Leadership Skills Training
Performance Management

Management Training

Thank you for continuing with the manager and team leadership skills program. Up to now we have focused on the lower performers in your team. In this session you will learn the art of providing leadership to motivate your middle and high performers.

Manager and Team Leadership Skills
Week 3 Introduction

Your challenge: Motivate your middle and high performers to work at their peak.

Managers will often spend as much as 80% of their “employee time” with their lowest performing employees. This means they are spending 20%, or less, with their middle and high performing employees.

Typically the organization’s measurement systems drive this pattern of management. The number of employees not meeting benchmark is a common metric, focusing the manager on the lower performing employees; however few managers are asked to explain why their middle and top performers are not delivering more.

This pattern of time allocation or leadership style does not optimize the team’s overall performance.

This manager and team leaderships skills program aims to help you to reset the balance.

In a high performance business good leaders will split their employee time more evenly between all employees. This includes biasing spending more time with their higher performing employees.

The use of regular formal performance feedback sessions, one-on-ones, plays a pivotal role in maintaining the motivation of these employees. During these one-on-ones you will be able to

• Work on building a relationship with your employees

• Discuss the employee’s current performance

• Coach employees to improve performance

• Discuss the employee’s career plans and development needs

• Identify opportunities for the employee to do the tasks they are good at

• Identify underlying issues

• Clarify performance standards

You will find that employees will save any issues / concerns or improvement suggestions for the valuable one-on-one time with their leader. Some employees will treat their one-on-one time as the only time that they have the dedicated attention of their leader.

As a good leader you will use regular, open and honest, one-on-ones to motivate your team to deliver “wow” performance.

What makes a good leader definition: Open and honest

• In the context of providing your employees with feedback the term “open and honest” refers to the need for full disclosure. It is not uncommon for a manager to avoid giving balanced feedback, more often than not, leaving out the negatives or development needs. This will have the following impact
  • The employee not having the opportunity to develop and improve

  • The business not getting the benefits of improved employee performance

  • The employee will not trust the manager

  • At annual pay/performance review time – low rating may come as a surprise and result in a disgruntled employee

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Manger and Team Leadership Skills Program
Week 3 Objectives

One of the qualities of a leader is that they have mastered the art of conducting effective one-on-ones with employees across all levels of performance.

What are One-on-Ones?

A one-on-one meeting should generally last anything from 15 to 60 minutes, however you should typically allow 30 minutes plus preparation time.

What Makes a Good Leader Tip:

• New or developing employees will generally require a longer session

• Employees who are content in their role will tend to require a shorter session

• When helping an employee set up a development plan they will require longer one-on-ones, after it is set up the sessions will be shorter

• Be flexible, let the employee needs drive your time allocation

• Don’t wait for a scheduled one-on-one to address an emerging performance issue – discuss it immediately, this will ensure your one-on-one can remain balanced.

• If an employee is under performance management their performance discussions can replace their one-on-one until the performance issue is resolved. However you should increase the frequency of the one-on-one’s when performance discussions have commenced.

To conduct one-on-ones effectively you will need the following team leadership skills

• Planning one-on-ones

• Conducting one-on-ones

• Following up on one-on-ones

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Planning Your One-on-Ones for Success

Note: Employees do not appreciate you springing a one-on-one on feedback session on them. Employees

• Respond well to a schedule/plan communicated in advance.

• Get concerned when asked to attend a performance discussion without warning.

• Are, in general, surprisingly accepting of changes to your plan, as long as the change is communicated in advance.

• Like to have time to prepare for their one-on-one

How to plan:

To develop a one-on-one plan is as simple as printing out a calendar of the month you intend to start your one-on-ones and writing in the names of each of your employees in.

Team leadership skills include empowering your team members – you might like to print out your calendar and highlight the available timeslots and let your team pick the time that suites them.

Then send invitations from your diary to all of your employees advising them of the time and date of their one-on-ones.

What Makes a Good Leader Tips:

• Spread your one-on-ones evenly through the month

• If performance data is available monthly – then have your one-on-one’s as soon after the data becomes available as possible (make them timely). However do not rush your one-on-ones.

• When sending invitations to your staff for a one-on-one include the words “feedback” in the subject – good leaders join the dots

• During a team meeting, sometime after your third month of one-on-ones, ask your team for feedback on you planning and scheduling of feedback sessions. You never know what your employees do or don’t like until you ask.

• If you are not currently holding one-on-ones with your employees – let them know that one-on-ones will be commencing soon in a team meeting prior to setting up the first months meetings.

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Manager and Team leadership Skills
One-on-Ones

Preparation for a one-on-one

Key team leadership skills include the ability to clearly identify the performance of your employees, including

• Task performance (productivity and quality)

• Behaviour

• Team fit

• Add comments and thoughts to your one-on-one form, but don’t finalize the document because you will want your employees to contribute.

If you have a balanced scorecard you will find that the employee’s results in their balanced scorecard are an excellent foundation for the one-on-one session.

Conducting your one-on-ones;

A few tips to help you to develop the manager and team leadership skills to be effective with your one-on-one sessions

• Discussing personal development is a reward, only for those employees who are exceeding the minimum required level of performance.

• If an employee is not meeting the minimum standards then you should focus on what the employee needs to do to meet the minimum.

• If an employee has a lot of development needs try to work on only one or two at a time.

  This clashes with the need to be open and honest, (full disclosure), however it is not fair to overwhelm the employee, to reconcile the need to be honest you can tell the employee that there are a number of development needs but you only want to work on one or two at a time.

  The exception is if the employee is not being consistent with the organizations code of conduct.

• You will identify issues that are affecting morale, a good leader investigates and actions these issues.

• The employee may identify an area for improvement or professional development, as a good leader you should

• Allow the employee to take responsibility for developing actions for improvement, and

• Offer suggestions when the employee has exhausted theirs ideal pool, and

• Asking the employee if it is alright to make a suggestion before offering your ideas.

• Keep focused on the employee – often employees will justify their performance or behaviour based on the performance or behaviour of another employee. Your role as a leader is to keep the discussion focused on the employee.

In a high performance business a good leader will conduct their one-on-ones monthly and during your one-on-one the following do’s and don’ts apply.

Manager and team leadership skills - one-on-one: Do’s

• Fill out you one-on-one form including actions for both you or the employee

• Have an agenda on what you would like to cover, but be flexible

• Be specific and have examples

• Focus on the behaviour not the employee

• Listen to what your employees have to say

• Let the employee make their suggestions and choices first

• Ask permission to make a suggestion (sometimes the answer seems obvious but it is better to empower the employee then offer to make suggestions, as your team will perform highest if you leave your employees in the driving seat)

• Empower the employee to complete their actions

• Both sign the one-on-one form

• Offer suggestions without asking if it ok first

• Over ride an employee’s decision even if you think there is a better way.
  The effectiveness of a decision includes how well it was implemented, if the employee makes a decision you believe to be less than ideal but pursue it with drive and energy they will get a better outcome than if you force the best decision on them which they adopt half heartedly.

• Take responsibility for something the employee could do.

• Assume you know everything that is going on – listen to your staff

• Apologize, justify or make excuses for addressing the issue

• Give the employee with reasons why they have not met objectives (for example: You did not meet target this month but then you have not been well)

• Book your one-on-ones back to back, make sure you have time for each employee.

• Make the employee feel rushed, be there for them

After your one-on-ones

Make sure you update your notes and file your copy in the employees personnel file.

Add all of your actions to your time management system and make sure you do them, any failure to follow through will harm your ability to lead this team effectively as they will quickly loose trust in you.

What makes a good leader tips:

• Link your one-on-one discussion to your employees balanced scorecard and your objectives

• Knowing who to spend time with to get the best outcome for the business is one of the qualities of a leader.

• Shifting focus from managing performance issues to managing high performance

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Manager and Team Leadership Skills
Giving Feedback

What makes a good leader tips: Giving feedback

• Comment on the personal contribution from the employee that you like

• Comment on the employee’s performance

• Raise any issues or concerns for discussion

• Ask the employee “What now for your future”

• Have some social discussion

• Find out “what can we do to help set you up for your future”

What Makes a Good Leader Tip: Giving negative feedback

• When giving negative feedback always follow with a discussion on how to improve performance. Negative feedback with no discussion on how to improve will result in a reduction in morale.

• Always focus on the employee’s behaviour, input or outcome – never focus on the person

Manager and Team Leadership Skills
Week 3 Session Plan

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Between The Sessions

Team leaders:

• Publish monthly one-on-one schedule

• Continue with managing undesirable behaviour (from week 2)

• Communicate that you will be starting one on ones for all employees

Team Manager:

• Ensure one-on-ones are progressing (daily follow up)

• Ensure performance discussions from week 2 are followed through to their conclusion

HR Professional:

• Be available to support the team leader before their one on one to assist with approach and to answer any last minute questions

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Manager and Team Leadership Skills Coaching Program Links

Team Leadership Skills Facilitator Tips
This page is to assist the manager and team leadership skills program facilitator to set the scene for the program.




Manager and Team Leadership Skills session overview

Week 2 - Improving Performance Management
Providing you with the manager and team leadership skills to promptly resolve undesirable behaviours and poor performance. Managers who are proactive in this area have higher morale, which leads to improved business performance.