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Facilitative management clearly enhances productivity
The biggest grouse of every manager is low work productivity of employees. A manager’s chief responsibility is to get work done through others. His personal success or failure depends on the output of his team. In today’s fast paced and highly competent work environment it is getting increasingly stressful for managers to elicit good performance from the team.
Figuring out the possible reasons behind the poor performance is a tough task but right efforts in this direction will certainly ease the situation a bit for managers. Poor work performance by a few team members has a negative impact on the entire team. Therefore performance problems need to be promptly resolved to keep the team morale high. One would imagine incompetence or lack of interest as possible reasons for this but in reality a majority of performance problems surface on account of vague instructions and poor feedback from the managers.
Training managers in facilitative style of management is considered to be very effective. It helps them enhance productivity of their teams. Managers learn what they can do from their end or how to facilitate performance improvements of employees. Facilitative management is based on simple principles of setting clear goals and giving good feedback. Simply put it helps managers adopt a coaching style towards employees. A manager assumes the role of a coach and clearly defines goals, instructs how a job needs to be carried out and also gives regular feedback for the benefit of the employee.
Clear and continuous communication between the manager and the employees is the lifeline that sustains performance management. Here is some advice on how to use facilitative management as an effective tool to bring about performance improvements:
Identify performance gaps: Talk to employees whose performance is below par or persistently falling below expectations. Make them aware of the existing performance gaps and explain what they need to do to raise their performance standards. Extend your full support and cooperation to help them improve.
Set clear goals: While assigning work to employees be very clear about your expectations. Set precise goals in terms of timelines to be followed and quality standards to be maintained. Offer coaching to fine tune their abilities. Work closely with them especially when assigning new tasks and assist them to pick up the ropes fast.
Provide regular feedback: Give frequent feedback that is instructive in nature. Do not be judgmental or level personal accusations. Feedback should be timely and specific. It is a good policy to start by telling the employee what he is doing right and slowly move to where he can show improvements and what exactly he needs to do to improve.
Give reasons: While putting across your expectations to the employee also elucidate why a certain level of performance standard is essential. Explain the bigger picture. Let him understand how his job is important and in what way it affects the other team members, the department and also the organisation as whole.
Fix accountability: Assign tasks, set clear goals and give guidelines but allow the employee to use his creativity to accomplish the task within the broad boundaries. Make him accountable for his actions. Freedom to use his creativity will motivate the employee to shoulder greater responsibility and do a better job.
Get to the bottom: When performance problems persist find out the root cause for the problem. Talk to the employee about your observations and ask him for an explanation. Listen with an open mind to what the employee has to say. If the reasons turn out to be personal and not job related show empathy and offer support. But be careful not to give an impression that you approve his omissions. Gently advice him that personal problems should not be allowed to take their toll on work performance.
On the other hand if he comes up with any genuine work related problems such as lack of proper skills or other resources provide additional support and guidelines to help him improve.
Have faith: Exhibit faith and trust in your employees. When you express confidence that each one of your team members is capable of good performance they will certainly live up to your expectations.
Never get emotionally charged or air out your disappointment at poor performance. Always have a word of encouragement for your team.
Your success is tied to the performance of your team. So put your experience, expertise and coaching skills to the best use to rein in top performances from your team!
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N. PURNIMA SRIKRISHNA
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