Managng Performance can be emotional whether we are aware of it or not.  In the following article, I discuss how emotional intelligence is essential in the most frequent performance management scenarios.  I originally wrote this as a guest blog post for Kapta Systems, a leading performance management system developer.   I was and am heartened there are system developers out there who recognise the importance of developing people to make a performance system work. 

One of the most important but underrated skills leaders and managers need to be able to manage performance well is emotional intelligence.  If you are predominately a thinking leader then you may well be sceptical, but please bear with me. 

Three categories of performance management

If you are like most organisations the hierarchy of performance management falls into 3 broad categories:

People who:

a)      Underperform

b)      Perform averagely/competently

c)      Perform over and above requirements

A number of organisations give more focus to under-performance and over-performance.  Why?  Because unchecked under-performance permeates the rest of the organisation and multiplies as it impacts on every member of the team.  Over-performance cries out to be recognised.  Quite often organisations depend on and excel because of star performers, and with a mixture of gratitude and desire to keep performance at that level, reward systems are introduced.

The Employment Practices report by Xperthr which can be found here shows for nearly 70% of people surveyed, action for poor performance was taken for less than 5% of employees.   Although I don’t particularly subscribe to bell curve comparisons, some latest models advocate average rates of over-performance equate to some 16% of total workforce.  If you add both together then you are talking about 21% of your employees.   If you do the maths, there is a possibility that up to 79% of your employees are average or competent performers.

So yes, the figures are fairly subjective, but my guess is unless you are a top performer in your industry it’s likely that the majority of your people fall under the “average or competent performance” criteria.

As a performance manager you have distinct functions for each category of performer.  And you need to performance manage all of your people, not just extreme performers.   You will be more effective in achieving results if you use emotional intelligence techniques to enhance your management of each category.

Under-performance and emotional intelligence

Your aim is to either get your employee to perform to standard or to leave the organisation.  Whilst being very clear about your expectations in performing to standard; in order to avoid conflict and be effective, you need to be able to display at least two emotional skills:

a)  Detachment from the outcome.  In order to give your employee the best chance, you need to distance yourself from pre-empting the result.  If you do this, your employee will be able to self-select whether they are able to raise their game, or they will voluntarily leave as they know themselves they are in the wrong job.

b)  Put aside your feelings.  Quite often, poor performers cause you headaches and it’s common to assume an attitude about them.  Or conversely you worry about the consequences for them and this inhibits being assertive.  It is understandable, because under-performers increase stress levels, and utilise effort which could be directed elsewhere.  The majority of people who under-perform are just as horrified about the situation as you.  By putting aside your feelings and being impersonal and practical, you are in a position to listen and make sound win/win decisions.

Average performance and emotional intelligence

Managing is a stressful business and you have a multitude of tasks and issues to deal with; many decisions to make, planning to be done, well you don’t need me to tell you how busy it is.  The problem is, the majority of your people who don’t cause you problems, and get the work done are working in their comfort zone and it’s hard to find the time to raise the bar for them.  Your main task for this category is to use their talent, time and goodwill to drive up performance.   You can do this in a number of ways, but setting stretching objectives designed to drive up pockets of performance across the board is the key.  The EI skills needed to do this are:

a)  Put aside your limiting beliefs about your employees.  The biggest mistake is holding the belief that people have reached a limit of capability and capacity.  Often leaders make assumptions that people can’t or won’t do better.   But more often than not, if you genuinely believe in someone, and give them the right encouragement and support, they will rise to the challenge.

b)   Be patient about results.  We are creatures of habits.  When you raise expectations of your people, then it will take them a little while to change the way they have always done things.  If you are patient and encouraging and restate your belief in their ability to do better they will eventually get there and your business will benefit from all of that renewed effort.

Over-performance and emotional intelligence

I don’t know about you, but I have often nearly been on my knees with gratitude when self-starters have driven through tricky situations, or taken initiative and made my life easier, gotten great results and done a great job.  Given the choice wouldn’t we all like to have these people in our midst?  But while you need to hold the vibe of gratitude you need to remember your function for these people, and in this situation it is two-fold.  You need to reward great performance and you need to help these great performers get where they need to be. Hopefully that will be in a career in your company, but if it isn’t you still need to help them.  In order to achieve this effectively there are two attitudes you must hold and it takes some emotional maturity to achieve:

a)  Letting go.  Your star performers will more than likely move on.  One of the most emotionally intelligent stances you can achieve is recognising when someone you manage will likely progress their career further than yours.  Even trickier is realising that your star performer will move onto another business.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of limiting the help you give, or the development you make available to star performers, because they may leave taking all your investment with them.  But investment is never lost.  They will appreciate and give you accolades for the helping hand they received and your reputation as an employer of choice will grow.

b)  Understand each has their own path and guidance to follow.  I remember losing a star performer and thinking they were making a big mistake.  I also thought they were leaving for the wrong reasons.  I would like to say I put my EI head on and gave them my blessing to leave, but I didn’t. I told them I thought they were making a mistake.  Did they change their mind? No.  They left and although a rocky road; they went on to even bigger and better things and leveraged change they might not have been able to had they stayed working for my company.  Respecting others’ own choices is key to great performance management, and in the long run your company will benefit, because your employees will know you have their best interests at heart.

If you are interested in finding more emotional intelligence tips, then why not download my free E-book. –The 6 Secrets to Great Emotional Intelligence – For Inspirational Leaders and Managers.  Alternatively visit my website www.peoplediscovery.co.uk to find out more.

Click here to reach Kapta Systems.