Slideshare: 7 Principles For Unlocking Employee Performance

Written by David Mizne | February 19, 2016

Remember the seven dwarves? Man those guys worked hard! They were more effective miners than people twice their size. (Except for Sleepy, who brought down team productivity and Sneezy, who raised everyone's health care premiums). The Dwarves were also completely self-motivated, with only light supervision from Doc. Few productive teams operate with that amount of autonomy, motivation and collaborative effort. As a manager, you are undoubtedly looking for ways to unlock employee performance. Below are seven principles that are guaranteed to have an impact, and a slide-share of our High Performing Teams eBook.

1) Ask Questions

Asking questions sparks self-reflection and drives action. This process allows managers to know where employees are winning and where they are struggling. Here are a couple of great questions to ask your employees: - What do you need to do to have an incredible Q1? Are you clear what success looks like for your role this quarter? - Is there something you’d want to do more autonomously or less autonomously? How so?

2) Build Trusting Relationships

According to the Society for Human Resource Management's Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report, 2 of the 5 most critical factors that contributed to employee satisfaction were (1) communication between employees and senior management, and (2) the relationship between employees and their direct supervisors. Trust is the cornerstone of any successful relationship.

3) Coach Your Team

Great managers believe that all people have an innate capacity for learning and growth. That's why they have shifted away from being a controlling bosses to being supportive coaches. Employees who are given guidance and support become self-motivated, bring higher energy into the office, and are more loyal to the business.

4) Hold People Accountable

Without knowing the rules people won't know how to play. Everyone on the team should understand and agree on all of the goals and expectations for any give project. Having a clear agreement on what must be done and by when, eliminates the possibility of miscommunication that erodes trust and destroys relationships. [CTA "Learn how to keep your top talent and call forth their best week after week. Guide to High Performing Teams."]

5) Recognize Employee Performance

We all want to be acknowledged for our good work, but nobody likes to brag about their efforts. Let employees know that you see their progress on specific projects and their growth in general. It boosts morale and encourages more of the same. And if you want to take it a step further, here are 121 ways to reward employees for a job well-done.

6) Have Effective Meetings

Whether you are gathering together the entire team or having a one-on-one meeting, gathering information beforehand is critical. Meeting time should be spent on providing feedback and making decisions on information you already have.

7) Check-in More Often

We have been talking a lot lately about the need to transform annual performance reviews. Whether you decide get rid of them altogether or to augment the process, one thing is clear: having conversations about performance only once or twice a year doesn't work. Managers cannot accurately grade performance and they certainly cannot improve it. Read the slideshare below to learn more about these seven principles for creating high employee performance...

15Five's Guide To Creating High Performing Teams from David Hassell

Image Credit: Loren Javier

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