Performance Management Articles

Welcome to our series of performance management articles, designed to introduce some essential ideas on performance management. Plus a few more, to help you reflect on how you currently think about performance at work.

Whilst performance management activities have become a common feature in the workplace, many managers find dealing with performance is one of the most difficult parts of their job. Even though managing performance is also one of the most important aspects of a managers job.

Renowned management thinker, Peter Drucker, made his thoughts quite clear on this issue:



So, whatever else you do as a manager, you need to manage performance well, but sometimes that's easier said than done! Ideally, what most managers would want is a team of people who are self-motivated and commited to doing their jobs to the very best of their ability: to "go the extra mile". Effective performance management is not about coercion, it's about encouraging people to work to their potential - because they want to.

So how do you manage performance? Below are links to our performance management articles, designed to help you answer that very question. Our series on "How to Motivate Employees to Perform" is a good starting point, where we introduce our PERFORM model.

Once you've read through those articles, we're sure you'll find it useful to think about our new e-guides: Managing Performance and Potential and Conducting a Performance Review. These are the first titles in our growing "How to be a Better Manager" series of e-guides.

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Performance Management Articles

How to Motivate Employees to PERFORM
Knowing how to motivate employees to perform is one of the most important aspects of a manager's job. Try this tool to help you develop your motivational skills and improve your team's performance. This is the first article introducing our series on performance management.

Employees Appraisal: Realizing Potential
Learning how to motivate employees begins with helping people to reach their potential. If we are to find ways to raise performance to higher levels, then we need to find ways to convert potential into performance. But how?

Employee Performance Review: Making Expertise Count
This is the second article in our series and stresses the importance of putting expertise to work, where someone can contribute the most.

Benefits of Employee Training: Seeing the Results
How do you realize the benefits of the training and support you have put in place to improve someone's performance?

Performance Management Plan: Be Focused
How do you develop a performance management plan, one that really does focus on performance?

Employee Training Development: Creating Opportunities
Central to effective training and development is the need to create opportunities for employees to develop and perform. Without opportunity a performance management plan will only ever be just a plan.

Performance Management Techniques: Remember the Resources!
Setting clear performance goals is crucial, but it can be difficult to achieve these without adequate resources. Or worse, poorly resourced action plans can be counter-productive, leading to burnout or disengagement by the people who must implement it.

Employee Motivation Techniques
In trying lots of different motivation techniques have we lost track of a more fundamental principle of motivation? In this article we discuss the essentials of motivation, and suggest there is a principle which if applied can make a big difference to motivation

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Define Performance Management: Inspire Performance
Can you define performance management in a way that captures the heart of the process? Ensure your performance management process is about the performance, and not just about the process

Definition of Performance Appraisal
What is your definition of performance appraisal? Far too many managers might believe that it's an annual review of an employee's performance within an organization. However, this is perhaps too simplistic if performance appraisal is to be truly effective.

Definition of Performance Management
A concise definition of performance management is the best starting point but further analysis is needed to clarify this tricky management activity!

Performance Management Cycle
Using a performance management cycle adds a structure and process to a manager's efforts to help others to reach their potential. There are numerous versions of the cycle, each essentially following a common management process of: reviewing what has been done; planning what needs to be done; then putting those plans into action. Here we introduce a standard version, illustrated with some interesting quotes.

Employee Personal Development
Is it time to re-think employee personal development? Most people aren't good at doing everything, yet how much performance management and appraisal activity seems to focus on weaknesses? What they should focus on is activities which expand and increase what people are already good at.

Self Performance Appraisal
Arguably, performance management is as much about self performance appraisal as about your manager's view or perspective. In this article we suggest some questions to ask yourself when reviewing your own performance.

What is Performance Appraisal? A Waste of Time or Are We Missing Something?
Not many people look forward to their performance appraisal and perhaps even fewer managers look forward to conducting them. Are they a waste of time, merely ticking the corporate box to show they have been done? Or is there something important we are missing about performance appraisals?

Formal Performance Appraisal: Be Prepared
Most organizations have some kind of formal performance appraisal. If you are responsible for conducting such an appraisal you need to make sure you are well-prepared. In this article we will outline some steps to take and some questions to ask. If you want to conduct a productive performance appraisal, ensure your preparation is thorough, and that you are well equipped to make the process a success.

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Tips and Tools

15 Principles of Performance Management: in a Minute!
Here are our 15 principles of performance management. Step back from the system for a minute and think about these simple ways to focus on real performance.

15 Personal Development Strategy Tips
A personal development strategy begins with a simple premise: your development is your responsibility. Here are 15 tips to help you make your own development a priority, rather than leaving things to chance.

Management Skill Training: Performance Requires Practice
Management skill training is fundamentally about practice. Without practice there is no performance. Here are 5 tips to build performance through practice.

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Resources and Links

Employee Motivation Factors: Motivating Employees to Perform
Employee Performance Management Offer: the Complete PERFORM Series of Guides
Free Performance Appraisals and Management Guide: It's All About Performance
Good Management Skills: the Key to Managing Your Own Performance
Performance Appraisal Methods: 15 Performance Management Tips
Performance Appraisal Tools: the Performance Management Toolkit
Productive Performance Appraisals: Conducting a Performance Review
What is Performance Management? Managing Performance and Potential

Go to Site Map from performance management articles

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