The Performance Improvement Action Plan – Have You Heard of It
Coaching for success is a term that is becoming popular throughout the managerial workforce. It is used for bringing lower productive employees up in performance, and to bring the top producing employees into excelling at what they do. It is a hidden way of treating everyone equally while targeting the weaknesses that people have. If weaknesses are not improved upon, a performance improvement action plan is put into place. These performance improvement action plans are also used to move negative behaviors into positive ones.
It normally takes about 20 days to change a person’s behavior. Managers are keying into this daily as the word spreads like wildfire. To legally change a negative behavior (attitudes, subordination, etc), performance improvement action plans are implemented to target specific key areas to improve. These plans are implemented for 30-60 days based on the discretion of the manager.
An example of changing a behavior would be “leaving personal issues at home”. An action plan can be implemented by targeting areas such as customer service skills (i.e. smiling and being attentive). If any negative customer comments are being received based on this employee, then you target this into the issue, which happens to be “leaving personal issues at home”.
If there is an employee who is in sales and not meeting targets, then an action plan can easily be implemented as well. Using the data that shows evidence of the employee not meeting targets, implement it into an action plan. Use basic ideas on how to grow the business (i.e. do follow up phone calls to customers on a weekly basis, visit local businesses to give sales pitch to, etc.).
The importance in making this performance improvement action plan work is for the manager to do a follow up on a weekly basis. This can be a simple 5 minute meeting to discuss the employee’s progress. A simple initial from both parties will create the documentation. If the employee does not improve in the areas, a written warning is justified. When issuing a written warning, ensure that the current action plan is extended. Eventually, the employee will either get on board, or they will find that they are not the right fit for the position, and may find themselves terminated from employment. In order for a business to consistently grow in production, it is important that the employees are the right fit for the job. For more information, feel free to visit www.hr.yourinterviewing.com
Managing Your Small Business
Most small businesses fail within the first three years because of a lack of management on the part of the owner. Most people who start a business love the excitement of the start-up phase but don’t understand that you must have a plan and provide direction for the business.
The success of any business depends on people. You can’t build and grow a business without people. You have to take the time to hire good people and help them set goals. You have to be able to manage, motivate, and lead employees, which is something most business owners don’t know how to do. Employees today are more educated, experienced, and knowledgeable than ever before and they won’t work for a business that has a hardball style of management.
One of the first important keys to building a successful business is to put in a system that is flexibile. You cannot keep people pigeonholed in organizational boxes. Your business will succeed or fail based on how you manipulate and sometimes circumvent cut-and-dried rules and regulations. The success of your business will depend on how flexible you are in managing people.
If you’re flexible, your management system won’t be a system. Rules and regulations won’t be set in stone. They’ll be guidelines. You need this freedom to provide excellent customer service. For example, if you’ve promised to ship a customer’s order the same day but the new order system won’t let you ship it until tomorrow, you circumvent the system and ship it today.
There are two types of employees, those who care and those who don’t. Break the rules for those who care. For example, if your employee policy calls for two week paid vacation and one of your good employees has a family emergency, you give him or her the time they need and not charge it to their vacation time.
On the other hand it is important to be inflexible when it comes to ethics and principles. And especially on things such as expense controls, quality, working hours, and substance abuse.
Today’s employees are complex, frustrating, unpredictable, and potentially rewarding in a big way. They are your number one asset in today’s highly competitive business world. A flexible management style and flexible employees, then, are strengths that can help your business grow and prosper.
The best framework is only as good as the people that oversee it which is why to be successful you must have good people. You must constantly search for the best people. But once you have good people it’s important that you’re patient. Even the best people don’t become superstars overnight. They require time to develop, mature, and learn.
When you’re looking for a good employee, you can get a good indication of how he or she will perform based on how he or she performed in the past. Trust yesterday’s actions, not today’s words. And always look for those people who embrace change. Resistance in the ranks of top management impedes growth and destroys opportunity.
Once you have assembled a team for you business make sure they are compatible. They must agree on the company’s goals and that a cohesive team is worth working for. Your employees must be able to work in a group and leverage their skills by working with others. Always look for team spirit.
If your business is growing slowly, find and develop superstars from within your business. If you’re growing rapidly, find them outside. And always pay your best people extraordinarily well and help them solve their problems.
As the business owner it is your responsibility to provide the vision, mission, and goals for the business. Your vision needs to be broad and say where the company will be in five or ten years. And not just in sales of product, but in distribution, markets, manufacturing capability, and anything else you think will ensure your company’s survival and growth.
Put your vision in writing for your employees. They deserve to know where they’re headed.
The mission for your business is what gives direction to your vision. It’s a plan of action that has to be understood and implemented by the entire team. That is why you need to involve every person in your business to help develop the mission. Involvement paves the way for commitment.
A good mission provides focus, defines direction, differentiates you from the competition, and communicates your niche. Put the mission on the walls of your business, in manuals, and memos. Then set company, department, and performance goals that will achieve your company’s mission.
Empowerment by itself isn’t enough, you must establish a culture that encourages accountability, allows for mistakes, and welcomes change. But you need the right employees for this culture to work. Empowerment won’t turn inferior employees into superior ones, but it can turn good ones into great ones. Besides, you’ll find that the best people like empowerment because it allows them to contribute to their fullest.
Empowerment starts with your own heart. If you don’t truly feel that employees can or should be empowered, they won’t be. Begin by letting people help make decisions, set goals, define roles, and assist in setting missions and strategies. People need to be given a voice before they’ll accept the responsibility of empowerment.
Employees also need to understand the business. They must share your vision, responsibilities, and even your financial statements. And consider sharing equity. You may have heard the old story that people don’t want the reins if they don’t know the horse.
Most business owners have problem focusing. Many of them waste time focusing on jobs that someone else in the business can do better. Many businesses offer too many products and services. They often try to provide the fastest delivery and the best quality at the lowest prices. Just as the owner can’t be all things to the business, the business can’t be all things to the marketplace.
To manage your business successfully you must learn to give your undivided attention to tasks, meetings, and conversations. You must make good choices for yourself and for your company and limit activities to those you can and have time to achieve. You must be able to prioritize long and short-term projects and learn to say no. You must understand that concentration is a cultural issue. If you can’t focus neither will your employees.
It is important to understand that it doesn’t matter what you think or believe. What matters is what your employees perceive you think or believe. If they perceive you don’t care about their problems, then they won’t care about yours. If they perceive that quality is not important to you, it won’t be important to them. If they perceive you believe customers are trouble, they’ll treat them poorly.
Anytime you communicate with your employees, prepare your words carefully. Always hear your words from their perspective.
Business owners cannot escape the 80-20 rule which shows how hard it is to avoid putting in so much time for meager results. This rule states that 80 percent of your profits come from 20 percent of your customers. 80 percent of your output comes from 20 percent of your employees. 80 percent of your people problems come from 20 percent of the people. 80 percent of the sales come from 20 percent of the sales force. 80 percent of the headaches come from 20 percent of the responsibilities. And 80 percent of the your success comes from 20 percent of your efforts.
The 80-20 rule both helps and reveals problem areas. On the one hand, you know to take good care of your top 20 percent of your customers or employees. On the other hand, it means you must work to improve the productivity of the rest of the work force. Or cater to the other 80 percent of customers more efficiently.
There is never just one reason for success or failure. If your business is a success, it’s because you’ve hired right, focused, made a good product, provided excellent service, and planned well.
Plan, prioritize, and pay attention to detail. Hold people accountable. Refuse to be satisfied. Everything matters, big things, little things, and in-between things. Knowing this, “rule of many reasons” is the key to managing your business successfully.
Copyright©2005 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and achieve total success. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in personal and business development. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many of America’s largest corporations, on the subjects of leadership, self-esteem, goals, achievement, and success psychology.
Reach Joe at: joe@jlmandassociates.com
Read more articles and newsletters at: http://www.jlmandassociates.com
Managing Stress Around Christmas
Many of us are acutely aware that despite Christmas being considered a time of joy it can also be a time of heightened stress and anxiety. This is especially true for people with limited financial resources, families of divorce or separation, or families who are experiencing estrangement or discourse among family members. Sometimes we aim to just get through the season.
The following is a list of strategies that can help ease some of the stress and anxiety.
1. ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS
Having expectations that everything is going to go well and all your preparations and efforts will be well received can open the door to disappointment. People don’t always respond the way we think they’re going to. Thinking: “David is going to LOVE this!” or “Let’s take the kids to see all the lights, that’s what we always when I was growing up”, may have you feeling overwhelmed with disappointment because you didn’t get the response you expected.
2. REMEMBER THAT IT’S OK TO SIMPLIFY
I used to feel that good mothers did lots of baking at Christmas, decorated their house beautifully, sent out cards, did lots of entertaining and had home made food or gifts to give away. I would start feeling stressed by December 1 thinking of all that I should be accomplishing. Since letting go of many of the “shoulds” I’ve come to enjoy Christmas so much more and I’m a lot more fun to be around.
3. REACH OUT TO PEOPLE THAT HAVE NOTHING
It is often suggested that one way of taking the focus off your lack of money or resources is to volunteer some time around Christmas with those who have nothing or no one to share the time with. When we give of ourselves we get so much more in return.
4. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF ACTIVITIES
We are bombarded with special events around Christmas. Apart from things we get invited to attend, the offerings around the city are endless. Remember that young children become over stimulated very easily and often can’t handle a lot of different activities and too many breaks from their routine. Dealing with a lot of temper tantrums around the holidays is not fun for anyone.
5. FOCUS ON SOLUTIONS RATHER THAN PROBLEMS
When we focus on the way we wish things were we find ourselves anxious and often depressed. We can always choose to instead focus on what IS and asking: “How can I make the very best with what we have?” We can expend a lot of energy wishing things were different. We can use that energy to make the best of our present situation and express gratitude for what we have instead of what we don’t have.
Barbara Desmarais is a parenting coach and mother to two teenagers. She is the author of “Raise Your Children But Not Your Voice.” She has been working with parents for seventeen years.
http://www.theparentingcoach.com
barb@theparentingcoach.com
604-624-1783
Is Your Present Lifestyle Clouding Over Your Social Life
A recent study done in the United States of America by sociologists from the University of Arizona and Duke University shows that Americans have fewer close friends (than they had a decade ago) these days owing to a hectic lifestyle and stressing, back breaking office schedules. The study indicates that they are moving towards an increasingly isolated societal existence.
The newest strategy several companies are following to boost sales is pretty innovative. They are offering free vacation packages, which coax consumers to give up what could possibly be their most elusive commodity, their official ‘Work’ time, and take a break.
And this is no small task with today’s fast paced lifestyle where everyone seems to be caught up in that all important race to the finish line, leaving them with no personal life. Though the world may have become a smaller place with the advancements in technology, ironically, human contact been people seems to have dwindled.
So while we chat with our associates across the globe, we might not even know our neighbours. On an average most of us spend 30 per cent of our day travelling to and from work.
This is a choice that each one of us makes in terms of priorities. Earlier, we were satisfied with earning a certain amount of money. Today, we want more of everything – more money, a bigger house, a better job and so on. The job market too has become extremely competitive. People are paid fantastic salaries and employers expect them to earn it.
The consequences are enormous, and quite disastrous. Not taking time out from work to unwind affects work in the long run, leads to unfinished deadlines. Sometimes, one even loses the motivation to work at all. It also affects one’s relationship with closed ones. It also leads to distress which can then lead to either sadness or aggression, or even depression. It could lead to violence too.
So what is the solution if any? I believe that organising time is extremely crucial: “You might later realise that you have wasted the best years of your life running from home to office and vice versa. I suggest prioritisation and goal setting – long as well as short term, both at home and at the work place. See what you need to do everyday and evaluate what you did at the end of the day, week and month. Leave some space for unexpected commitments which might crop up.
And it helps if you have an assertive personality. Learn when to say no. If you say yes to everyone from your boss to your friends, to working overtime and catching the latest movie at the same breath, you will end up being overburdened and resentful. One should start focusing on the present and letting go of past grudges or future worries. Expressing your feelings is also important. Be spontaneous. Whenever you get a bit of time, utilise it positively. Either meet up with friends or do something you enjoy doing alone. Lastly, take care of your mental and physical health, which will enable you to make optimum use of your time.
Michael Douglas has some special interest in writing articles that deals with human values and human present needs. By the way, he owns a website which focusses on human relationships where he offers relationship advice and tips on common marriage problems to help you create better and successful relationships. Also, you would love to enjoy reading his favourite write-ups and articles on love and relationship.