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Performance Management is here to stay. It has become a best practice in the field of people management. Most organisations are busy implementing Performance Management – many have already done so. In South Africa legislation now requires that all government departments, provincial and local governing bodies as well as private sector organisations implement a Performance Management System (PMS).

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Performance Management: A Great Idea - Flawed In Practice.

Despite its widespread adoption, managers and supervisors as well as non-managerial staff in many organisations express mixed feelings about the usefulness and value of Performance Management. Probing around the issue on the many management seminars and training courses we run, a significant level of frustration and scepticism quickly becomes apparent. From the reasons given, it is clear that Performance Management, in too many cases, is perceived and practised as two separate events namely beginning of the year objective setting and end of the year performance appraisal with very little happening in between. It is not experienced as intended namely, an on-going process of performance planning, performance coaching and performance review. Apparently it is the performance coaching piece – the link between performance planning and performance appraisal – that is missing.

Without an ongoing process of coaching and performance counselling during the performance period you do, in fact, have two disjointed events – one occurring before performance i.e. planning (defining key result areas, setting objectives and performance standards), and one occurring after performance i.e. appraisal (formal review meeting, assessment and reward decisions). Each of these events are characterised by a high level of interaction between the parties involved. As experiences they stand out in the life of organisational members. But the rub lies in-between these two events. In too many instances this period is experienced as a void with little or no performance related interaction taking place between the role players. The general assumption seems to be that once the performance targets have been agreed, it is up to the team member to get on with it and deliver the expected results. There is little or no follow through in the form of counselling, regular feedback and coaching from the manager or supervisor. And so Performance Management comes to be perceived as a two act side show, of less importance – even a nuisance – somehow separated from the main business of managing. It is in the performance coaching link that Situational Leadership® can play a significant role in adding value to Performance Management – making it an ongoing process and an integral part of the role of the manager and supervisor.

Adding Value through Situational Leadership®

The Situational Leadership® model is a powerful and practical management tool. Its basic premise is that to be effective and value-adding leaders, managers and supervisors need to match their leadership styles to the performance readiness levels of their staff or team members. Performance readiness is simply a person’s ability and willingness to perform a specific task – such as achieving a specific objective at required performance standards or indicators. Performance readiness is not a ‘person’ descriptor. A person is not more or less ‘ready’. A person is only more, or less, ready with regard to a specific objective or task that he/she has to perform. Thus a team member may be at a high level of performance readiness for one of agreed upon objectives, but be at a low level of performance readiness for another objectives. This insight has important implications for the performance coaching role of the manager during the performance period. Consider a team member who is able, willing and confident to achieve Objective One at the required performance standards – but is unable and unwilling or insecure, to achieve Objective Two at the required performance standards. The manager’s coaching role, or leadership style with regard to the team member needs to be quite different on Objectives One and Two. In the case of Objective One the manager needs to use a delegating, or ‘hands off’, style – let the team member run with the ball – he/she is both able and willing. Using a delegating style with the team member meets the felt needs for autonomy and self-control. In the case of Objective Two the manager needs to use a guiding, or ‘hands on’, or telling style – clearly defining for the team member what needs to be done, how where and when it needs to be done and supervising closely since he/she is both unable and unwilling (or insecure). Using a telling style with this team member on Objective Two will once again meet the felt needs for guidance and feedback and will, over time, increase performance readiness for this objective.

In the same way the Situation Leadership® model provides clear and practical guidelines for the manager on the appropriate leadership styles, or performance coaching behaviours to use with other performance readiness levels, i.e. able but unwilling or insecure and unable but willing or confident

The value adding role of Situational Leadership® in a PMS is quite clear. It fills the silence between objective setting (performance planning) and performance review (performance appraisal) reported by so many participants. It makes the performance coaching role tangible, effective and coherent. The value adding role of Situational Leadership® can be illustrated in the following model which integrates it with Performance

Management.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT WITH SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP®

Note: Bold italics refer to Situational Leadership® activities.

Integrating Situational Leadership® training with Performance Management instils managers and supervisors with a sense of confidence in tackling the important role of on-going performance coaching. It turns Performance Management into a best practice process instead of getting stuck in the middle and reducing it to a frustrating and fragmented ‘two events’ experience!

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