability.
Applying this same technique to managers will allow you to discuss how they may be inadvertently contributing to the situation, without implying they are accountable for their employee's behaviour.
4. Connecting managers to themselves and employees
Identifying poor performance is one thing; addressing it is quite another. Traditional approaches to supporting managers with this task have invariably seen performance reviews as discrete tasks. They do not factor in broader, underlying issues within managers, or how managers may contribute to an employee's poor performance.
In doing so, these traditional approaches have inadvertently separated the challenge of getting the best from all employees from a key contextual factor affecting employee performance – the nature of their manager. Fundamentally, if you want to reliably deliver value through the training you offer on performance conversations, this needs to change.
