Management Observation Program Best Practice 1 – Immediate Feedback
Can you remember what you ate for dinner last night? Last week? Neither can many others. How well then will a worker remember the nuances of his or her job performance days or weeks earlier on which feedback is now being provided? Probably not very well.[wcm_restrict plans=”41884, 25542, 25653″]
Like all feedback, that documented as a part of the management observation program has more impact when provided in a timely manner. From experience, providing timely feedback means as soon as possible after the observation is completed and in all cases prior to the end of the work day. This feedback should include reinforcement of desired behaviors as well as identification of areas for performance improvement.
Providing performance feedback long after the performance observation can result in several undesired consequences including:
- enabling the lingering belief that the behavior exhibited was acceptable
- realization of an adverse outcomes resulting from continued poor performance
- transfer of the undesired behavior to co-workers, particularly new employees and trainees
- engendering resistance to later corrective feedback because the employee has come to believe his or her performance was acceptable and memory of behavioral specifics has faded
- diminished management credibility caused by the manager’s errant memory of past events conveyed when providing feedback
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StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 27 – Making the Mission Measurable
StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag posts on the StrategyDriven website.
Episode 27 – Making the Mission Measurable elaborates on Strategic Planning Best Practice 1 – Make the Mission Measurable. This discussion…
- defines what a mission statement is
- explores the characteristics of good mission statements
- identifies the benefits of making the mission statement measurable
- highlights the steps involved in making the mission measurable
Additional Information
Insight to the specific steps needed to identify mission measures are discussed in StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 2 – Make the Mission Measurable.
Final Request…
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Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!
[powerpress]
Business Communications Best Practice 1 – Communicate 7 Times, 7 Different Ways
All too often vital communications go unheard, creating workforce discontent, reducing organizational effectiveness, and alienating clients. Why with today’s advanced communication mechanisms do so many messages go unnoticed? One answer is that people are so overwhelmed with modern society’s messaging that they sometimes don’t recognize the importance of a single announcement; filtering it out as noise. Another reason is that not all people meaningfully receive information in the same way and some important messages are only sent through channels not likely to be received. To overcome both these challenges, managers should consider communicating important messages seven times using seven different media.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]
All communications attempt to elicit a response from the message receiver. Mass communications, however, bombard all individuals and don’t possess the same degree of immediate feedback that benefits one-on-one interactions. One-on-one interactions are personal and elicit the two-way communication that helps ensure understanding of the message sent. But one-on-one communications are inefficient when a message needs to reach large numbers of people. Therefore, leaders must carefully choose the communication mechanisms that will effectively and efficiently reach the intended recipients.
Communication Mechanisms, Their Strengths and Weaknesses
Below is a short list of communications mechanisms and some of their associated strengths and weaknesses. While not all inclusive, this list provides insights that can be used when selecting the proper communication mechanisms for communicating seven times in seven different ways. Upcoming StrategyDriven communications articles will address each of these mechanisms individually.
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Message may not be direct Can become relatively expensive because of prizes
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Table 1: Communication Mechanisms Strengths & Weaknesses
Applicability Note
The best practice of communicating seven times in seven different ways is intended to be applied to principle and philosophy centered communications, such as those associated with communicating the organization’s vision, goals, and values; initiative change impacts; and performance standards and expectations, not to highly targeted directive communications.
Individual focus and attention to any message will decay over time; requiring periodic reinforcing communications. The seven times in seven different ways rule should be used as a part of each individual communications event. Thus, this best practice should be applied to every periodic communication reinforcement burst and not assumed to satisfy the communication effort supporting a given message for all time.
Final Thought
Our list of communication mechanisms focuses on physical message transmission means. The importance of communication by behavioral example such as a leader’s presence at supporting events, body language during communication, and decision-making are at least equally if not more important than any of the physical mechanisms. These behavioral communications will significantly influence the receiver’s perception of messages sent via physical communication mechanisms. Therefore, leaders must take care to ensure their example serves to reinforce their physical messages.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]
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About the Author
Karen K. Juliano is StrategyDriven‘s Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of Communications and Marketing. Prior to joining the StrategyDriven team, she helped produce weekly programming for a Public Access Television station and served as a production assistant in the public affairs office at United States Naval Base, Philadelphia. To read Karen’s complete biography, click here.
Project Management Best Practice 3 – Line Management Project Ownership
Whether creating a new product or service or upgrading an internal process or software application, all projects fundamentally represent a change to the way an organization does business. This change is represented by two components, the technical object being added or altered and the emotional acceptance and implementation of the new technical object by the workforce. While each change component is equally important to the project’s success, it is the later that often poses the most risk of failure. To reduce this risk and thereby increase the project’s likelihood of success requires strong line ownership especially on the part of executives and managers.[wcm_restrict plans=”41091, 25542, 25653″]
Executive and organizational manager project ownership is critical for implementation, adoption, issue resolution, and ongoing performance improvement. Only these leaders possess the organizational authority to drive the project’s change through impactful reinforcement. Unlike the project manager, executives and organizational managers have enduring authority, enabling them to sustain the project’s output over time. Thus, only executives and organizational managers will be perceived by subordinates as credible power brokers able to legitimize the project’s outputs.
How Can Executives and Organizational Managers Assume and Demonstrate Project Ownership?
Executives and organizational managers assume and demonstrate project ownership by behavioral example and through supportive decisions. These decisions often involve commitment of organizational resources including the resource of their time and attention. While not all inclusive, the following list reveals some ways executives and organizational managers assume and demonstrate project ownership:
Ownership Assumption
- Personally sponsor the project
- Providing financial resources to support the project’s execution and implementation
- Direct involvement of the executive or manager and/or their subordinates in the project’s technical object design, design approval, testing, training, and launch activities.
- Note that former employees, retirees, and consultants should not be substituted for personal and subordinate involvement.
- Understanding and implementing needed organizational and individual actions including:
- Providing subordinates with the opportunity to receive project related training
- Implementing staffing and/or role and responsibility adjustments
- Establishing compensatory measures to mitigate project implementation risks
- Formal sign-off that the executive/manager’s organization is ready to implement the project’s output
- Post implementation performance self assessment support
Ownership Demonstration
- Routine public endorsement through personal communications both internal and external to the organization including one-on-one communications with end users
- Participation in project related training
- Kicking-off project related training sessions
- Align the organization’s reward systems (i.e. compensation, bonuses) with the project’s successful implementation
- Reinforcement of the project’s outputs by:
- Publicly published performance goals and supporting KPIs
- In-field observation and feedback given to subordinates
- Incorporation of new performance expectations in subordinate personal performance evaluation goals
- Personal use of the project created technical object
Final Thought…
While executive and organizational manager ownership is critical to the success of every project, it is a key project manager responsibility to help develop and maintain this sense of ownership within the leadership team. This role becomes even more important during periods of leadership transition when incoming executives and organizational managers not involved with the decision to launch the project now need to own the project and its outcomes. During these times, project managers must work diligently to establish the same strong sense of commitment and ownership by these incoming leaders as was exhibited by those departing to maintain their, the project’s, and the organization’s chances for success.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”41091, 25542, 25653″]
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Leadership Inspirations – Only Change is Constant
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
Irish poet and playwright
“Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”
Bernard Berenson (1865 – 1959)
American art historian
Seemingly harsh words, but consider…
Consistency is an interesting word. We often think of it as a desirable quality but that really depends on one’s perspective. In today’s highly competitive business environment, product and service quality are continually advancing. Therefore, companies consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations are necessarily improving; making their performance anything but consistent. Likewise, employees exhibiting seemingly consistent performance relative to the market are really improving while those whose performance is truly consistent fall behind.
So for the successful, the only true constant is change.