Dump your performance appraisal and “coach” moniker.
Shift accountability away from employees.
Stop paying them off.
While these statements may seem to contradict what you have heard about successful performance management practices, we have found that the following five practices break away from conventional
thinking to help solve the age old problem of the cumbersome, ineffective, and often ridiculed performance management process.
1. Train Managers to Manage and Employees to Participate—Don't Skip Basic Management Practices
Research Performance Management best practices and you will find an abundance of practices described as:
“setting effective goals and aligning goals with corporate strategy”
“holding periodic performance conversations”
“giving objective feedback”
Though these may be called “Performance Management Practices,” they are just basic, good management, communication, and interpersonal skills. While these management practices are certainly a prerequisite for effective performance management and coaching, organizations can realize a significant increase in performance simply by applying sound management practices
independent of any performance management system.
See Managing Individuals and Teams for examples of key management practices.
In addition to basic, good management practices, specialized management frameworks and tools should be used to expand a manager's options for addressing more complex individual and systemic performance issues. When management training, frameworks, and performance tools are institutionalized, employees can more clearly identify and communicate what they need to succeed.
2. Eliminate Performance Appraisals, Reviews, and the “Coach” Moniker—Focus on Performance Conversations
The irony of formal Performance Appraisals is that they consume significant resources, produce little value, and impede the kind of collaborative working relationship managers and employees need to improve performance. By design, the traditional process tends to place managers and employees in a onfrontational setting. In that setting, trust—one of the most significant factors influencing employee engagement and performance—is undermined.
Even when companies try to create more effective performance management roles for managers as coaches, the legacy of the old, judgmental, and confrontational dynamics often pollutes the process.
A recent study found that despite significant investments in training managers to coach, less than 1 in 4 respondents said that coaching had significantly affected their job performance; and ten percent said coaching had made them less satisfied with their job. There was, however, a strong correlation between performance improvement, job satisfaction, and a positive employee / manager relationship.
This points to the single most critical element of a coaching or facilitative relationship—trust.
Trust must be built for managers to have influence with their people.
1. The first step is to eliminate performance appraisals and reviews. This type of bold move is needed to send a message to employees that real change is happening within the organization, not just a “re-labeling” of what managers are currently doing.
2. The second step is to fundamentally shift how managers see their role. A disabling factor in coaching programs sited above was that, despite receiving training on coaching, managers did not fundamentally change how they behaved.
A powerful focus of our development programs for managers is that they learn to "help (their) people succeed within the organization.” This is the essence of talent management, succession planning, and building management bench strength. When managers help their people succeed, managers also succeed. They don't need to be a “coach” to do this, but they do need to be capable of providing real value to their direct reports.
3. Create the Performance Management Systems for Performers, not Managers.
If you want employees to buy into Performance Management, provide them with systems, approaches, and tools that are of value to them in improving performance. If an employee has clear expectations and standards for their work and access to a real-time performance metrics and qualitative 360 feedback, Performance Appraisals would only be needed on an exception basis. That should be the goal of a Performance Management system. The goal of the Manager is to have their people value the time they have with their manager because it is truly useful. The Manager's role should be to facilitate and support individual and group performance improvement, individual development, and pursue cross-organizational performance opportunities.
4. Expect Performance Congruency between Managers and Reports
If a manager's primary role is to help their people succeed in the organization, they should be held accountable if their reports are not being successful. The problem with holding employees themselves solely responsible for their performance is that there are many factors over which employees have little control. Managers' and their direct reports' goals should correlate. If managers are hitting their performance objectives but they have direct reports who are not, or if the manager's direct reports are hitting their goals but the manager is not, the performance system is not functioning properly.
Performance Management System For
Background
Most articles which discuss the way to succeed in network marketing, emphasis factors like selecting the right MLM company, compensation plan, attitude, recruiting methods, commitment andothers. Many personal success stories show that success is real and achievable, however, a close look at the tools distributors have at their disposal to run an efficient operation, show, at most cases, none.
The article “Network Marketing Training- The Top 10 MLM Tools for BLAZING MLM Success" is listing its top 10 important tools for regular use of distributors who want to grow their organization:
1. Telephone
2. Voice mail
3. 3 way calling
4. Audios
5. Videos
6. Replicating Websites
7. brochures 8. Presentation book
9. Email
10. Business card and stationary.
Now, as much as these tools are undoubtly important, they are far from being qualified to manage data sourses, such as a big data-base of prospects, customers and down-lines.
In our experience, a “common" distributor adds 2 – 3 prospects in average per day. This adds up to 700- 1000 prospects annually! All of them are the outcome of a hard work and a lot of time and money invested.
Isn't it clear, that such heavy volume of data can not be stored, sorted or managed without proper tools?
The Beginner
Beginners have a lot on their plate. If they wish to be successful, they have to master all aspect of their new work in the shortest period of time possible. Sales are essential for the existence of a new business, consequently, the portion of time invested in sales and sales related activities bears direct effect on the distributor’s success.
Lucky beginners are sponsored by good leaders, but no matter how supportive the organization or the company joint to are, the new distributors are still still pretty much on their own. Administration tasks demand daily attention, which consumes an ever increasing share of the distributor's precious time.
Just think of the time needed to organize the list of prospects, prioritize the list, pencil down and arrange meetings, write notes, find telephone numbers, send automatic emails, compose new letters, take care of advertising…
All this work must be done, yet it does not contribute directly to the distributor’s bottom line's profit.
As time goes by, lists inflate, the time dedicated to sales shrinks while support and administration activities expands.
No wonder that statistically, 80 – 90% of new distributors dispair and withdraw within their first year of operation.
Organization manager
Once a distributor has added a few new down-lines, he becomes an organization manager. As such, he/she is being faced with a greater challenge: Managing his/hers organization while building it. Since dropout percentage is high, organization managers are in constant pursuit of new distributors, and at the same time have to maintain and support their existing organization.
Let us analyse the process of how a surfer visiting a Website becomes a distributor: statistically, only 1 in 100 people who fill in an application form on a Website (or leads in general) becomes distributor and is added to an organization. When you think of the quantities of people involved, time and effort invested in turning these leads to distributors, 2 things become very evident:
1.The recruiting process should be professional, short and efficient
2.Lowering the dropout percentage is vital in growing a healthy, stable and big organization.
. It is always more exciting and interesting to deal with real people than to spend your time in administrative tasks, however, the harsh facts show that proper management score higher than selling abilitie when it comes to make a real success.
Management systems - function and contribution
It is unthinkable for today's distributor to imagine working without a computer and without the internet. Just the same, its futile to try and lead a home based business toward success, without the support of a computer based management system. Such system would not only enable a far better control and revision of all the aspects of the business, but it will also handle all administrative tasks much better than the distributor himself and would free him to deal with the more important issues.
This is how all companies and businesses work, these days. Every field and department is backed and monitored by a computerized system, especially designed to efficient the work and help people to carry out their tasks and fulfill their goals. Without such systems, which create and store data, activate missions and tie loose ends – it is very difficult to run a successful business.
Management systems for assistance of the MLM's distributor
Distributors, being a self employed who work from home, need a system that will centralize all the aspects of their work and would enable them to control the business by a click of a button.
The systems referred to here, should not be confused with what MLM companies provide their distributors to review their commission, stock and profits. The management system as explained here is a professional tool, specially designed and specified to handle the daily activities of the distributor, his business, his organization, his customers and prospects.
When looking for the right system it is important to ensure it has the following features:
-A professional – and personal - recruiting internet site, for presentation of the business opportunity and prospects’ application.
-Data base of prospects, customers and down lines, with ability of sorting, selecting, screening editing and updating of items.
-Detailed file for every prospect, customer and distributor, containing personal data, contact details, remarks, meeting diary and correspondence.
-Auto responder for prospects
-Inter-organizational communication for passing of news, updates and information about events etc.
-Personal contact ability with prospects, customers and down lines
-Training system
-Statistic application for info about number of visitors in the site, how many prospects became distributors etc.
-Multi-lingual system that will support maximum exposure to overseas markets.
As most distributors are not entirely comfotable with computer's applications and the internet, it is of utmost importance that the system should be user friendly.
Such systems are available on monthly subscription only. , for 15 to 50 $ per month. This is a very reasonable, negligible expense for what the distributor gets in return – a saving of resources, efficiency, full control and management of his entire business. THIS is the real, reasonable equation for success.
Both Mr. Russ Silva & Nili Raam are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mr. Russ Silva has sinced written about articles on various topics from Multi Level Marketing. LSA Global offer and. Mr. Russ Silva's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.
Nili Raam has sinced written about articles on various topics from Multi Level Marketing. Nili Raam - Marketing Consultant. Nili Raam's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
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